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 work 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. I stepped down as director in April 2020 to return to teaching and FE-based research. 

Between August 2019 and March 2022, I was an elected member of the Administrative Council (Board) of the Association for Teacher Education in Europe. From October 2019 to March 2022, I was the elected  co-chair of the Association’s Professional Development of Teacher Educators’ Research and Development Community.

Since October 2021, I have been a governor at Wakefield College.  https://www.wakefield.ac.uk/about-us/corporate-information/governance 

In March 2022, Wakefield College merged with Selby College to form the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group. From June 2022, I will chair its Curriculm and Quality Commitee.

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
• Action Research
• Practice-based research