About

I completed my PhD in the area of Enhancing Learning and Creativity in Design and Technology Education in 2007. This led me into a role as a researcher for an education charity, developing curriculum materials for schools. I completed projects which resulted in published teaching resources for schools as well as conducting evaluative research for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. I was later employed as an educational researcher with the Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Sheffield Hallam University.

Within this role I completed a range of projects focusing on students' experiences of learner autonomy in Higher Education as well as pathways to enhancing learner employability. Between 2009 and 2014 I worked as a lecturer in Education and Early Childhood Studies, at University Centre Doncaster and as an associate lecturer at the Open University. In my role as lecturer, I maintained my research profile by conducting action research on the use of e-portfolios and completing a funded Teaching Fellowship with the Support Centre for Open Resources in Education - this work focused on developing open education and open educational resources to support learning and teaching research methods in education.

I started working at Sheffield Hallam University in 2014 and progressed to my current role as Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies in 2016. I took on the Course Leader role in 2020. Since joining the university my research interests have focused on children learning English as an Additional Language (EAL); digital literacies and children and young people's engagement and learning with digital technologies. As part of research informed teaching, I actively bring in knowledge from engagement with research projects and special interest groups into my teaching practice on Childhood Studies modules.

Senior Lecturer

Teaching

Sheffield Institute of Education

College of Social Sciences and Arts

During 2017/18 I worked on a collaborative project on Teachers' perceptions of digital literacies in the early years, part of a broader Cost Action European project on Digital literacies in the early years: DigilitEY (https://digilitey.eu/). During 2016/18 I was part of the Integrating English project team funded by the Education Endowment Foundation (https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/integrating-english).

This was a large scale independent evaluation of the Language in Learning Across the Curriculum (LILAC) approach aimed at improving language teaching and learning to children in primary and secondary schools, with a particular focus on children learning English as an Additional Language (EAL). I am a member of the UKLA (UK Literacy Association) and its Multilingualism Special Interest Group. I am also a member of the National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum.

Childhood and Early Childhood

BA Hons Childhood Studies, Masters in Education

• Child Focussed Curriculum
• Digital Childhoods
• The Story of Childhood and Adolescence
• Research Project
• Evidence and Evaluation

Publications