About me

I have been working in higher education for the past decade or so. Having reached the Head of Discipline position after two internal promotions has enabled me to gradually obtain a fuller picture of the inner workings of a typical university preparatory course starting from a teacher's perspective. More broadly, having spent most of my working life as an expatriate in various countries has exposed me to a diverse experience of work cultures.

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In terms of academic management, I have attained considerable experience in the day-to-day management of a large team of EAP teaching fellows. These duties range from the negotiation of curriculum updates right through to the mediation of disciplinary hearings and liaising with external accrediting bodies. Notable examples include course changes made to pivot towards and away from online teaching during the Covid19 pandemic, as well as recently playing a central role in the programme's accreditation by the BALEAP organisation.

 

With regard to teaching, I have maintained a regular teaching load, albeit reduced at certain times of the year to accommodate my core management responsibilities. Most of my classroom experience lies in the context of tertiary education bridging programmes. While this places specialist academic courses, such as EAP or ESP, at the forefront of my experience, I also have expertise in delivering a range of professional development courses that target teachers' pedagogical and subject knowledge.

 

Aside from management and teaching, I also dedicate a significant amount of time towards research that complements this work within a higher education context. My scholarly interests therefore encompass areas such as networked learning, faculty professional development and technology-enhanced learning. My publication record includes single-authored articles, such as a professional development-related paper published in the Q1 journal "Education and Information Technologies." However, my publishing experience also extends to collaboration with other academics on papers for which I have been the first author. This includes a conference paper for the "Networked Learning Conference" and a soon-to-be-published Springer series book chapter.

 

In my free time outside of preparatory programmes and higher education research, I enjoy travelling and learning about different cultures. This interest has helped me to develop additional languages to my native English, such as Spanish and Russian. I also hold a passion for sport and exploring the outdoors, most notably cycling and hiking.