Dr. Cassidy is a lecturer in the Department of Educational and Professional Studies. She is the B.Ed. Programme Coordinator for Educational Studies and the Major Project. She is the Course Director for the Postgraduate Certificate in Philosophy with Children - the only course of its kind in the UK.
Claire trained as a primary teacher and taught in Glasgow primary schools for several years until joining the Glasgow Asylum Seeker Support Programme as an English as an Additional Language teacher.
In 1995 she graduated with an M.Phil. from the Centre for Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Glasgow, having trained to facilitate Community of Philosophical Inquiry (COPI) with children and adults. This led to her Ph.D. thesis, completed in 2004, on the philosophical concept of 'child'. She has worked with a range of children and adult groups using practical philosophy in a variety of settings such as universities, community groups, schools and pubs.
Claire is a founding member of the Philosophy with Children and Communities group in Scotland that aims to promote practical philosophy across the country. She has developed the Postgraduate Certificate in Philosophy with Children to train those who also wish to practise Philosophy with Children. She is also a member of the Applied Educational Research Scheme, Learners, Learning and Teaching, Network Project on Communities of Enquiry in Educational Research.