Dr Jane Essex
Reader
Education
Personal statement
I am a Reader in education, with a specialism in inclusion in STEM. My current teaching and supervision responsibilities on the PGDE chemistry. I also contribute to the teaching on BA routes and MA programme, as well as supervising research students from BA through to PhD routes. I moved to Strathclyde University from Brunel University London. Prior to that I had been an Initial Teacher Education tutor at Keele University (Staffordshire).
I taught science in schools in various parts of England before moving to Higher Education and retain a keen interest in all aspects of school science.
My major professional and research interests, are inclusive science education, and the preparation of teachers to deliver an inclusive STEM curriculum, along with curriculum design and assessment. My primary focus in on science for learners with intellectual disabilities but my interest extends far more widely into the mechanisms by which some groups are excluded from science.
In addition, I am active in science outreach, for which I have achieved international recognition, and regularly run inclusive and accessible chemistry events at the University of Strathclyde, in conjunction with colleagues from chemistry and chemical engineering. I have worked with a range of visitor centres to develop their STEM outreach programmes, and have regularly collaborated with colleagues at sites of historic and cultural significance.
Prize And Awards
- 'Sustainable Impact by Design' Team, Strathclyde Medal
- Recipient
- 2023
- STEM Inspiration Award
- Recipient
- 20/5/2022
- Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards 2022
- Recipient
- 14/2/2022
- Winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry: Inclusion and Diversity Award
- Recipient
- 7/5/2019
- RSC committee Innovation award
- Recipient
- 30/10/2018
- Winner of the Herald Global Game Changers Award
- Recipient
- 12/9/2018
Qualifications
2001- 2005 Open University Doctorate in Education, Can mentoring raise attainment in Science?
1997-2000 Open University Master of Arts (Education)
1985-1986 Univ. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Post Graduate Certificate in Education
1982-1985 Univ. of London Bachelor of Science (Hons), Toxicology and Pharmacology
Publications
- Teaching and learning about inclusive practice in initial teacher education : making the implicit explicit?
- Essex Jane, Cantali Dianne, Barrett Louise, Knight Mary
- Scottish Educational Review Vol 56 (2025)
- Interactions across boundaries : insights into the effect of Scottish policy on a STEM outreach project
- Essex Jane, Hendry Martyn
- Scottish Educational Review Vol 56 (2025)
- What role can ‘public switching’ play in researching public perceptions of controversial issues?
- Dunlop Lynda, Rushton Elizabeth AC, Clayton Sarah, Essex Jane, Stubbs Joshua, Turkenburg-van Diepen Maria
- International Journal of Social Research Methodology Vol 28, pp. 141-146 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2024.2303033
- Feyerabend, the ally of alternative approaches to science and champion of inclusive science education
- Essex Jane
- Education for a Free Society Paul Feyerabend and the Pedagogy of Irritation (2024) (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.3726/b21660
- Someone like me : a trial of context-responsive science as a mechanism to promote inclusion
- Birnie Ingeborg, Ross Kirsty, Essex Jane
- 14 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.26529/cepsj.1691
- A rising tide lifts all boats? The model of differentiation as a tool for diversity in science towards social inclusion
- Kieferle Sarah, Devtak Itzok, Essex Jane, Hayes Sarah, Stojanovska Marina, Mamlok-Naaman Rachel, Markic Silvia
- Journal of Chemical Education Vol 101, pp. 789–797 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c00550
Research Interests
My research interests cluster around science education, specifically the impact of science outreach and inclusive science teaching. Related research areas include the preparation of teachers for inclusive practice.
Professional Activities
- Inclusion in STEM: Challenges and Solutions’
- Speaker
- 14/2/2024
- The 15th Conference of the European Science Education Research association (ESERA)
- Speaker
- 28/8/2023
- Additional Support Needs in Scottish Education: Functional Description or Feature of Failure?
- Speaker
- 23/8/2023
- A Case Study of Co-creation as a Socially Just Epistemology
- Speaker
- 23/8/2023
- Public communication of science and technology
- Speaker
- 11/4/2023
- Practical Approaches to Inclusive Science
- Speaker
- 22/2/2023
Projects
- Revolutionising Pharmacology Education - Designing a Low-Cost Human Body-on-a-Chip Laboratory for Multi-Level Learning
- Cunningham, Margaret Rose (Principal Investigator) Rooney, Liam (Principal Investigator) Monachan, Nikki (CoPI) Coubrough, Katie (CoPI) Wahid, Maheen (CoPI) Tinto, Kirsty (CoPI) Glendinning, Nicola (Co-investigator) Keegan, Joe (Co-investigator) Panelli, Fiona (Co-investigator) Palin, Fiona (Co-investigator) Thompson, Crystal (Co-investigator) Essex, Jane (Co-investigator) Hendry, Pauline (Co-investigator)
- This education research project is funded by British Pharmacological Society to establish links with Vale of Leven Academy & Lennox Primary (West Dunbartonshire) and Queen Margaret Academy Supported Learning Centre (Ayr) to support student-led STEM Learning on the topic of Pharmacology.
This project involves staff and students across all levels of learning from primary school, secondary school, undergraduate to postgraduate higher education.
The project will use a combination of approaches such as 3D printing technology to address biomedical questions related to 'Space Medicine'. Twenty-two students (S4-S6) from Vale of Leven Academy (VOLA) will support the space-themed STEM activity design as they will go to NASA (Houston) as part of school-organised education trip in June 2025. - 01-Jan-2025 - 31-Jan-2025
- Rannsachadh Àrainn Eucoir: Am Puffin Bochd (English: Crime Science Investigation: The Poor Puffin)
- Ross, Kirsty (Principal Investigator) Birnie, Inge (Co-investigator) Essex, Jane (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 30-Jan-2023
- EPSRC IAA: Engineering equity in STEM employment
- Essex, Jane (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2025
- Evaluating whether microscale chemistry techniques can enhance the inclusivity of school lab work
- Essex, Jane (Principal Investigator)
- 05-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2023
- Inclusive and Accessible Salters' Institute Chemistry Festival
- Essex, Jane (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 30-Jan-2021
- Using research to enhance inclusive science teaching
- Essex, Jane (Principal Investigator)
- A 2 hour seminar in whihc reserach evidence was shared and discussed with participating teachers.
- 12-Jan-2020 - 12-Jan-2020