Meet the research team

Research staff

Professor Avril Loveless

Head of Education Research

Professor Avril Loveless is head of the Education Research Centre and teaches on the professional doctorate, PhD, postgraduate and undergraduate programmes at the School of Education. She is also involved with university-wide research committees and groups.

Her research and teaching weave together three areas of theoretical and empirical work: understandings of creativity; pedagogy and teacher knowledge; and ICT capability within an early 21st century education system. These themes developed from her practice as a classroom teacher, advisory teacher and teacher educator, and her research has been closely related to her professional practice.

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Dr Sara Bragg

Senior Research Fellow

Sara Bragg was previously RCUK Research Fellow in Child and Youth Studies at the Open University and worked at the University of Sussex and the Institute of Education, London.

Her doctoral research brought cultural and media theory into dialogue with classroom ethnography to produce new insights into young people's relationships with popular culture and into media education pedagogies. Her subsequent work has similarly aimed to be at once empirical, theoretical, and methodologically reflexive.

She has researched and analysed issues such as 'sexualisation', student / youth 'voice' and school 'ethos' in ways that aim to conceptualise and account for the contemporary significance of these notions, and how they are produced or 'enacted' through specific practices.

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Jennifer Colwell

Research Fellow

Jen Colwell is a Research Fellow in the Education Research Centre, with a specific interest in early childhood education and care. Her PhD focussed upon the role of the pre-school practitioner in the development of children's social competencies.

Recently, Jen has been contracted to write an Early Years addition of Professor Andrew Pollard's Reflective Teaching text, to be published by Bloomsbury.

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Dr Nadia Edmond

Assistant Head of School (Learning and Teaching/CPD)

Dr Nadia Edmond is Assistant Head of School with cross school responsibility for teaching and learning and CPD provision. Nadia teaches undergraduate courses as well as on the MA Education, the professional doctorate and PhD at the School of Education. She is also involved with university-wide learning and teaching committees and groups.

Nadia's research and teaching build on her interest in critical perspectives on education and learning with particular focus on the relationship between formal and informal learning in professional development and professionalism as well as the role of Higher Education in the professions.

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Professor Ivor Goodson

Professor of Learning Theory

Ivor is currently Professor of Learning Theory at the Education Research Centre. He has spent the last 30 years researching and writing about some of the key enduring issues in education and has contributed over 50 books and 600 articles to the field. Life history and narrative research specialisations represent a particular area of competence as does his research on teacher's lives, careers and teacher professionalism.

Ivor Goodson has worked in universities in England, Canada and the USA, and has held visiting positions in many countries, notably at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, Sciences Po - L'Institut d'études politiques (IEP) de Paris and Stanford University in the USA.

Ivor's focus on is on curriculum studies, professional life and work and life narratives with recent work on narrative learning, narrative pedagogy and new perspectives on narrative theory.

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Dr Mike Hayler

Senior Lecturer

Dr Mike Hayler works on the professional doctorate, postgraduate and undergraduate programmes at the School of Education.

His research draws upon analytic autoethnography and life history methods to examine the education of teachers, the role of narrative in the construction of identity and the development of pedagogy. These themes are closely related to his professional practice and are informed by experience as a classroom teacher, advisory teacher and teacher educator.

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Professor Yvonne Hillier

Professor of Education

Professor Yvonne Hillier is professor of Education at the Education Research Centre, and teaches on PGCE Post-compulsory Education, Professional Doctorate in Education, and PhD supervision and research methods.

She is currently Chair of the Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE) and a founder member of the Learning and Skills Research Network. She has researched issues of teaching and learning in post-compulsory education including basic skills practice, national vocational qualifications, initial teacher training, work based learning including foundation degrees, and educational regeneration.

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Dr Brian Marsh

Senior Lecturer Science Education / Research Mentor

Brian is a Research Mentor within the School of Education and is strategically located to bridge the gap between colleagues working in Initial Teacher Education and the Education Research Centre.

His focus is on capacity building through mentoring, facilitating research activities and supporting postgraduate developments. He contributes to the development of a critical mass of high quality research and giving support to academic staff within the School of Education to remain or become research active and promoting research in conjunction with partnerships that link to schools.

Brian has undertaken the evaluation of the University of Sussex INSTEP project. His current research involves using video technology, developing subject knowledge and enhancing beginning and mid-career teachers' classroom practice. He also looks at the changing nature of university-school partnerships and aspects of Science Education.

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Dr Carol Robinson

Principal Research Fellow

Dr Carol Robinson is the course leader for the Professional Doctorate in Education, she teaches on this programme at the School of Education and at the Mauritius Institute of Education. She also teaches on the PhD and other post graduate programmes at the School of Education and is involved with university-wide research committees and groups.

Her research interests combine theoretical and empirical work and focus on two main areas: the voices, experiences, rights and empowerment of children and young people; and the development of learning and professional knowledge through doctoral study and its enactment in practice.

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Dr Tim Rudd

Principal Researcher within the Education Research Centre

Dr. Tim Rudd is a Principal Lecturer within the Education Research Centre. His research interests include: the sociology of education; educational technology; the politics and ideology of educational technology; learner voice and empowerment; alternative educational discourse and practice; and equity and social justice in education. He is currently working on a number of projects including: RIAIPE3, an Inter-University Framework Programme for Equity and Social Cohesion Policies in Higher Education; and Unbox21, a project exploring the potential of computer games in the classroom.

Previously Tim was a Senior Researcher at Futurelab and prior to that he was Head of Evidence and Research at Becta (The British Educational and Communications Technology Agency).

Tim gained a PhD. at Bristol University focussing on 'ICT and the Reproduction of Social Inequalities' and qualified as an 'Innovations Champion' through the Institute of Leadership and Management.

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Professor David Stephens

Professor of International Education

Professor David Stephens is professor of International Education at the Education Research Centre and course leader for the masters in International Education. He also teaches research methodology and comparative and international education.

His current research interests include the role of culture in education and development, evaluation of donor-assisted programmes in the global south, international policy development in education, quality of basic education and reconstruction of education systems, and qualitative research methodology, in particular narrative and biography.

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Dr Keith Turvey

Senior Lecturer Education

Dr Keith Turvey's work integrates research, learning and teaching. His research is located within the themes 'Pedagogy and Curriculum' and 'Narrative, Voice and Identity' and is rooted in the practice of teacher education at all levels. His recent research publications and Routledge monograph, Narrative Ecologies; Teachers as Pedagogical Toolmakers, focus on agent-centred models of research and professional learning with digital technologies.

Together with his own teaching and research, his wider role is to develop and support the building of research capacity, through collegiate mentorship and his editorship of R.Ed (Research in Education), our in-house research journal.

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