Biography

I have worked in the University for 31 years, undertaking the role of School Manager for several schools, including the School of Education and Continuing Studies (which became the School of Education and Childhood Studies, and has again changed to the School of Education and Sociology.  I have since moved away from this role to become the Partnership Manager for the School.  This role aims to establish and maintain professional partnerships with nurseries, schools, colleges and training agencies and as part of this role I operationally managed all the full-cost contracts for the School.  A recent Ofsted inspection noted as a key strength ‘the work of the partnership manager in securing commitment to and engagement with the training programme from partner institutions.

In 2005 an opportunity arose for me to undertake research into running a Foundation Degree for administrators working in education.  This was an area of work that was very close to my heart because I felt that there was a need for administrators working in the educational environment to have the opportunity to undertake staff development that was appropriate and relevant to the work they were doing.  I undertook a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education to enable me to be Course Leader for the course.  This course ran successfully for seven years and it was inspiring to see the dedication and commitment of students to their learning.

My current role still incorporates the Partnership work, but I am now also the Admissions tutor for the 4 Childhood Studies degrees run in the School of Education and Sociology and coordinate the Open/Applicant days.  I am Unit Coordinator for the Professional Practice unit which enables students in Year 2 to go out into placement (this is part of the School's Employability Strategy), plus being a personal tutor and dissertation supervisor.

Last year my role changed dramatically and  I lost the Partnership work as this was centralised in the Faculty.  I am now teaching full time on the Introduction to Teaching module, I am Module Coordinator for the Health and Wellbeing module and I am Course Leader for the BA Education Studies (top-up) degree.

Research interests

I have an interest in the hybridisation of professional roles and how these work in university structures, and  my doctoral thesis researche into this fascinating topic.  I successfully completed and gained the award of Doctor of Education at the University of Southampton in 2014.