Personal statement

Biography

I was appointed Teaching Associate in the School of Education in October 2019 after 25 years of teaching social subjects in Fife. I had been Faculty Head of a large department and the regional coordinator for modern studies for over a decade. My wider experience included being a modern studies question setter for the SQA since 2000 and as the Subject Implementation Manager for modern studies alongside my university role. This enabled me to support students in the ITE programme with current policy and practice. I am able to draw on a wide network of expert colleagues such as Principal Assessors to work with students.

My knowledge of modern studies teaching is routinely used to support GTCS colleagues in reviewing those seeking modern studies certification.

I value strong relationships across all aspects of my work. I am a mentor for new colleagues and seek to support students throughout their studies at Strathclyde.

Teaching Interests

I am the course tutor for PGDE modern studies and am involved in courses relating to this within both primary and secondary in the Strathclyde Institute of Education. I teach the citizenship element of Learning for Sustainability at Master’s level. 

A key teaching interest is practitioner enquiry with ITE students and working to ensure that this is valued and reflected within their ITE year. I have been the co-leader of the Professional Learning Through Enquiry course since May 2022.

Research Interests

I have completed several Master’s level courses around inclusion and supporting teacher learning. The latter resulted in post-graduate certification from the GTCS. I embarked on an EdD is September 2022 following the Supporting Teacher Learning pathway. The area of focus is on mentoring relationships within the ITE. Based on this, I have been asked to contribute a chapter to a book on early researchers being edited by Deirdre Harvey at St Agatha’s (due late 2024).

I am a member of a Collaborative Writing Group (CWG) established as part of a University wide programme exploring the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL). We have published a literature review and are currently researching student conceptions of resilience.

Expertise & Capabilities

• curricular knowledge of modern studies
• planning, assessment and curriculum design
• mentoring skills
• practitioner enquiry
• student resilience within HE