2009 SW LSRN Conference - Speakers' Biographies

South West Learning & Skills Research Network
Annual Conference 2009

"Whose Class is it Anyway?"
regulation and autonomy in further education and lifelong learning


Friday 10 July 2009
(10.00 am - 4.00 pm)
 at
 Dillington House, Nr Ilminster, TA19 9DT


held in partnership with the SWitch & Peninsula
 Centres for Excellence in Teacher Training (CETTs)

Paula Jones

Paula is Deputy Chief Executive of Learning South West - a regional cross sector Partnership Association and education charity.  Learning South West has many members from Work-based Learning, Further Education Colleges, Higher Education Institutions, Adult & Community Learning, and Voluntary & Community Learning.  Our shared mission through partnership is to discover, share and promote excellence in learning.  We facilitate the SWitch Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training (CETT) and CPD a productive partnership of over 50 members.  Paula is the SWitch CETT Manager.

Paula’s work entails managing projects and supporting the professional development needs of the agencies and organisations that manage and deliver learning and skills across the South West. Paula enthusiastically promotes the value and benefit of great quality learning for all.  She is an elected Board Member of the Institute for Learning (IfL), the professional body for teachers, trainers, tutors, student teachers and assessors in the further education and skills sector.  She is also the Chair of the ACETT group a national strategic group for the Centres for Excellence in Teacher Training.


Ursula Howard

Ursula is a founding member of the National Research & Development Centre for Adult Literacy & Numeracy (NRDC).   She was Director of the Centre from 2003-2008. NRDC is a consortium led by the Institute of Education, University of London, set up in England by government as part of the ‘Skills for Life’ strategy in 2002 to create a comprehensive evidence base for policy; and to engage in research and development to support and improve practice.  The centre's remit has been to help foster an international research community in literacy, ESOL and numeracy, and to ensure practitioners are at the centre of research and development.

From 1995 to January 2003 Ursula was Director of Research at the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA).  During this time she led the Agency’s research.  In 2001 she was instrumental in establishing the Learning and Skills Research Centre, a strategic research centre for FE and lifelong learning policy and practice.  As an advocate of practitioner-led research, she helped to establish and support the LSRN (initially FERN). 

Ursula's current research and publishing is on the development and use of writing as a skill, and active literacy practice in family, community and at work, and as a critical means of expression, creativity and empowerment.   Her PhD forms the basis of a book she is finalising about the learning, uses and meanings of writing in 19th Century England.

In the last year, Ursula has carried out a project on the future of FE as part of the NIACE-initiated Independent Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning, to be published in July.   She also acts as adviser in a number of countries on literacy and numeracy policy and research.


Andrew Morris

Andrew is an education consultant specialising in the interaction of research, policy and practice.  As director of the National Educational Research Forum (NERF) in England until 2006, he worked with the chair, Sir Michael Peckham, on a programme of activity aimed at improving coherence in the way research was produced and used.  He was previously a research manager at the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA), where he focussed on capacity, methods and impact and led the Learning and Skills Research Network (LSRN), a practitioner-led research programme and a practical research journal.  Formerly he was a science teacher and senior manager at Islington Sixth Form Centre and City & Islington College. He currently works with the Learning & Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), CfBT Education Trust, City &Guilds Centre for Skills Development  and a range of other public, private and voluntary sector organisations.


Ann-Marie Bathmaker

Anne-Marie is Professor of Further Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of the West of England, Bristol.  Her particular area of interest is the transformation of policy as espoused into policy as experienced, especially in relation to the changing experience of learning, education and training, amongst those who do not follow traditional smooth learning trajectories.  She worked on the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy Project entitled the Impact of Skills for Life on Learners from 2003 to 2007.  From 2006-2008 she was co-director of the ESRC FurtherHigher Project, which has investigated widening participation and student transitions between FE and HE. Recent publications include

Bathmaker, A.M. and Thomas, W. (2009) Positioning themselves: An exploration of the nature and meaning of transitions in the context of dual sector FE/HE institutions in England, Journal of Further and Higher Education, issue 3 2009.

Bathmaker, A.M, Brooks, G., Parry, G. and Smith, D. (2008) Dual-Sector Further and Higher Education: Policies, Organisations and Students in Transition, Research Papers in Education, 23, 2, pp.125-137.

