Department statement regarding the engagement of teaching specialists

School of Education

In addition to our academic staff, all of whom are engaged in teaching on our programmes, the School of Education benefits from a number of teaching specialists who contribute to our work with students. These colleagues are typically those who are experts in their professional field, and many of them continue to practise outside their teaching commitments in the University, or are on secondment to the School of Education.

Teaching specialists include those with considerable experience in teaching or educational psychology. In a School with such a wealth of professionally oriented programmes, it is vital that we complement the teaching by academic members of staff with those whose experience in the field is recent and who have themselves worked, or continue to work, within the current policy context. For some of our programmes, it is indeed a requirement that those involved in teaching are themselves still employed in their professional area.

We believe that the engagement of teaching specialists enables our students to achieve success in their courses, by reinforcing the relevance of their studies to their current or future professional lives and deepening their understanding of professional practice. These insights also enhance their employability and satisfaction.
Many of our teaching specialists are also engaged in research projects, which of course inform their teaching. We view teaching and research as two sides of the same coin, and consequently all of our teaching can be described as research-led. Our teaching specialists thus act as important role models to our students, who are able to experience from them ways of synergising professional activity and research. Similarly, the engagement of some of our doctoral students as Graduate Teaching Assistants enables our students to benefit from a diverse range of professional and research experience.