Northumbria University

Faculty Member, School of Health, Community and Education Studies

Senior Lecturer

About

I lecture in the Children, Families and Communities academic area and Postgraduate Education Studies area within the school of Health, Community and Education studies at Northumbria University.

Responsibilities programme leadership for an undergraduate programme in a BA (Hons)Applied Parenting and Family Studies programme and an MA programme in Leadership and Management in Integrated Children's Services.

I came to Northumbria from leadership roles in Children’s Services (particularly in Sure Start Children’s Centres) and have a particular interest in a range of organisation and practice issues within children’s services. This includes a particular interest in the dynamics of collaborative practice at different levels and issues around service design, evaluation and leadership.

My academic perspective is broadly sociological, influenced by interactional and systemic approaches such as symbolic interactionism and cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) as well as theories relevant to workplace learning and narrative inquiry.

I am currently studying for a PhD which is a narrative study, with the working title:

“Accounting for professional identity: individuals narratives of self and sense making work in children’s services”

which looks at how individuals in complex children’s services environments perceive and use ‘social objects’ from their environment to reshape and make sense of their professional identity.

Methodologically, I use and am developing visual and collaborative teaching and research methods.

Finally, I am an adoptive father to four children and so has a personal and professional interest in child development and issues relating to looked after children.

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