People
Academic staff
Eric Addae-Kyeremeh
Eric Addae-Kyeremeh is Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership and Management and a Chartered Fellow of both The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). Find out more about Eric and his research
Alison Buckler
I am a Research Fellow in Education and International Development, and the convenor of the International Teachers, Education and Sustainable Development research group (RITES) at The Open University. I am responsible for the academic direction of this group and, in collaboration with the international education academic director, am currently focused on more strategically embedding research within the university’s international teaching projects in order to extend the evidence base for our practical work and strengthen the group’s collective intellectual narrative. Find out more about Alison and her research
Liz Chamberlain
Dr. Liz Chamberlain (BEd, Brighton; MA, Sussex; EdD, Open) is a Senior Lecturer in Education at The Open University in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, where she is Programme Leader for the Education Studies (Primary) degree. Find out more about Liz and her research
Jane Cullen
I have worked in Higher Education since 2000, first as a Research Associate/Senior Research Associate at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, then at the Von Hugel Institute, St Edmunds College, Cambridge, and at the Open University since June 2006. I head the Masters in Education and Masters in Childhood and Youth programme at the OU which currently attracts over one thousand students, and I specialise in leadership and management on both the M.Ed and the EdD. I have been associated for the past eight years with the work of the Teacher Education in sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) programme www.tessafrica.net working on projects across Africa with colleagues from universities and NGOs in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Republic of Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia. I served as Director of TESSA 2012-2014 and since then I have worked as a key adviser on a major DfID-funded teacher education project in Ghana, on projects in South America including an FCO-funded project working with the Ministry of Education in Peru and on research projects in Bangladesh, India and Ghana. Find out more about Jane and her research
Ian Eyres
Ian Eyres is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the Open University, where he currently works mostly on Primary modules. His wide-ranging work in the fields of language in primary education and teacher development has included research and teaching in both literacy and second language learning. He has been involved in a number of international education projects in South Asia, Africa and South America. He played a leading role in English in Action, a long-term project to improve the quality of English teaching in government schools across Bangladesh, where he also played a major part in the development of a new national initial teacher education programme. Much of his work has focused on the development of teachers’ expertise within their own classrooms. Find out more about Ian and his research
Bob Moon
Bob Moon joined The Open University in 1988 as Professor of Education (Teaching Studies). He retired from his full-time post in 2010 and was awarded the position of Emeritus Professor of Education. He continues to be active in national and international organisations focused on teacher education, with particular reference to developing countries. In the period 2010–16 he has been a specialist education adviser to the UN agency (UNRWA) responsible for the schools in the Palestinian Refugee camps spread across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza. Find out more about Bob and his research
Kimberly Safford
I am a Senior Lecturer in Education, and you can see my publications in Open Research Online. Find out more about Kimberly and her research
Kris Stutchbury
I am a senior lecturer in Teacher Education and Academic Director the TESSA programme. I joined the OU, full time in March 2009 as Subject Leader for Science on the PGCE. I became Director of the PGCE in 2012. In July 2015 I became Academic Director of TESSA and combine that role with developing a new pathway on 'learning and teaching' for the Open University's applied MA in Education. Find out more about Kris and her research
Freda Wolfenden
My professional work is concerned with teacher development and the conceptualisation, planning and delivery of teacher education programmes with a particular focus on the use of open practices at scale in the pursuit of equality in participation in learning. Find out more about Freda and her research
Clare Woodward
I am a lecturer in Teacher Education and International Development, supporting the development of teachers and schools since 2009 when I joined the OU. I have also extensively explored the potential of digital technologies as tools for professional development and pedagogic practice, in both developed and developing economy contexts. Prior to working for the Open University, my professional roots in English Language teaching covered more than ten years in secondary, tertiary and adult learning sectors in France, Malaysia and the Middle East including refugee education. Find out more about Clare and her research
Doctoral students
Jiniya Afroze
My PhD project explores everyday lives of the children who are living in an urban slum in Bangladesh. As members of the Bihari community, these children are multiply marginalised – ethnically, linguistically, socially, economically and politically and, as children, they are also generationally marginalised. In my research I explore how these many forms of discrimination are played out in terms of everyday violence in the community and demonstrate how symbolic and structural forms of violence intersect with the more physical and corporal violence that children are subjected to in the home, at school and at work.
Namrita Batra
I am a PhD student in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language studies. I have worked in India for more than 10 years and my areas of interest include language teaching, teacher education and elementary education. My PhD focuses on the relationship between the home and school literacy practices of 10-year old children in a rural area in India and adopts an ethnographic methodology.
Saraswati Dawadi
I am looking at the impacts of a high-stakes English test on students and parents in Nepal. I have explored the impacts of this examination by devising a study which would allow a voice to the students themselves, and their parents. This has necessitated the development of innovative research instruments and travel to Nepal in order to collect data through face to face interviews with students and parents. Additionally, a longitudinal survey was carried out and students were asked to record their oral diaries intermittently for three months.
Dame Diop
I am interested in Teacher Education in general but especially in In-Service Education and Training for Teachers (INSET) in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT). In specific terms, my research interests revolve around teacher learning, teacher continuing professional development, teacher professional identity, and reflective practice. I am currently working on teacher professional development of teachers of English in Senegal with. In my PhD study, I am researching the Senegalese pedagogical cells (clusters of teachers who teach the same subject at the same school or schools located in the same area) to see how teachers’ participation in and membership of those cells contribute to their learning and practice.
Lesley Fearn
An Enquiry into EFL and Online Community Projects in Secondary Schools.
Online community platforms are becoming ever more popular in secondary schools all over the world and the benefits to both teachers and learners are numerous. However, there has been relatively little non-promotional research focusing on how they support foreign language teachers and learners. This autoethnographic study uses an activity theory framework in the search for new theory to fill this gap.
Marjorie Gardner
My research examines the impacts of degree programme in Occupational Therapy, run by the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, with support from the European Union, Voluntary Services Overseas (UK) and WHO. In particular it focuses on the effect of the programme on professional practice, the extent to which it builds capacity and capability within the profession and the possibilities for supporting sustainability of the profession in Sri Lanka.
Sumita Sarkar
My PhD investigates how reflection, set out by policy to be the central pillar of teacher education in India, is understood and developed in six student-teachers at two initial teacher education institutes in India. A rubric tool, used for observing reflective practice in high income countries, has been adapted for the Indian context and used to offer insights into when and how student teachers reflect, and what triggers and influences the reflections of student-teachers over the two years in the programme. My supervisors are Steve Hutchinson, Leigh-Anne Perryman and Alison Buckler. I am currently in the ‘writing-up’ phase in my PhD thesis. More broadly, my research interests are to understand how pedagogical knowledge can be applied in international teacher education to increase reflective, creative and critical thinking.
Kris Stutchbury
Teacher Educators as agents of change? A critical realist study of a group of teacher educators in a Kenyan university.
This doctoral study, explores the work of a group of teacher educators in Kenya. The focus is on how the social structures empower and constrain their agency with respect of pedagogic change. It draws on five years of experience of working in the field and, the deeper understanding gained of the working lives of teacher educators, will support current TESSA work.
Contact us
Dr Alison Buckler
email: alison.buckler@open.ac.uk
+44 (0) 1908 858820