Bathmaker, A.M. (2007) The impact of Skills for Life on adult basic skills in England: how should we interpret trends in participation and achievement? International Journal of Lifelong Education, 26, 3, pp.295–313.


Matt Davis

Matt is the Regional Convenor for the West Country LSRN and has been Research and Development Manager for City of Bristol College for the past 18 months.  This latter role involves supporting, commissioning and carrying out research, as well as encouraging an appreciation of the value of evidence-based practice amongst staff and management at the college. Previously to this, he was an ESOL Programme Co-ordinator for the same organisation and has also taught English as a Foreign Language both in the UK and abroad.  English Language Teaching is a branch of education in which pedagogy is closely informed by theory, and it is this relationship which kickstarted Matt’s interest in research.  Amongst other things, he has been involved in projects looking at Individual Learning Plans for ESOL learners, progression from basic skills to vocational subjects, exam bias, various aspects of Second Language Acquisition and, most recently, approaches to Continuing Professional Development for experienced teachers.


Jo Pye

Jo is Senior Researcher at Marchmont SLIM within the University of Exeter’s (soon to be) Graduate School of Education.  Jo has provided research services for nearly 30 years in the public and private sector in South West England.  For Marchmont she designs and leads large and small scale evaluations and impact analyses of good practice across a range of learning and workplace contexts.  For SLIM (the South West Observatory’s Skills and Learning Intelligence Module), Jo analyses and reports on national and regional evidence to inform policy initiatives in skills and employment.  Jo maintains ongoing research interests in migrant workers, tutor training for adult learning, and rural contexts for learning and skills delivery.


Kim Diment

Kim is a researcher based at the University of Exeter's School of Education and Lifelong Learning and Marchmont/SLIM where she has just completed research into young people in Jobs without Training with Dr Rob Lawy and Prof Jocey Quinn.  In addition to the current SWitch Teacher Trainee research, she is also working on research about Maths and Science NQTs and STEM in the South West.


Rob Lawy

Rob is a Senior Lecturer in Post-Compulsory Education at the University of Exeter, School of Education and Lifelong Learning.  His research interests centre upon the learning of young people in formal and informal contexts inside and outside of school and college, and include questions about democratic learning and citizenship.  His recent work has focused on 'hard to reach' and socially disadvantaged young people in jobs without training (JWT) who have been identified as a key target group by Government.  He also has interests in post-compulsory education and training and has recently conducted funded projects on the issues of ILPS mentoring for the SWitch Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training.


Kate Hellman

Kate is currently working as Programme Administrator and as Partnership Co-ordinator at the University of Exeter, School of Education. Kate is also a PhD student focussing on current education policy and the impact of change on curriculum in FE Sector (UK).  She is also interested in ITT (FE) and the role of mentors in the training of teachers.


Annie Ostapenko-Denton

Annie currently works at Truro College, Cornwall, where she is a lecturer on a number of their Foundation Degree courses.  Her main areas of teaching are psychology, research and study skills.  This year, she has also been a tutor on the PGCE that is run at the College.

Annie is also undertaking an EdD with Exeter University at the moment, and has just completed her third year.  Her plan is to complete this by July 2010, and this presentation is the summary of the research and where it is at the moment. Annie’s first degree is in psychology from Swansea University.  She then moved on to Cardiff University to complete her PGCE.  Since she was working full-time Annie decided to undertake an MA with the Open University, which she thoroughly enjoyed. In fact, she enjoyed the MA in Education so much that she then undertook a post graduate diploma in psychology with them.


Alvinia Menary

Alvinia works full-time in the School of Education and Training at Cornwall College, teaching on the full-time and part-time ITT courses and the Masters Education programme.  She has worked across the compulsory and post-compulsory sector and is keen to continue to develop students’ interests in ILT.  She has recently joined ‘2nd Life’ as part of a college project and as a psychologist, is fascinated by the construction of avatars in virtual space.


Matt Kirby

Matt got a strong urge to teach about two years ago and duly pursued it and is now a Travel & Tourism Lecturer in the Faculty of Retail & Service Industries at Cornwall College.  In his teaching practice he taught BTEC first diploma, national diploma and bite-size degree event management.  Matt will be a Lecturer on the newly approved FdA Event Management, that commences in September 2009.  Matt worked for 10 years in event management  industry, garnering much experience from his involvement working with the Millennium Dome (1999), and the launch of Ford Focus (1998).


