[2] Dow's academic career started as a lecturer in the education faculty at the University of Melbourne in 1958.
A book based on her Master's thesis was published in 1964 and she wrote numerous papers on educational theory and pedagogy.
[3] Dow founded the Victorian Curriculum Advisory board and served on it from 1966 to 1970.
This course placed students in schools 3 days a week, and was a noted concept at the time for giving teachers real experience through work placement.
As part of this, she pushed for achieving permanent status for married teachers who were working in schools.