I am a Chancellor's Fellow at the Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh. I began my career in education as an English teacher and worked in both England and Scotland for eight years. In 2010 I joined the School of Education at the University of Stirling where I worked on the Initial Teacher Education Programme until November 2013. 



My research interests have arisen from a broad concern with visual cultures, text, practices of reading and writing and pedagogies both inside and outside of formal educational institutions. In particular, my work explores the boundaries between the arts and humanities and educational processes. This has included work in schools on multimodal literacies, reading cultures and practices of critical interpretation. I have worked specifically on comics and graphic novels within the secondary context. My current project, called 'Shakespeare, Adaptation and the 'Educational' Comic book' is funded by the British Academy and explores the knowledge transformations and assumptions behind the production of adaptations of Shakespeare's plays for educational contexts. 



A second strand of research involves museum education, creative writing workshops and older adult learning. I am interested in the public pedagogy of museums and the role that art objects play in educational processes. In particular, I have been exploring the notion of 'creativity' and 'inspiration'. I am currently working on an ethnographic project with an adult creative writing class and exploring arts-based educational practice, creativity and their relationship to concepts of 'self' and 'temporality'. 

My work involves qualitative research and ethnographic methodologies. I am interested in exploring the potentials of ethnography, and anthropology, for educational research.

I teach on the Secondary Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) course.