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Biography

Carol was appointed as a Professor of Children’s Rights at Edge Hill University in October 2019. Prior to this, Carol started her career as a teacher and has taught in secondary schools, pupil referral units and in a college of further education. She completed her PhD at the University of Sussex in 1996 and then took up a post as a Research Fellow within the University of Sussex’s Education Faculty. Carol joined the Education Research Centre within the School of Education at the University of Brighton as a Senior Research Fellow in 2008, became a Principal Research fellow in 2011, an Associate Professor in 2016 and a Professor in 2019.

During her time at the University of Brighton, Carol co-led the cross-university Higher Education Pedagogies and Policy Research and Enterprise Group which brings together colleagues from across the university who have an interest in improving learning and teaching and informing policy and practice in higher education. She chaired the Social Science Cross-school Ethics Committee and was a member of the Concordat Implementation Group and the School of Education’s Research Management Group. She also was a member of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) Unit of Assessment Leadership Group and Output Review panel and mentored colleagues within the School of Education, supporting their academic writing and professional development

Carol’s previous work history:

  • 2016-2019 Postgraduate Researcher Lead for the School of Education, University of Brighton.
  • 2009-2015 Programme leader for the Professional Doctorate in Education at the University of Brighton and from 2010-2915 at the Mauritius Institute of Education.

Research Interests

Carol’s research interests combine theoretical and empirical work focusing on the voices, experiences, rights and empowerment of children and young people. She has led several pupil voice projects in primary, secondary and special schools, helping staff to develop ways of listening to the voices of children and young people. She also led the ‘Pupils’ Voices’ strand of the Cambridge Primary Review of Education in England and was Co-Investigator for the evaluation of UNICEF UK’s Rights Respecting Schools Award. Building on this work, she is currently working with Osaka Kyouiku University and the Japanese Ministry of Education to develop a ‘Safety Promotion School’ award for schools across Japan.

A major focus of Carol’s work has been around developing insights into issues relating to children’s Human Rights Education (HRE). The external recognition of her expertise in this area is evidenced by national and international invitations to present lectures and keynote addresses; examine doctoral theses (to date, 11 UK based and four international doctoral theses in the area of Children’s Rights and voice); join journal editorial boards; and act as peer reviewer for conferences abstracts for the Children’s Rights network of the European Conference on Educational Research. Carol also regularly receives invitations to contribute to discussions around Children’s Rights and voice. For example, in October 2018 she commented on the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission draft strategy for school-based HRE and contributed to an all-party parliamentary group discussion at the House of Commons focusing on a vision for public

(including school-based) Legal and Human Rights Education. Furthermore, in March 2019, following an invitation from the Chairman of the Care of Children in Jersey Review Panel, Carol commented on the Draft Law relating to the powers of the Children’s Commissioner for Jersey.

Carol’s methodological interests focus on constructivist approaches to research, and within this, particularly favours narrative approaches.

Teaching

To date Carol has successfully supervised 9 Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD) and 3 PhD students to completion.

  • Recent supervised PhD and EdD students in the following areas:
  • Experience and perceptions of teachers in primary schools
  • Improving children’s perseverance in mathematical reasoning
  • The acculturation experience of relocated Mauritian migrants
  • Exploring the relationship between dialogic formative assessment in higher education
  • The construction of knowledge in postcolonial societies
  • The influence of a case-based wiki on physiotherapy students’ clinical reasoning
  • Narrative capital and youth practitioner professional identities in the UK
  • Teachers’ pedagogical experiences in the context of Open Educational Practices
  • The impact of educational languae policy on learning experiences in two post colonial small island developing states