Professor Larry Saha

BA (Notre Dame-Indiana), MA, PhD (Texas-Austin)
Emeritus Professor
ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences

Areas of expertise

  • Sociology Of Education 160809
  • Comparative And Cross Cultural Education 130302
  • Urban Sociology And Community Studies 160810
  • Citizenship 160602
  • Education Policy 160506
  • Higher Education 130103

Research interests

  • Sociology of Education and Comparative Education
  • Sociology of Education and Development
  • Social Psychology of Education
  • Collective Behaviour and Social Movements
  • Political sociology and Youth Political Behaviour

Biography

Larry has spent his academic career at the Australian National University, where he has been both Head of Department (Sociology) and Dean of the Faculty of Arts. He has published books and articles in the fields of sociology of education, comparative education, student career plans, and student political socialisation. He recently was joint chief investigator for the ongoing Youth Electoral Study (YES), which is partnered with the Australian Electoral Commission, and he was co-investigator of the NCVER-funded project: Talent Loss among Australian Youth.

In the sociology of education his earlier books include Education and National Development: A Comparative Perspective (Pergamon, 1983, 1989), Schooling and Society in Australia (1990), and The International Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Education (Pergamon, 1997). More recently his books include the The Untested Accusation: Principals, Research Knowledge and Policy Making in Schools (Ablex Publishers 2002/2005) and International Handbook of Research on Tearchers and Teaching (Springer, 2009).His publications in political socialisation have been Youth Participation in Politics (Sense Publishers, 2007) and Nation-Building, Identity and Citizenship Education (Springer Publishers 2009.

As a visitor, Larry has lectured and/or given courses at the University of Stockholm, the University of Oslo, The Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, Brazil), and the University of Otago (New Zealand). He has been visiting fellow at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada), Stanford University, the International Institute for Educational Planning (UNESCO, Paris) and the University of Houston. He also was a resident fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study Center in Italy. Larry was Editor-in-Chief for Social Psychology of Education: An International Journal from 2001 to 2022. He was twice Vice-President of the Research Committee of Sociology of Education (RC04) of the International Sociological Association, and he is on the Board of the Research Committee for Social Psychology (RC42) of the International Sociological Association.

Researcher's projects

  • The aspirations and expectations among school students
  • Political socialisation and political learning among youth
  • The academic profession and the nature of academic work in higher education

Publications

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Updated:  02 May 2024 / Responsible Officer:  Director (Research Services Division) / Page Contact:  Researchers