Who are we?

Note: If you wish to contact the team please email: rehumanising-teaching-project@bristol.ac.uk.

Dr Janet Orchard – project lead

Dr Janet Orchard is the Director of Post-Graduate Research at the School of Education, University of Bristol. Her research brings philosophical reflection to bear on teacher education, raising questions around the nature of teachers’ professional knowledge and how this is best developed.

A particular interest is the contribution of both theory and research findings to judgements in the classroom, explored in relation to three contrasting cultural contexts: England, Hong Kong and the Western Cape.

Her most recent focus has been the challenge of ‘rehumanising’ teacher education, with a view to extending opportunities for ethical reflection given their relative absence from current provision.

With colleagues she has promoted alternative provision through a series of related interventions, including Shared Space, Going Global and P4T or ‘Philosophy for Teachers’.

Dr Janet Orchard

Ayoola Abimbola

Ayoola has an MSc in Education (Leadership and Policy) from the University of Bristol and is a former secondary school teacher in Nigeria. Her research interests include teacher education and professional development, educational policy, and the impact on student learning outcomes.

Ayoola is currently working with Dr Lucy Kelly as a research assistant on the Reimagining the Diary
project.

Ayoola Abimbola

Nidia Aviles Nunez

Nidia is on her final year of an Education PhD, a former primary teacher in her country, Dominican Republic, who is currently working as an associate lecturer at Bath Spa University.

She is interested in research centred around teachers, particularly, the influence of international and national policies on teachers’ profession and their wellbeing.

Currently, Nidia has been working alongside Dr Janet Orchard and Jez Butler in the creation of the Re-Humanising Teacher Education website

Nidia Aviles Nunez

Victoria Bowen

Victoria is a PhD researcher in education at the University of Bristol. Prior to this Victoria was deputy and then headteacher of a diverse urban primary school in Bristol. In 2018 she left that role to undertake her MSc in Leadership and Policy, where she soon became interested in the impact of education policy at a local level.

Her current study utilises a multi-case study approach to understand the situated realities and contextual factors that influence the enactment of COVID-19 policy in English secondary schools.

Victoria is working alongside Dr Janet Orchard as a research assistant on the developing RE teachers’ powerful subject knowledge project.

Victoria Bowen

Prof Nuraan Davids

Nuraan Davids is Professor of Philosophy of Education in the Department of Education Policy Studies in the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University. Her research interests include democratic citizenship education; Islamic philosophy of education; and philosophy of higher education.

She is a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (2020 -2021). She is a Co-Editor of the Routledge series, World Issues in the Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education.

Nuraan is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Education in Muslim Societies, Associate Editor of the South African Journal of Higher Education, and an Editorial Board Member of Ethics and Education.

Professor Nuraan Davids

Dr Ruth Heilbronn

Ruth Heilbronn lectures and researches at the UCL Institute of Education (IoE), specialising in teacher education, linguistics and philosophy of education. She taught in London schools for many years and has held LEA advisory posts before joining the IoE where she led the MFL PGCE.

She has published texts in the areas of the epistemology of practice, mentoring, practical judgement and ethical teacher education. John Dewey has figured largely in her work, as an editor of several collections and organiser of conferences.

Ruth is an executive member of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB).

Dr Ruth Heilbronn

Prof Liz Jackson

Liz Jackson is Professor of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. She is also the former Director of the Comparative Education Research Centre and Past President of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia.

Her recent books include:

  • Contesting Education and Identity in Hong Kong (2021)
  • Beyond Virtue: The Politics of Educating Emotions (2020)
  • Educational Assessment in Tanzania: A Sociocultural Perspective (2020)
  • Questioning Allegiance: Resituating Civic Education (2019)
Prof Liz Jackson

Dr Lucy Kelly

Dr Lucy Kelly is a Senior Lecturer in Education (PGCE English) at the University of Bristol. Her main research interest is around teacher wellbeing, and how diary-keeping can be used as a positive tool to promote it.

She is PI for the Reimagining the Diary’(2018) project and is currently writing a book on diary-keeping and teacher wellbeing, which will be published by John Catt next year.

Lucy can be found on Twitter at @drlucykelly.

Dr Lucy Kelly

Dr Suzannie Leung

Dr Suzannie Leung is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

She has an interdisciplinary background in visual arts, psychology, and early childhood education. She is a registered kindergarten teacher and a qualified kindergarten principal.

Her academic works explore multidisciplinary and integrative approaches in Hong Kong education settings, and her works have been published in several overseas academic journals.

Dr Suzannie Leung

Jo Malone

Jo is passionate about the transformative power of education. Following 15 years in the classroom as a secondary teacher, AST, curriculum and pastoral leader, Jo worked as Senior Education Adviser and Senior Project Manager at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.There she had a lot of fun designing educational programmes, developing curriculum, training thousands of teachers and dialogue facilitators across the globe.

She was privileged to build and develop networks of stakeholders including educators, educational leaders and government officials across 60 plus countries. Jo’s work was fundamental to the innovation, scaling and embedding of the pioneering education programme, Generation Global.

Jo now has two roles. She is the Education Director for Persona Education supporting curriculum, instructional design, pedagogy and onboarding for their life skills e-learning platform as well as a member of the Executive Team for the Foundation for Education Development, a Not-for-Profit dedicated to promoting a long-term vision for education in England.

She has co-founded a women consultants and advisers in education group (WECAN); she advises and supports a movement for democratic education globally; and she is a primary school governor.

Jo loves the company of teenagers (especially good news considering she lives with a couple of them) and feels that teachers are her natural tribe.

Jo Malone

Sally Wan

Sally Wai-Yan Wan, EdD, is a Professional Consultant at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Her research interests include teacher education and development, curriculum and pedagogical design, and educational leadership.

Recent publications have explored teacher leadership, teaching beliefs, and pedagogical practices of differentiated instruction. They appear in:

  • Educational Management Administration & Leadership
  • Journal of Education for TeachingT
  • eachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice
Sally Wan

Carrie Winstanley

Carrie Winstanley has taught in schools and higher education for thirty years. She is currently Professor of Pedagogy at Roehampton University, London, with a particular responsibility for learning and teaching, working on a range of student programme (undergraduate, Masters, Doctoral) and with faculty

Carrie is particularly committed to encouraging all learners to embrace museum and gallery visits and outdoor activities as an essential aspect of their education, and she is interested in informal as well as formal learning.

She is fascinated by ideas around challenge in education, with an emphasis on broadening inclusion and diversity in all phases of education, with reference to social justice.

Carrie Winstanley

Jez Butler

Jez is a freelance web designer and musician.  Between 1988 and 2011 he was employed at the University of Bristol as a web trainer and consultant, teaching HTML and CSS to staff and students.

Since 2020, he has worked with the University’s School of Education, supporting Blackboard and a variety of content management systems.

Working alongside Dr Janet Orchard and Nidia Aviles Nunez, he has been responsible for the creation of the Re-Humanising Teacher Education website.

Jez Butler