Overview

I am a Senior Lecturer in Education (Special Educational Needs and Inclusive Education), primarily teaching on the MA International Education and MA Special Educational Needs programmes. I have published widely about social inclusion, inclusive pedagogies, Lesson Study and early reading interventions.

In my research work, I critically explore inclusion in education in its many different forms and expressions. 

I have been awarded, together with Prof Brahm Norwich, the British Educational Research Journal (BERJ) Editors’ Choice Award 2019 for an article exploring the role of randomised controlled trials in education. I have been involved in several systematic literature reviews, exploring a wide range of educational issues (including gender and mental health); and have jointly authored three articles about inclusion in Higher Education teaching, curriculum and institutional policies.

More recently, I led the ESRC-funded evaluation (2021) of the intergenerational Silver Stories programme - the programme of a charity that sees older people listening to primary or secondary students read. Our evaluation suggests that Silver Stories can enhance wellbeing for both students and older people through a feeling that they can support each other, reduce loneliness, and improve students’ confidence in reading and other reading-related outcomes.

I was also involved in a British Academy-funded project (2019-2021) exploring student experiences in the intersection of disability and gender; and a pilot (2022) examining how socioemotional learning can be explicitly integrated into the secondary school curriculum using a Lesson Study approach. In 2021, I co-authored a British Educational Research Association-funded report on the structures and processes that have influenced research activities in the UK.

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy – and I was a 2018-2019 Education Incubator Fellow with a project exploring the Hidden Curriculum in Higher Education. I also led the development of the MA International Education programme and both its main modules: Perspectives on International Education and Education for Diversity. 

From September 2022, I am responsible for the global engagement of the School of Education, and my responsibilities include international student recruitment and institutional partnerships. I am actively involved in the activities of the UK-China Humanities Alliance for Higher Education and particularly the organisation of the 2023 (hosted by Tsinghua University) and 2024 (hosted by the University of Exeter) HEYTA student conferences. 

I gained my PhD at Exeter in 2014. For my doctoral study, I explored a tension between young people’s preferences in everyday social interaction and the ethical dilemma of including all people. After gaining my PhD, I was employed in a number of small-scale research projects, including an ESRC-funded Lesson Study project.

Between 2015-2017, I was the research officer of the Nuffield Foundation-funded Integrated Group Reading (IGR) project, led by Prof Brahm Norwich, a randomised controlled trial that run over two years in 34 English primary schools.

Qualifications

• University of Exeter, School of Education; PhD in Education
• University of Exeter, School of Education; Master in Education, SEN (Distinction)
• National and Kapodistrian University of Athens; Annual Seminary of Special Educational Needs
• National and Kapodistrian University of Athens; Ptychion in History and Archaeology

Research group links

• Centre for Special Educational Needs and Disability
• Education Theory Reading Network

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Research

Research interests

I am particularly interested in social inclusion/ participation and matters of inclusive pedagogy and provision; and have researched and published widely about social inclusion, inclusive pedagogies, Lesson Study and early reading interventions. More recently, I led the evaluation of the ESRC-funded intergenerational Silver Stories programme.

I have presented at international conferences (e.g., BERA, WALS, UKLA, ECER and SRHE); and have been invited to deliver seminars at universities in the UK, Spain and China. This includes a talk at the University of Oxford discussing approaches to inclusive pedagogies in Higher Education; a seminar on inclusion in Higher Education at Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain; and a talk on inclusive pedagogies in school education at Chongqing Normal University in China. 

I have peer reviewed articles for journals such as the British Educational Research Journal, Studies in Higher Education, Democracy and Education, Frontiers in Education, the International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies and others.

Research projects

• 2022: Integrating socioemotional learning into secondary school curriculum, using Lesson Study, Co-I
• 2021: Evaluating the Silver Stories programme: a pilot study, ESRC IAA Project, £17,972, P-I
• 2021: Gender, mental health and students' secondary school experiences, TREE/Wellcome Trust, £13,860, Co-I
• 2020: Understanding the structures and processes that influence research activities in the UK, BERA, £19,985, Co-I

The project report can be accessed at:

https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/education-the-state-of-the-discipline-systematic-scoping-review 

• 2019: Supporting Practices for Inclusive Schooling & Education for Youth (SPISEY), ERASMUS+, €500,000, Co-I (and P-I from September 2021)
• 2019: The gendered schooling experiences of young women identified with SEND, British Academy, £7,897, Co-I

Research grants

• 2021 ESRC IAA Project
  The project is the pilot trial of the Silver Stories programme that involves school age children reading to older people and is seen as a way of tackling both social isolation/ wellbeing issues and reading difficulties. Programme activities take place exclusively at a distance (on the phone) using a particular protocol and strict privacy and safeguarding procedures; and are thus highly relevant to the Covid period as well as cost-effective. Children are been referred to the programme by their teachers for reading or social and emotional difficulties, and whole schools can join the programme. In collaboration with the Silver Stories charity, we are conducting a 12-month pilot evaluation project to understand how the programme works and its potential outcomes for social wellbeing and literacy.
• 2020 British Educational Research Association (BERA)
  Education Research in the UK: A literature review to understand the structures and processes that influence research activities in the UK
• 2019 European Commission
  The main purpose of the SPISEY project is to contribute to the implementation of the European strategy about early school leaving, the Inclusion and Diversity Strategy and the Pillar of Social Rights, especially focusing on school opportunities to a) offer high quality and inclusive education for all from early age, b) improve the transition process between lower and upper secondary / qualifying youth education, especially for those young students with learning difficulties and / or risk of social exclusion and c) improve employment prospects for young citizens with learning difficulties. Special attention will be given to youngsters in the transition between lower and upper secondary education / qualifying youth education, as many youngsters with learning difficulties and a higher risk of social exclusion drop out of school system at that moment in life.

Links

• Lesson Study Network
• SPISEY (ERASMUS+) project
• Social Mobility blog
• University of Exeter research news
• ORCID profile
• Google Scholar
• Silver Stories
• BERA blog
• ResearchGate
• The Campus blog

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Publications

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External Engagement and Impact

External Examiner Positions

External Examiner for National University of Ireland Galway, MEd Special and Inclusive Education (2021-2025)

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Teaching

I am the module leader of the Education for Diversity (EFPM375) module. 

Modules

2023/24

• EFPM375 - Education for diversity

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Supervision / Group

Postgraduate researchers

Alumni

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Office Hours:

Monday 3-5pm, during term time; please email me to arrange a meeting

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