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Dr Judy Durrant

Chair of Faculty Ethics Committee. Postgraduate supervisor & EdD module leader

Chair of Faculty Ethics Committee. Postgraduate supervisor & EdD module leader interested in professional identity, agency & development and organisational change in education.

I supervise master’s dissertation students and have many years of experience as a doctoral supervisor, chair and examiner on a variety of themes within education, with particular interest in teacher identity and agency, professional development and organisational change in UK and international contexts. My main areas of methodological expertise are qualitative and creative approaches, narrative studies and action research.

As Chair of the Faculty Ethics Committee I convene review of ethics applications for research students and staff and provide bespoke guidance and training on research ethics, including for taught courses within the Faculty and for Graduate College researcher and supervisor development programmes. Drawing on many years’ experience of course leadership and curriculum development, I am a regular contributor to the university’s internal quality processes for course development and review.

Having led a variety of consultancy projects and evaluations focusing on teacher-led development, action research, school improvement and professional learning over more than two decades, my most recent project supports teacher-led action research with Kent Music (2022-3).

With a background in secondary geography teaching and subject leadership (PGCE 1985), I joined CCCU as an associate tutor and researcher on a school-based Master’s programme in School Development. Appointed as course leader in 2003, I extended its reach across Kent and Medway, Surrey, Sussex, Essex and London, running twilight school-based MA groups and network events. Alongside this, I led partnership projects taking advantage of government funding for teacher research, professional development and school improvement.  I have extensive experience in teaching and module and course in education across a wide variety of postgraduate courses. I emphasise inclusive, creative and dialogic approaches to pedagogy which enhance the development of professional practitioners’ agency and voice. Previously I was Head of Postgraduate Programmes for the Faculty of Education and most of my teaching is currently at doctoral level. I am an experienced postgraduate external examiner including PhD and EdD. With long experience of course development, evaluation and validation I am regularly involved with university quality processes. I lead research ethics training for the Faculty and the Graduate College, for both students and supervisors. For more than 25 years I have contributed to our postgraduate community with particular emphasis on encouraging students to present and publish. International dimensions have included an Erasmus programme ‘Leading Inclusive Education in Europe’ with universities in Spain, Ireland, Norway, Poland and Turkey and involvement in an International Teacher Leadership Project led by University of Cambridge.  I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA, 2019). My research has always been integrated with my professional practice, which gave rise to my MA (1997) and PhD (2013) studies; these in turn have fed back into my practice.   

My research interests focus on teacher professional development, identity and agency, action research, organisational improvement and education leadership.

My doctoral study explored ‘Portraits of teachers in landscapes of change’ using a qualitative methodology involving portraiture which led to the publication of ‘Teacher Agency, professional Development and School Improvement' (Routledge, 2020). I have since researched, with my own doctoral students, the ways in which postgraduate pedagogy can enhance professional agency and identity through creative, inclusive and dialogic approaches. With a geographical subject background I am concerned about sustainability, particularly in relation to how agentic approaches can enable individual and collective action for organisational and systemic change, towards human as well as environmental wellbeing.

I am currently involved in collaborative research convened by UCET (Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers) investigating the contribution of Teacher Education in Higher Education. I am a founder member of the ‘Action for Collaborative Transformation’ (ACT) research and development group supporting research-based development of interprofessional working for children’s learning and wellbeing, most recently piloting safeguarding simulations in the university’s ‘Hydra’ suite for use in professional programmes. I co-lead one of the CCCU Jubilee Projects, ‘The Canterbury Teacher’, gathering life histories of alumni over the 7 decades of teacher education at Canterbury Christ Church and using a ‘Q-methodology’ card-sorting exercise to identify Canterbury teachers’ shared values and priorities.

