Sarah is Lecturer in Creative Arts (Music/Movement) in the Macquarie School of Education and is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA). She studied Music and Education at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, and has taught for over 15 years in preschool, primary, secondary and tertiary education settings. Sarah received a Professional Teachers Council (PTC) award for Outstanding Professional Service for her work with the NSW Orff Schulwerk Association. Her research is in the areas of singing, movement, and music with children; developing teacher and preservice teacher skill and confidence in Arts pedagogy; and effective practice in the online delivery of Creative Arts teaching and learning. Since joining Macquarie University in 2018, Sarah has been awarded a New Staff Grant for her project, Singing with Young Children; a place in the Faculty Emerging Scholars Scheme; and a Faculty ECR Research Fellowship for her project, Creative Arts learning online: Preservice teacher experiences during COVID-19. She has presented her work locally, nationally, and internationally, and has several publications in a range of high quality education journals.

Sarah’s research interests are broadly focused on music and creative arts education, in school and early childhood settings. She is interested in the way children of all ages engage with music and the world, music as an integral mode of literacy embodied learning, the unique effect that music has on the brain and the way this influences literacy and learning. Her research also focuses on initial teacher education and teacher porfessional learning in building skill and confidence in using music and dance in their practice. Her recent project, Singing with young children, involved early childhood teachers singing with their children on a regular basis to target learning goals, and it sought to build teacher confidence in this area. Most recently Sarah completed a project that investigated preservice teacher's experience of completing a Creative Arts unit online during COVID-19.

Her doctoral research investigated masculinity in the Australian context of singing and choir across life stages. She has worked on projects that focused on the Fresh AiR initiative, creativity and affect in the classroom, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Penrith Symphony youth strings program,  an Australian Research Council funded project, Naming the World, led by Professor Margaret Somerville of Western Sydney University, investigating literacy and sustainability in early years learning. 

Sarah has experience in qualitative methods of research, including case study, narrative inquiry, and phenomenology.