Peta Bull

Peta left school in 1970 at the age of 16 with six GCE O’Levels and began working in the National Health Service in Liverpool as a clerk/receptionist in Mass Radiography and married in 1974.  Moving to Derby in 1976 she began working in Accident and Emergency as a receptionist/supervisor.  After the birth of her 2nd child in 1989 she moved into Facilities Management as an Administrator and finally a Manager responsible for monitoring facilities contracts until redundancy in 2000.  Now caring for 2 children, Peta decided to change careers and enrolled on a 2 year BTEC National Diploma in Graphic Design.  By building a portfolio she applied via UCAS to Falmouth College of Art on the BA (hons) Graphic Design course and graduated in 2005.  Since graduation Peta has worked as a self-employed freelancer supplemented at times with temporary Administrative work.  Missing the social and interactive environment of a college and its students’ Peta applied for and took up a place on the PGCE starting September 2008 finishing June 2009.


Denise Dickens

Denise is the Disability & Mental Health Support Co-ordiantor at City of Bristol College.


Maria Cole

“They say it’s the first step that starts your journey and that first step is the most difficult.  Picking up the telephone 15 years ago to enrol on a Teacher Training course caused great anxiety - I made that call and I haven’t look back.”

Up until then Maria’s working life depended on her husband’s job and raising a young family.  From a Hospital Finance Department to a Special Needs School, setting up a playgroup, and Quality Control Inspector in the North East to a PA and School Secretary.  Maria had worked with computers in one capacity or another since leaving school - so it seemed the right course of action to go into teaching IT.  After she left her school secretary job of 13 years her career as a teacher blossomed.  From teaching the ‘IT terrified’ to becoming an ECDL Expert Maria’s teaching career has always been interesting and rewarding.  Now working as an IT course manager and a Subject Learning Coach, soon to become an Advanced Coach, she has developed a network of colleagues from all over the South West and has been able to encompass all that she has learned in her teaching and the development of resources.


Alison Pearson

By coincidence it was also 15 years ago that Alison started as a teacher, having worked first in the agriculture sector - firstly in agricultural banking and then in applied research and training. Her first job was in the smallest college in the country - a land based one - and her next was at the biggest GFE college in a new country (Guernsey – so still a pretty small college). Alison has been at Bicton College in a senior management role for the last 5 years, where much of her focus is quality improvement, and particularly staff development and teacher education.


Michael Tedder

Michael is a Research Fellow at the School of Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of Exeter.  His research interests include:  life history research, Adult and Community Learning and notions of professionalism among teachers in the learning and skills sector.


Becky Turner

Becky is an Educational Researcher and Developer with the Higher Education Partnerships Learning (HELP) CETL.  The HELP CETL works in conjunction with the University of Plymouth's partner college network to support HE in FE provision in South West England.  As part of her role Becky runs the Award Holder Scheme which provides HE in FE lecturing and support staff in the college network with opportunities to undertake continuing professional development and/or scholarly activity and research.  She is carrying out research into the emerging HE culture within FE colleges and the professional identities of HE lecturing staff. Recently, in conjunction with the Education Subject  Centre (ESCalate),  Becky facilitated  a writing  group that  encouraged HE in FE practitioners to reflect on their experiences of carrying out scholarly activity through written narratives.  These narratives will be of interest to others working across HE and FE and are soon to be published in a book entitled “Putting the I into identity and other stories: scholarly approaches to professional identity and development of HE practitioners in FE colleges.”


William Richardson

William is Professor of Education at the University of Exeter.  He has been active in research into post-compulsory education for over 20 years and, currently, he has four funded projects under way:

•   The National Evaluation of the Implementation and Impact of Diplomas (2007-13) (with NFER)
•   The Impact of Practical and Vocational Learning on Academically-able Young People Aged 11-16 (2009/10) (Edge Foundation)
•   Reliance of Universities on Independent School Applicants in Certain Subjects (2009) (Headmasters’ and Headmistresses Conference)
•   The Reputation of English Further Education: Understanding the Evolution of the Sector (2009/10) (Esmée Fairbairn Foundation)

In the university semester just ended he taught a 12-week undergraduate module on ‘Education under new Labour’.


