Biography

Robert taught English and Drama for twelve years in a range of secondary schools in Somerset. He held a number of positions of responsibility including six years as a Head of Department. In 1995 Robert left fulltime teaching to become a Project Officer on the DfEE ICT in English Project managed by the National Council for Educational Technology. Following this, he made the move into Higher Education and lectured at Birmingham University in English in Education for two years.

After completing an MA in the Teaching and Practice of Creative Writing in 1999, Robert taught undergraduate Creative Writing at Cardiff University while continuing to work in teacher education as an associate lecturer with the Open University for whom he was a project director on the innovative Moving Words web site project and English Coordinator on the Learning Schools Programme. During this time he also worked as a Development Officer for LAPIDUS, an Arts Council-funded association for the literary arts in personal development, education and health.

Robert then lectured in English at Edge Hill College of Higher Education before coming to Keele in 2003 as Course Leader for PGCE English. Robert currently teaches on the innovative MA in Critical and Creative Practice in Education and the MA in Creative Writing. He is also Director of an exchange programme with universities in France for trainee teachers.

Research and scholarship

My current research interests are in:

  • Drama in Education, Drama as a Learning Medium, and Oral Storytelling.
  • The Teaching and Practice of Creative Writing, especially poetry and fiction. Process Writing. Creative Writing Pedagogy.
  • Creative Writing and Reflexive Practice (in a variety of contexts including personal, educational and professional)
  • Teaching and Learning with ICT in English, particularly the poetics and pedagogy of hypertext and multimodality in texts.
  • The formation and education of teachers in Europe

Teaching

  • MA in Critical and Creative Practice in Educational Settings
  • MA in Creative Writing
  • MRes in Research Methods (Social Science)
  • BA Educational Studies

Publications

Published 1997

  • IT in English Literature Review, DfEE/NCET
  • 'Navigating Cyberspace : Text, Textuality and the World Wide Web', English in Education, Vol 31, No. 2

Published 1996

  • ReVisioning English, article on future developments in English, English and Media Magazine
  • Co-author of 'IT and English : A Student's Entitlement', DfEE/NCET
  • Report on Innovative Practice, IT in English, DfEE/NCET

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