Velda Elliott is Associate Professor of English and Literacy Education. She is a curriculum tutor for the English PGCE and MSc in Learning and Teaching.
She is also Director of Doctoral Research, in which role she leads doctoral training in the department. She is co-convenor of the Qualitative Methods Hub.
Velda was an English teacher in state schools in Yorkshire before undertaking doctoral research in OUCEA, gaining her doctorate in 2011. She has previously led the PGCE in English with Drama at the University of Warwick and been a Lecturer in English in Education at the University of York.
Velda researches in the fields of English in Education and Educational Assessment. Within the field of English, her work considers both what it means to be ‘good’ at English and what English, media and drama education are ‘good for’. Some of her work considers the ways in which English education relates to political priorities and desires. She is particularly interested in what knowledge looks like in the subject of English.
She contributes regularly to professional publications such as NATE’s Teaching English magazine. Velda also researches at the intersection of English literature and education, looking in particular at Shakespeare and ways in which his work is refigured in educational contexts. She works on the ways in which literary criticism is available to and used by teachers and students in secondary schools; she created the Twitter hashtag #LitCritForTeachers and regularly blogs about research articles on A level texts, making critical material available to schools who do not have access to academic journals. In assessment Velda is particularly interested in the way in which markers, especially examiners, make decisions, and the values and identities they espouse in doing so. She led the EEF review of the literature on written marking A Marked Improvement?
Velda was awarded the National Association for the Teaching of English Research Award in 2017 for her contribution to the field of English in Education.