Anne Parfitt

Anne is Research Associate at the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of Exeter where she is conducting the fieldwork on the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation funded project: ‘The Reputation of English Further Education: Understanding the Evolution of the Sector’.  Following a career in FE teaching she recently completed a PhD at the University of Bath entitled: ‘The construction of further education lecturers’ practice’.


Carolyn Nye

Carolyn currently works at City of Bristol College where she has been involved in several research projects based on learning and assessment.  She has considerable experience of teaching and training in ESOL and EFL in the UK and Asia.


Graham Carter

Graham is an experienced ESOL/EFL practitioner who has taught and trained extensively both in the UK and in Europe.  He currently works at City of Bath College and City of Bristol College.


Sue Prescott

Sue is an original member of the team who developed the CPD framework ‘Supporting the Learner Journey’ and wrote or co-wrote several units.  She also contributed to the quality assurance of the entire framework.

Sue is currently jointly managing the Continuation Project with Angie Ward.  Their intention is to build on the success of the original project by ensuring that the units are effectively delivered and trainers are identified, trained and supported to deliver all aspects of the framework.  This will result in the production of a Trainer Pack to support the delivery of the original materials.  A further outcome is to achieve accreditation of the framework with a nationally recognised awarding body.

For this project Sue has drawn on her wide-ranging experience of Teaching, Learning, Assessment and Internal Verification in many and various circumstances.  These include compulsory education including special schools, FE and HE, prisons including YOI and commercial settings covering a wide range of occupations.  To compliment this Sue has delivered teacher training, management development and learning support training and assessment.

Having achieved both Bachelor and Masters Degrees and specialist teacher status in Literacy and Numeracy, Sue was able to contribute from an extensive body of knowledge.


Angie Ward

Angie has direct experience supporting learners in further and higher education to reach their own personal learning goals; she also has the insight of leading a team of Learning Support Practitioners and is passionate about CPD.  She was one of the original team of writers for the Supporting the Learner Journey CPD framework responsible for the units relating to safeguarding, physical disability and mental health as well as contributing to the development of the whole framework. 

Angie is currently jointly managing the Continuation Project with Sue Prescott to ensure the Support the Learner Journey Framework is delivered across the southern hub of the south west region.  She is also supporting trainers in unit delivery towards the development of the Trainer Pack.

Angie’s career spans over 20 years in a diverse range of settings.  This includes working with looked after young people, managing an inclusion project, a mental health helpline, working with families, domestic abuse, woman’s refuge, substance abuse and community development.  She has also achieved her Certificate in Education.  Angie is a Somerset Total Communication Trainer and assessor and also delivers training around social issues in the local community and is developing open learning packs.


Jim Crawley, Caroline Harvey & Rose Smeeton

Jim, Caroline & Rose are the Lifelong Learning Initial Teacher Training team at Bath Spa University and have some 55 years plus of teacher education between them. This includes teaching on stage 1, 2, 3, Cert Ed, PGCE and training several thousand teachers in the sector.

All three have been engaged in curriculum development and implementation, and taught across the full range of lifelong learning, from pre entry to Masters level.

They have experience of Involvement with Skills for Life, European Projects, using Information and Communications Technology, workforce development and OfSTED inspecting.  This range of experience and expertise gives the team a positive and broad perspective on the world of Learning and Skills, all underpinned by a passion for teaching and learning .


Liz McKenzie

Liz is Deputy Team Leader for Education at Truro College.  She teaches on Education programmes validated by the University of Plymouth, and is Programme Leader for the Further Education Cert Ed and PGCE, the FdA Education (Teaching Assistants) and the Integrated Masters Programme at the College.  Liz is undertaking research into Trainee Teachers’ experience of reflection towards an EdD with the Open University.  She has received two CPD awards from the HELP-CETL at the University of Plymouth to support her research and has recently been awarded a Continuity award to develop practical applications from her findings.   Liz also has two part-time secondments to the University of Plymouth, one with the HELP-CETL to support the Award Holder Community with Becky Turner, and one to EdaLT to teach on the Higher Education in Further Education contexts module across the Partner Colleges.   She is also an Associate Lecturer for the Open University, tutoring the third level Social Psychology course.   As well as her own research interest in reflective practice Liz is involved in research with Becky Turner into the professional identities of HE in FE practitioners.