Prof. Dr. Anna Christina Abdullah
Dean and Professor, School of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Wawasan Open University
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biography
DR. ANNA CHRISTINA ABDULLAH is Dean and Professor in the School of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Wawasan Open University. She also heads the Centre for Graduate Studies. Before joining Wawasan Open University in 2018, she had served Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for 34 years in various positions. These positions included that of Research Officer, tutor, lecturer, Associate Professor and finally Professor in 2011. Her administrative positions included that of Director of Project InSPIRE, Programme Chairperson of the Bachelor of Education programme, Deputy Dean in charge of Academic Affairs, Acting Dean of the School of Educational Studies, and Director of Community Engagement in the Division of Industry and Community Network of Universiti Sains Malaysia. Prior to her service in USM, she was a teacher for two years, teaching Geography, History and English Language.
Dr Anna’s academic qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities with Education, USM, a Master in Education (Majoring in Curriculum Studies), USM, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Preschool Education), UKM. She was active in community work as Chairperson of the Preschool Education Committee of the Penang Education Council from 2003 to 2021. The committee promotes preschool education through workshops and child-centred activities that are open to all preschool teachers and children in Penang. Especially noteworthy was the iconic Penang International Kids Festival or better known as PInKS-Fest that ran from 2010 to 2021, a festival that brought together professional storytellers from around the world as well as local tellers to regale children with their stories that held universal messages of wholesome values and good conduct.
Dr Anna has been involved in various consultation work that include being appointed as External Programme Examiner and Advisor for the Early Childhood Education Programmes in several universities. Dr Anna served on various Ministerial and Governmental agency committees such as the Education Curriculum Development Committee, Teacher Education Division; Panel of Assessors, Malaysian Qualifications Agency; Expert Consultant, Diploma in Education (Early Childhood Education) Curriculum Review, Ministry of Education; Expert Consultant for Early Childhood Education Specialisation in the Post-graduate Diploma in Teaching Programme for the Ministry of Education, Resource Person for Workshop on Education Programme Standards, Malaysian Qualifications Agency; and Council Member, English Language Standards and Quality Council, Ministry of Education.
Dr Anna has headed a number of national level research grants that include studies into The level of socialisation of Tabika Perpaduan pupils towards race relations and national unity; Construction of a model for multicultural education in early childhood through investigating the state-of-practice in Malaysia; The Future Direction of the Education Programmes in Public Universities: The Involvement of Staff In Community Engagement Activities; A Speech Screening Test for Preschool and School-aged Malay Children; Integrating technology into project-based learning; UNESCO-Korean Funds-In-Trust; and Teacher Education: Its efficacy in preparing pre-service teachers to teach in culturally diverse settings. Based on these and other research, Dr Anna has published more than a hundred journal articles, monographs, book chapters, teaching modules and videos.
In her career, Dr Anna has been invited as a visiting Professor to the Centre for International Cooperation in Education (CICE), Hiroshima University, Japan; a visiting Scholar to several universities in Australia at different times in 2007 and 2012-2013. These include Macquarie University, Sydney, University of Queensland, St. Lucia Brisbane; Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, and the School of Early Childhood, Queensland University of Technology. These visits were in conjunction with collaborative initiatives on education-related projects. She was awarded the Endeavour Research Fellowship awarded by the Department of Education, Science and Technology, Australia in 2007.