I am a Senior Lecturer in Teacher Education. I began my teaching career by teaching as a part-time lecturer of travel and tourism at Stafford College in 1986, progressed into full-time lecturing work and then middle management and in 2001 became a Head of Faculty. I subsequently moved into staff development, then teacher education in 2005. I joined the University as a Senior Lecturer in Teacher Education in January 2009. In September 2013 I became Deputy Director of the Education and Training Consortium, becoming its Director in September 2014. The Consortium is the largest further education (FE) initial teacher education partnership in the United Kingdom. Alongside my with partner colleges, I lead the activities of HUDCETT, one of England’s Centres for Excellence in Teacher Training. This involved carrying out a number of FE-based projects with a range of providers nationally. For instance, I became a member of the Education and Training Foundation’s Initial Teacher Education Working Party. In August 2019 I was elected to the Administrative Council (Board) of the Association for Teacher Education in Europe https://atee.education/who-we-are/administrative-council/  In October 2019 I was elected as co-chair of the Association’s Professional Development of Teacher Educators’ Research and Development Community https://atee.education/rd-communities/ . I stepped down from my role as the director in April 2020 to return to teaching and FE-based research.

I completed a BA (Hons) Leisure, Recreation and the Environment degree at Leeds Polytechnic and then a M.Soc.Sci in Tourism and Leisure Services at the University of Birmingham in 1989. I studied for a Certificate in Education (FE In-Service) at Huddersfield Polytechnic and successfully completed it in 1992. I was awarded an EdD from the University of Huddersfield in 2017 for a thesis entitled “It’s not as straightforward as it sounds”: an action research study of a team of further education-based teacher educators and their use of modelling during a period of de-regulation and austerity.

• Research about FE-based teacher educators 
• Trainee teachers and FE-based teacher education