Judith Hillier has been at the University of Oxford Department of Education since 2007, where she leads the science PGCE programme, teaches on the Masters in Learning and Teaching and the Masters in Teacher Education, and also runs the Teaching Physics in Schools option for 2nd year physics undergraduates.
She is Fellow and Vice-President of Kellogg College, Oxford. Prior to that, after completing a degree in Physics at the University of St Andrews and her PhD in condensed matter physics from the University of Leeds and the Institut Laue Langevin, Grenoble, Judith studied on the Oxford PGCE programme and taught for several years in an Oxfordshire comprehensive school, becoming Key Stage 3 Co-ordinator. Judith’s research interests lie in the education of science teachers, the recruitment and retention of physics teachers, the role of language in the development of scientific explanations in the classroom, and gender and diversity in STEM education. She is on the Editorial Boards for Research in Science and Technological Education and for Physics Education, and has conducted the evaluations for the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics for the Institute of Physics for the last 7 years. She has mentored at the 2020 and 2021 European Science Education Research Association Doctoral Summer Schools, and was part of the local organising committee in 2020.
Jason currently works on the History PGCE programme and the MSc Teaching and Learning course.
He obtained his first degree in Cultural Studies from University of East London, followed by a MA in History Education from the Institute of Education. He completed a PGCE in Social Studies at Goldsmiths in 1992. He has worked in a variety of London Schools, including middle management and senior management roles. In 1999 he was awarded AST status with specialism in History Education and Inclusion, he combined this role with part time teaching at Kingston University. He joined the Department of Education in 2010 as a Teacher Education Research Fellow (TERF).
Ian Thompson is an Associate Professor of English Education at the Department of Education and Director of the PGCE course. He is joint convenor of the Oxford Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research (OSAT) and a Fellow of St. Hugh’s College. He is also a member of the university’s English Faculty. Ian is currently co-PI on the £2.55 million ESRC funded project Excluded Lives: the Political Economies of School Exclusion and their Consequences.
After completing English Literature degrees at the Universities of Leicester and Victoria (Canada) Ian worked as a journalist, lecturer and theatre director. He then taught English for sixteen years in comprehensive secondary schools. Ian studied part time at the University of Bristol and completed his PhD in Education in 2010.
Ian was appointed to his post at the University of Oxford in 2011 where he teaches on the PGCE English course and on the MSc in Learning and Teaching. Ian also supervises several DPhil students. Ian has been PI and co-investigator on several mixed methods and qualitative research projects. These projects include: Collaboration for Teaching and Learning; The Effectiveness of Arts Based Approaches in Engaging with Disaffected Young People; and Disparities in School Exclusion across the UK. He was a core member of the recent BERA Commission for Poverty and Policy Advocacy. In his current research, Ian focuses on English pedagogy, school exclusion, initial teacher education, learning, and social justice in education from a Vygotskian and cultural historical theoretical perspective.
He publishes widely in the fields of cultural historical research, social justice in education, English education, and initial teacher education. Ian is currently Vice-President of the International Society for Cultural-Historical Activity Research.
Gary is Departmental Lecturer in English Education. He is a Curriculum Tutor and General Tutor for the PGCE course and supervises students for the MSc in Learning and Teaching.
He was Head of English at Impington Village College, Cambridge before undertaking doctoral research and gaining a PhD at the Institute of Education in London. Before taking up a full-time lectureship at OUDE, he continued to teach A Level and IB English part-time, whilst working in a variety of other roles – as the editor of Teaching English (the magazine of the National Association for the Teaching of English); as a Curriculum Tutor at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; as a provider of teacher INSET for A Level and IB English Literature; and as a curriculum developer and consultant for the International Baccalaureate Organisation and other exam boards.
His doctoral research investigated conceptions of English as a discipline, focusing on students’ and lecturers’ attitudes to the subject, and their approaches to teaching and learning, at A Level and in HE. He continues to be interested in the history and theory of English as a discipline, and the ways in which tensions resulting from this history manifest themselves in attitudes and approaches of teachers and students in post-16 classrooms in schools and universities. He has a particular interest in the teaching of poetry, and of English in the sixth form.
Nigel is Associate Professor of Education and Values. His research encompasses belief and values-based questions across education and research, including:
- Religions, beliefs and secularities
- Laws human rights and courts
- Education and professional ethics
- Educational research ethics
He teaches across several courses, particularly on beliefs & values, philosophies of education and research, and qualitative and mixed methodologies.
Current professional associations: Association of University Lecturers in Religion and Education; British Education Research Association; European Association of Research in Learning and Instruction; International Seminar for Religious Education and Values; Philosophy of Education (Great Britain) Society.
