Katrina (Ekaterina) is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. Her research focuses on the digital literacies of children and adults from refugee and migrant backgrounds. It investigates the ways in which these groups use digital technologies in English as an Additional Language (EAL) for life, learning and employment, and explores how these experiences can be used to enhance educational policies and pedagogies for digital literacies in EAL/TESOL settings. Katrina's research projects in EAL contexts have examined innovative teaching and learning with technologies, in-service and pre-service teachers’ experience with digital literacies, teaching online and leadership for change during the Covid-19 pandemic, generative AI and technology use in communities from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Somali, Vietnam, Iraq and China as they settle in Australia. She is a recipient of more than $800,000 AUD in research funding successfully delivering national projects.

Katrina publishes in the field of digital literacies and TESOL and she is the author of Digital Literacies: EAL Teachers' Guide. She has provided expert advice to the government regarding digital literacies in the EAL curriculum in schools and the AMEP (Adult Migrant English Program) sector. In 2021-2022, Katrina led the development and implementation of the AMEP Digital Literacies Framework and Guide (PDF downloads). Katrina is a recipient of a number of professional awards.

Katrina started her career in education as a school teacher in Belarus. Before moving to Australia, she taught English and Spanish in a variety of contexts from primary to tertiary education. She teaches in the Faculty's teacher education undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

Katrina's full profile can be found at the Digital Education Research Group website 

Digital literacies /new literacies

The use of digital technologies in language education including TESOL

Generative AI

Multimodality and digital multimodal composing

Refugee and migrant communities

Strengths-based practices and technology

Sociocultural theories of language, technology and education

Visual research methodology