I am a Reader in Education and Community Studies at the University of Huddersfield and the REF Coordinator for The School of Education and Professional Development. I have worked at The University of Huddersfield since 2008. My teaching and research interests focus mainly on issues of social justice and education policy. At Aston University in Birmingham, I gained my ESRC funded PhD ‘Pupil Resistance to Their Schooling Experience’ before engaging in my post as a Research Fellow at The University of Nottingham within the School of Education. I have been Principal Investigator for a Joseph Rowntree Foundation funded project that investigated young people’s experiences of working in the private sector.  I have also managed a longitudinal study concerning the experiences of NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) young people funded by The Leverhulme Trust. I have worked as a Senior Research Fellow exploring work-related learning for young people on E2E programs, a Joseph Rowntree Foundation funded project that mapped alternative education provision across two Midland Local Authority's and an ESRC project aimed at exploring themes of social and educational inclusion through the creative arts with primary age school children. More recently I have managed The Education and Training Consortium funded projects that aimed to explore the experiences of BME trainee teachers and the experiences of volunteer trainees in unpaid teaching employment. I have also worked on an internally funded project aimed at developing understandings regarding student retention. Recently I have worked alongside Professor Helen Lomax on a RCUK funded project led by the Centre for Agri Environmental Research at the University of Reading with partners at the Universities of Northampton and Lund modelling landscapes for resillient pollination services in the UK. Together we explored people's feelings of well-being in agricultural landscapes. Currently I am PI on a project evaluating critical assessment of ESF funded Welsh regional NEET intervention strategies, contributing to over ten years worth of expertise regarding working with NEET young people. 

Since 2007 I have been a leading member of the Oxford Ethnography and Education Conference organising team. I am a member of the Editorial board of the Ethnography and Education Journal and Deputy Editor for the Teaching in Lifelong Learning Journal. I have also acted as Guest Editor for the international peer reviewed Special Issue of Improving Schools on pupil voice. I have refereed a range of research funding applications for the ESRC and the Associative Research Program – CONICYT (The Ministry of Education, Chile).

• Education policy
• Poverty
• Marginalised people
• Issues of social justice
• Key transition points
• Ethnography
• Participatory visual research methods
• Social inclusion through the arts
• Concepts of childhood and outdoor play 
• Issues related to improving undergraduate student retention