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Research Director: Education and Enquiry
Institute of Education and Humanities
Tel: 01792 482 091
Email: elaine.sharpling@uwtsd.ac.uk
Role in the University
As a teacher educator, my work involves supporting student-teachers and qualified teachers in developing their skills of research and enquiry. This involves working with schools on small-scale research projects, contributing to national and international work around teacher education, and equipping the next generation of teachers to be research-engaged.
Background
After a career in nursing, I hopped across to university to undertake a joint honours in Education and English with Qualified Teacher Status. On qualifying, I taught in the primary sector and was soon invited to join the team at Birmingham University where I taught literacy on the PGCE programme.
A move to school-centred Initial Teacher Education, brought me in closer contact with teachers and headteachers and highlighted the need to empower practitioners with the skills of research so that they could ‘own’ their classrooms, schools and communities.
In 2006, our family moved to Wales and I secured a post in teacher education which included both the under-graduate and post-graduate programmes. In 2018, as the Director of Initial Teacher Education, I led the team through an accreditation process where the bringing together of theory and practice was front and centre of the new ITE programmes. This process demanded working very closely with schools and was a pivotal moment in my understanding of how practice, research and policy could come together for the benefit of all.
My doctoral studies continue and have allowed me to develop my identity and confidence as a teacher educator. In particular, I have learnt that trying to connect research, practice and policy gives me an appetite to keep learning. More than that, I have learnt to invite different voices to my ‘learning table’ as I have experienced the benefits of collaborating with colleagues . So much so, that my starting point on any new venture is to consider who needs to be round the table, and whose voice might be missing!
Member Of
I am the Academic Director of Teacher Education in the Athrofa, UWTSD and lead a high-quality team in delivering a new suite of Initial Teacher Education (ITE). Following a career change from nursing, I trained as a primary teacher before moving into the Higher Education sector at the University of Birmingham. After successfully teaching on the PGCE, I moved into an assistant director role with a school-based provider who particularly wanted to address the under-recruitment of teachers in the inner city. It was in this role that I developed a comprehensive understanding of the need to work in collaborative partnerships to bring about lasting change.
A move to Wales bought opportunities with UWTSD and I was appointed as Director in 2017. I am now responsible for a portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes of ITE and the PCET programme.
Academic Interests
Recently, I have worked with colleagues on the CAMAU project, a collaborative research project between UWTSD, the University of Glasgow and Welsh Government. One of the project’s aims was to support curriculum development advocated in Successful Futures and I worked with the Language, Literacy and Communication group of pioneer schools. Seeing the work come to fruition in February 2020 was an important achievement and CAMAU has now moved to its publication phase.
An evolving interest is the impact of policy on teacher education and the place of the university teacher educator. This led to her participation in the UCET Intellectual Knowledge Base for Teacher Education group and a contribution to the recently published position paper outlining the principles of university-based teacher education.
I have taught across the range of modules on the under-graduate and post-graduate programmes and have a particular interest in teaching language and literacy.
Over the past 3 years, I have also supervised a number of Masters students at dissertation stage and have particularly enjoyed the diversity that this work offers.
Research Interests
My research interest is in language development, linguistics and measuring quality in ITE programmes. In 2019, I co-presented a keynote at the UCET National conference on educational reform in Wales, had an article accepted for the Welsh Journal of Education and was due to present at the TEAN conference in May. I have also published blogs on the Athrofa website.
Expertise
My expertise lies in teacher education and supporting teachers to become active participants in designing meaningful research in their own classrooms and schools.
This also involves developing the skills of research in student-teachers so that they are well-prepared to take enquiry forward in their classrooms.
Enterprise, Commercial and Consultancy Activities
I have supported various externally funded projects beyond the Camau project listed previously. For example:
- National Professional Enquiry Project (NPEP) – supporting upwards of twenty schools with classroom-based enquiry.
- Middle-leaders programmes – supporting accredited programmes in secondary schools
- Consortia led programmes – research projects funded by regional school improvement.
Publications
Hayward, L. et al. (2020) So far so good: Building the Evidence-base to promote a Successful Future for the Curriculum for Wales. University of Glasgow
Waters, J. & Sharpling, E. (2020) Changing the Lens: mapping the development of research dispositions in programmes of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Wales Journal for Education 22 (1)
Resources
Camau Team: Assessing for the Future Workshops available here: CAMAU Assessing for the future Workshop 1 progression and assessment (gov.wales)
Conference Presentations
ITERC: Critique of positive and negative universality in determining effective practice. Accepted for TEAN 2023, ATEA 2023, ECER 2023