Research Projects

  • ‘An investigation to explore how gentle teaching can be embedded and sustained in a school culture.’. Researcher(s): Mr Paul Gorham. Supervisor(s): Dr Sarah Christie, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • 'Listening to their adult voices: two narratives of lived experience beyond the formal provision for Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) in England'.. Researcher(s): Mrs Bernadette Gregory. Supervisor(s): Dr Judy Durrant, Dr Sue Soan. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • A pragmatic exploration of the effects of counterfactual reasoning tasks on students’ creativity, critical thinking, motivation and resilience.. Researcher(s): Mr Matthew Blanchard. Supervisor(s): Dr Laurent Dessberg, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • Affective influences on teacher retention: Self-efficacy, confidence and attribution of the locus of control. Researcher(s): Mrs Penny Webb. Supervisor(s): Dr Ian Durrant, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • An exploration of agency in the stories of dual qualified cross-phase teachers (14-19) at a time of curriculum reform. Researcher(s): Dr ALISON COGGER. Supervisor(s): Dr Judy Durrant, Dr Christian Beighton. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • An exploration of autistic adolescent female’s educational experiences within mainstream secondary school. Researcher(s): Miss ESTHER WHITNEY. Supervisor(s): Dr Alison Ekins, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • An Exploration of The Conceptualisations of Coaching Skills by Newly Qualified Lecturers from BTEC Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training. Researcher(s): Rev OLUWAFEMI ESAN. Supervisor(s): Dr Judy Durrant, Dr Ruth Rogers. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Doctoral Research Project. Researcher(s): Dr Stefan Alexa. Supervisor(s): Professor Linden West, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Doctoral Research Project. Researcher(s): Dr Graham Cable. Supervisor(s): Dr Judy Durrant, Professor Lynn Revell. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Doctoral Research Project. Researcher(s): Mrs Julie Speers. Supervisor(s): Dr Sue Soan, Dr Judy Durrant, Dr Alan Bainbridge. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Doctoral Research Project. Researcher(s): Dr Emma Ozenbrook. Supervisor(s): Dr Rebecca Austin, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Doctoral Research Project. Researcher(s): Mrs SUSAN WADE. Supervisor(s): Dr John-Paul Riordan, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • Doctoral Research Project. Researcher(s): Miss Suzanne Sedeno. Supervisor(s): Dr Gemma Van Vuuren-Cassar, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Exploring the narratives of Black Female Leaders in Education. Researcher(s): Mrs Sarah Giokabari. Supervisor(s): Dr Anne Chant, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • Exploring the Professional Identity of Teachers in relation to their Capability: A Qualitative Case Study of Basic School Teachers in Two Rural Districts of Northern Ghana. Researcher(s): Dr Abogzuah Ayinselya. Supervisor(s): Dr Judy Durrant, Dr Viv Wilson, Professor Trevor Cooling. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • How can therapy dogs be used to improve pupil welfare and academic progress?. Researcher(s): Miss Abby Turner. Supervisor(s): Dr Tracey Wornast, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Interpreting PE Teachers’ Personal Theories of Learning using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA): A case study in a non-selective school in the South East of England.. Researcher(s): Mr Christopher Carpenter. Supervisor(s): Professor Lynn Revell, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Nurses views on personal and professional development. Researcher(s): Ms Nicole Pollock. Supervisor(s): Dr Ian Durrant, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • Out-of-Field Teachers Knowing, Learning and Doing Mathematics. Researcher(s): Mrs Fiona Yardley. Supervisor(s): Dr Gina Donaldson, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • Perspectives on Collaborative Learning: A case study of teachers and students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) within an Algerian higher education institution... Researcher(s): Mrs Amel Boughari. Supervisor(s): Dr Liz Hryniewicz, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Priests and teachers ‘Doing Theology’: Exploring insights from paired reflection to develop leadership priorities for vision and ethos in two Church of England primary schools.. Researcher(s): Dr Quentin Roper. Supervisor(s): Dr Judy Durrant, Professor Trevor Cooling. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Revisiting my private and professional lived experiences by phenomenologically dwelling in children's fiction. Researcher(s): Mrs Katy Hazelgrove. Supervisor(s): Dr Marianna Papadopoulou, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • TALKING ABOUT TEACHING: UNMASKING PEDACTIVIST PEDAGOGY IN UNIVERSITY-BASED ENGLISH EARLY CHILDHOOD INITIAL TEACHER EDUCATORS’ NARRATIVES. Researcher(s): Dr KAREN JULIE VINCENT. Supervisor(s): Dr Kate Smith, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Teachers’ Perceptions and Attitudes about Implementing the Competency-Based Approach to Teach English in Algerian Secondary Schools. Researcher(s): Dr IKRAM DERRAHI. Supervisor(s): Dr Judy Durrant, Professor Adrian Holliday. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • The complexity of multiple identities from cultural perspectives. Researcher(s): Mrs OLUBUKOLA AKILAPA. Supervisor(s): Dr Anne Chant, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • Threatened Academic Professional Identities: Gender Dynamics, Workplace Conditions and 'Unconscious Complicity'. Researcher(s): Miss Fatima Zohra Boukeffa. Supervisor(s): Professor Adrian Holliday, Dr Judy Durrant. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]

Member of British Educational Research Association and International Professional Development Association. I have presented regularly at the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) over the last twenty years.

Reviewer for international journals Professional Development in Education and Improving Schools.
Represented Canterbury Christ Church University on UCET CPD (Universities’ Council for the Education for Teachers Continuing Professional Development) Committee (2014-202); member of UCET-convened collaborative research group.

Member of research ethics panel for What Works for Early Intervention and Children’s Social Care, a charity providing early intervention and targeted support for those at risk of poor outcomes, children supported by social care and care leavers.

Member of steering group for HertsCam legacy project gathering evidence on teacher-led development in UK and international contexts. 

 

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Contact me

judy.durrant@canterbury.ac.uk
01227923640

Based in

Faculty of Arts Humanities and Education
School of Humanities and Educational Studies