People

Prof Teresa Cremin

Teresa is Professor of Education (Literacy) at the OU. An ex-primary school teacher, then staff development co-ordinator and for 18 years an ITE tutor, Teresa now undertakes teaching, research and consultancy in the UK and abroad. A Fellow of the English Association, the Academy of Social Sciences, and the Royal Society of the Arts, Teresa is a member of the DfE English Hubs Council and the DfE Reading for Pleasure sub-committee. She is a co-editor of the journal Thinking Skills and Creativity and series editor of Learning to Teach Creatively in the Primary School (Routledge).  Teresa is also chair of the Advisory Group of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Teacher Development Fund, a member of the ESRC Peer Review College, of the IBE-UNESCO network of Early Literacy Experts, a Trustee of the UK Literacy Association and was previously convenor of BERA Special interest Group on creativity. 

Her research focuses mainly on young people’s volitional reading and writing and the relationship between this and their teachers’ literate identities and classroom practices. Teresa is also keen to understand creative pedagogies that offer teachers and younger learners the chance to be imaginatively engaged as learners, exerting their agency and working collaboratively. 

Dr Helen Hendry

Helen is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the OU and part of the Education Studies (primary) undergraduate team. Formerly a senior leader in primary schools and initial teacher educator, her research centres around early reading, reading for pleasure and teacher professional development. She has researched and implemented initiatives designed to enhance pupils’ engagement in reading and write including developing a Mercers’ Company funded ‘Reading and Writing for pleasure framework for practice’ based on an extensive review of research and data collection with 6 charitable programmes in London. She also worked with the National Foundation for Educational Research to develop ‘Poetry Train’ with ITE students and poets in collaboration with the Poetry Society. Helen now leads schools and universities across the UK in developing a culture of reading for pleasure through the yearlong OU Reading Schools programme and the OU/ UKLA student teacher reading for pleasure ambassador scheme with UK Higher Education institutions.