Dr Bernadette Saunders

Senior Lecturer

Master of Social Work (Qualifying) On Campus Co-ordinator

Bernadette.Saunders@med.monash.edu.au

Telephone: +61 3 9903 4784

Facsimile: +61 3 9903 1141

Profile

Dr Saunders, BA (LaTrobe), BSW (Melb) Dip Ed (Monash) MSW (Monash) PhD (Monash) was invited to join the Department of Social Work in 1996 as a researcher in the Child Abuse and Family Violence Research Centre, now known as Child Abuse Prevention Research Australia (CAPRA), and as a sessional teacher. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in social work and is the on-campus co-ordinator of the Master of Social work (Qualifying) course. She coordinates and teaches SWM5101 Human rights, Law and Ethics at the Masters level, and SWK3260 Social Policy and Social Justice 1 (Law), at the undergraduate level, and she will be coordinating and teaching a Child Abuse elective in 2011. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at CAPRA.

Dr Saunders previously worked in the field of Medical Social Work in the area of cancer and terminal illness. As part of her MSW at Monash, she conducted foster care agency specialised home-based care program evaluation, and she published a non-commercial book on risk assessment in child protection.

The initial Australian Research Council funded research project in which she participated explored risk assessment in child protection practice and the response of community professionals to mandatory reporting legislation. This, and subsequent, research at CAPRA resulted in publications in both national and international refereed journals on child abuse risk assessment; language and children’s rights; child abuse and the media; and the physical punishment of children. As part of a Queensland Crime Commission inquiry: Project Axis, she co-authored, with Chris Goddard, a chapter on child sexual abuse and the media.

In 2005, Dr Saunders completed a PhD, funded by the Australian Research Council and The Australian Childhood Foundation as part of an Australian Post-Graduate Award (Industry). Her research focused on legally sanctioned physical punishment of children, children’s rights, and the intergenerational transmission of family violence. Her current research focuses on child abuse in two major hospitals in two states in Australia, funded by the Hecht Trust and the Fred Archer Trust; and Legal Services Board funded research, in conjunction with the Faculty of Law at Monash, which further explores the “lawful correction” of children. She frequently presents at national and international conferences, and the media regularly consults her in relation to the ‘smacking’ debate – a children’s rights issue about which she is particularly passionate. Her most recent publication is a chapter with Judy Cashmore, ‘Australia: The Ongoing Debate about Ending Physical Punishment’ in a forthcoming book edited by Anne Smith and Joan Durrant, Realizing the Rights of Children: Global Progress towards Ending Physical Punishment. Dr Saunders’ publications include:

Saunders, B.J. & Goddard, C. (2010) ‘Physical punishment in childhood: The rights of the child’, Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell.

Naylor, B & Saunders, B.J. (2009) ‘Whose Rights? Children, Parents and Discipline’, Alternative Law Journal 34, 2, 80-85.

Saunders, B.J. & Goddard, C. (2008) ‘Some Australian Children's Perceptions of Physical Punishment in Childhood’, Children & Society, 22, 405-417.

Saunders, B.J. & Goddard, C. (2007) ‘The importance of listening to children: A qualitative study on the use of parental physical punishment in childhood in Australia’, Social Development Issues – Special Issue – Child Protection Challenges Worldwide, 29(3):33-46.

Saunders, B.J. and Goddard. C. (2005) ‘The objectification of the child through language and physical discipline: The debate on children’s rights continues’, in J. Mason and T. Fattore (2005) (eds), Children Taken Seriously: In Policy and Practice, Jessica Kingsley, Birmingham.

Saunders, B.J. and Goddard, C.R. (2001) ‘The textual abuse of childhood in the English-speaking world – The contribution of language to the denial of children’s rights’, Childhood: A Global Journal of Child Research, 8 (4): 443-462.