He is on the editorial board of Religionspädagogik in pluraler Gesellschaft, and regularly reviews for: British Journal of Religious Education, Journal of Beliefs and Values, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Oxford Review of Education, Religion, and Teachers and Teacher Education.
Advisory & consultancy: Nigel has been external advisor on research projects across Europe. He welcomes consultancy work with schools, educational organisations and governments, and has carried out projects around the world, notably in Bhutan, India and Lebanon.
Jenni Ingram is Professor of Mathematics Education at the Department and Fellow of Linacre College.
Jenni is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and the Royal Statistical Society. She is a member of the Mathematics Expert Group for the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and is Chair of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (ERME) Language and Mathematics working group.
Her research focuses on mathematics education with a particular interest in classroom interaction and language, and mathematics assessment both internationally and within classrooms. Her current research projects focus on language- responsive mathematics teaching in secondary schools including an intervention study in classrooms in England and an international study of mathematics teacher expertise in teaching linguistically disadvantaged students in seven countries. Jenni is also the research lead for PISA 2022 in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Jenni is Editor for the international journal Research in Mathematics Education and is also on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Mathematical Behaviour and the Journal for Mathematics Teacher Education.
Funded Research Projects:
PISA National Centre for England (Department for Education)
Developing Language-Responsive Mathematics Classrooms (Nuffield Foundation)
Global Teaching InSights TALIS Video Study (Department for Education)
Trevor Mutton is an Associate Professor at the Department of Education. He is Director of Professional Programmes and also Director of the Oxford Education Deanery.
Trevor teaches on the Modern Languages PGCE programme and also teaches and supervises on the part-time MSc in Learning and Teaching, and the MSc Teacher Education, as well as supervising doctoral students whose research focuses on aspects of teacher education and teachers’ professional learning. He has worked at the Department of Education since 1997, having previously been Head of Modern Languages at one of the Department’s partnership schools. His principal research interests are in the fields of initial teacher education, teacher education policy and teachers’ continued professional learning.
Nicole is the subject lead for the PGCE in English. She is a supervisor of students on the MSc in Learning and Teaching, MSc in Medical Education and the doctoral programme.
Nicole has been working in secondary comprehensive education both in the UK and Australia since 2001. She was a Teacher of English in both countries and was a mentor for PGCE interns in one of our partner schools before joining the Department in 2011. Her doctoral research focused on the interaction of identities of English departments and English teachers in secondary schools.
Nicole is interested in the identities of English teachers, the English curriculum and the schooling of children in care in schools.
Nicole is currently working on a project to compare the nature of instructed second/foreign language learning at secondary schools in England, Norway and France.
Nicole welcomes doctoral applications from students interested in the following research areas:
- Curriculum and pedagogy in secondary English
- Drama in education
- Education in medical contexts
Katharine is an Associate Professor of Education and coordinator of the Oxford Education Deanery: a multi-strand partnership with schools, focused on the development of teachers’ research engagement through initial teacher education, early career professional learning and collaborative university/school research projects.
She teaches on the PGCE History programme and on the MSc in Learning and Teaching as well as supervising Master’s and doctoral students in the fields of history education and teacher education (both policy and practice) at all career stages.
Katharine taught history for ten years in state secondary schools in Oxford and retains a strong commitment to history education as Deputy President of the Historical Association and as co-editor of its professional journal, Teaching History. She is also a Fellow of the Schools History Project. For the last ten years she has been responsible (with Rebecca Harris, of Reading University) for an annual survey of history teaching in England, conducted on behalf of the Historical Association. She is particularly passionate about ensuring history for all young people and about supporting teachers’ continued engagement with historical scholarship and is currently exploring how the’ knowledge exchange and impact agenda’ is being harnessed to support sustained subject-rich CPD for teachers.
Katharine became interested in teachers’ professional learning through adopting an action research approach to the development of mentoring strategies in the early years of the Oxford Internship programme and her doctoral research later examined the Internship principle of learning to teach as ‘process of hypothesis-testing’. She was Research Officer for a 3-year longitudinal study of beginning teachers’ learning and has since been involved in a range of projects looking at different aspects of teacher education policy and practice, including comparative studies. She contributed to the BERA-RSA Inquiry into the Role of Research in Teacher Education and represented BERA at presentations of the final report in the US and Australia.
Her current role coordinating the work of the Oxford Education Deanery has inspired new interests in teachers’ use of research and she is working collaboratively with local teachers on a participatory study of the role of Research Champions in schools.
External Appointments
Deputy President of the Historical Association since June 2018