Dr Maria Vieira

Lecturer
Maria.Vieira@unisa.edu.au
Staff member headshot

Dr Maria Vieira holds a PhD in STEM and is a Lecturer in Education Futures at the University of South Australia. Her work is grounded in a deep commitment to advancing educational equity through innovative, research-informed teaching practices that nurture creativity. In her current role, she leads key initiatives in course coordination, curriculum development, and outreach programs. She coordinates the research-based STEM Girls Academy program, establishing and nurturing partnerships with over 30 STEM industry collaborators in UniSA’s metropolitan and regional areas. The program reaches over 200 school girls annually across South Australia and Victoria, successfully contributing to a positive change in attitudes towards STEM through creative practices.

Open Access Research Outputs:

Vieira, MF, Cropley, D, Marrone, R & Singh, C 2025, ‘Bridging the Gender Gap in STEM: The Impact of Self-Beliefs on Domain-Specific Creativity among Secondary Students’, Thinking Skills and Creativity, online.

Soong, H, McDonald, S, Vieira, M, French, M, Maher, K & Stephenson, H 2024, ‘Reasserting care in higher education: perspectives from female early and mid-career researchers’, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, online, pp. 1-16.

Vieira, M 2024, ‘How design thinking can make STEM education thrive in the AI era’, Teaching Science, vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 6-10.

Vieira, M, Kennedy, JP, Leonard, S & Cropley, D 2024, ‘Creative self-efficacy: why it matters for the future of STEM education’, Creativity Research Journal, online, pp. 1-17.

Vieira, M, Devis, D, Le Cerf, T, Fowler, S, Kennedy, J & Leonard, S 2024, Design thinking for creative confidence, University of South Australia, Australia.

Vieira, M, Shepley, D, Devis, D & Leonard, S 2024, Creative Challenge Retrospective 2024: A Case Study on Building Creative Confidence in STEM UniSA Catalyst Reports, C3L – Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning, Australia.

Devis, D, Fowler, S, Vieira, M, Giannoni, K, Gabriel, F, Kennedy, J & Leonard, S 2023, From insight to action: strategies for cultivating equity and empowering women in industry, University of South Australia, Australia.