From 2018-2022 Iram was convener of the Child Development and Learning (CDL) Group and the co-ordinator for the Language, Cognition and Development (LCD) Theme in the department.
Before joining the department on the 1st June 2018 Iram held positions at the University of Warwick, University College London and the University of Wollongong. She is currently an ajunct professor at the University of Stavanger and a visiting professor at the universities of Wollongong and UCL. She has held visiting professorships in other universities in Ireland, England, Wales, Australia, China, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
Iram has an international reputation for her longitudinal research and policy expertise. She has co-directed a number of influential studies, including the Effective Provision of Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE, DfE, 1997-2014) study, the transformative Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY, DfE, 2002) study, and the associated Effective Leadership in the Early Years Sector (ELEYS) Study. She has also studied Effective Early Educational Experiences in Australia (E4Kids, Australian Research Council and Victoria and Queensland Governments. 2009-2015).
Her current studies include cluster randomised controlled trials of interventions looking at the impact of evidence-based professional development in 90 centres in New South Wales Fostering Effective Early Learning; Researching Effective Environments for Learning in 70 centres in Victoria; and Using Research tools to Promote Language in the Early Years in 120 schools in England.
Iram conducted reviews of the Welsh Foundation Phase (2014) and of the Scottish early years workforce (2015). She led two C4EO reviews of what families and integrated working contribute to child outcomes for under-fives. Amongst her many published works she has authored award-winning books including: Social Class and Educational Inequality the Role of Parents and Schools (2015) and Effective and Caring Leadership in the Early Years (2014). She has over 250 publications including three widely-used rating scales which measure the quality of environments and pedagogy in ECEC and promote child outcomes in the cognitive (ECERS-E 4th Ed. 2010), social-emotional (SSTEW, 2015) and physical (MOVERS, 2017) domains.
Iram’s policy work has included being on the Ministerial Advisory Group for the Welsh Government (2006-2016) advising four consecutive ministers; on the Victorian Government Early Education Advisory Group; the South Australian Education Advisory Board; the Nuffield Council for Bio-ethics and acting as specialist advisor to the House of Commons Select Committee inquiry on Children’s Centres. She has provided advice to UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, OECD, Bernard van Leer and Aga Khan Foundations and given one-off support to governments in many other regions including Chile, Federal Government of Australia, New Zealand and Portugal.
She is on a number of editorial boards including the American Educational Research Journal. Iram was awarded an OBE for her services to ECEC in 2015.
