School of Education and Continuing Studies (SECS)

Profile

I trained in Ulm and Berlin in the 1980s and in the latter helped establish and worked in a community nursery. I became a Nursery Pedagogue, Nursery Supervisor and Early Years Advisor. In 2000 I started a post as Lecturer in Child and Healthcare at FE and was appointed in 2003 as a Senior Lecturer in Early Years Education at the University of Portsmouth. I am course leader for the Foundation degree in Early Years Education, as well as course coordinator for the Early years Professional Status training at Portsmouth.

My research and scholarship revolves around: children’s literature, ICT in Early Years,  communities of pedagogic practice and their developing professionalism; learning and teaching strategies for distance and online learners and mentoring the Early Years Professional. I am currently involved, together with some colleagues from the School of Education, in the writing of a book on the Early Years Professional.

In 2005 I was involved in a collaborative and participative educational research project in Ghana, which focused on the development of creative teaching strategies for children of nursery age.

In 2007, together with a colleague, I visited and presented at the Froebel Seminariat (Copenhagen).

I have completed a collaborative action-learning project on creating creative and appropriate online resources to engage student’s participation, with colleagues in Creative Technologies in Dec 2009.

I have visited: the Pestalozzi-Froebel training centre in Berlin; Darwin University, Australia, and Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia to investigate their practice and explore work related learning links and/or possible partnerships.

I enjoy my work, I love teaching and I learn so much from the students and practitioners alike.