Tel: +44 (0) 131 651 6457
Location:St John's Land (Rm 2.07)
BA, PGCE, MEd, PhD
Having worked as an English teacher and as a primary teacher, I draw on substantial experience in schools to inform my teaching. However, I am also passionate about educational research. My research profile began to be established while I was still working in schools and my work on perceptions of ability shaped my MEd (1996). This led into PhD study looking at constructs of ability within comprehensive and independent schools working with Professors Sally Brown and Jon Nixon, University of Stirling. From this, my work has developed in relation to (student) teacher beliefs and professional identity, ability and the organization of learning and pupil voice and personhood.
I teach mainly on PGDE primary and PGDE secondary courses as well as MSc Education and MSc Research programmes. A strong focus of my work has been on cross curricular learning (Enterprise inspired learning) and assessment, the integration of theory and practice (leading behaviour, theory and professional development course) and educational research methods. I have a strong background in qualitative research and have a particular interest in the use of case study.
New book on Case study in Education Research just released by BERA/Sage.
Social construction of identity: drawing on a social constructionist view, my work has been built around concepts of layered narratives of self which reflect a dynamic and fluid view of identity and the importance of contextual narratives and the interactions between the inner and outer world of the individual.
I have particular interest in teacher beliefs and values (early professional development), giftedness, behaviour in schools, the organization of learning (ability grouping etc) and pupil voice and would welcome students interested in these and related areas.
Current doctoral supervision includes:
Behaviour in Schools
English Language teaching in higher education in Pakistan
Professional identity and english language teachers from China
Personhoood, motivation and foreign language learning
Professional identity and midwives in China
Teachers, parents and the construction of inclusive educational communities in Greece
Service learning and young people's motivation in Malaysia
Previous work includes: Behaviour in Scottish Schools, a survey of the use of setting in Scottish primary schools, pupil voice in the examination process and ability dialogues in high school.
Conference papers include:
This article was published on Oct 25, 2011