Nerida Spina researches and teaches at the Queensland University of Technology. Her research interests include educators' work, social justice, equity, education policy and the sociology of numbers. She has a particular interest in using institutional ethnographic research. Her research explores the everyday work of school leaders teachers and pre-service teachers, and the impact of policy on their practices and lives. In examining educators' work, she explores those practices that make a difference to the lives and long-term trajectories of young people and communities, as well as what gets in the way.