My passion for helping move culture on to a socially and environmentally sustainable trajectory has led research and publishing, teaching, curriculum, and campus design, international community development, and academic and public education. Pedagogical transdisiplinarity is a central focus of my teaching, my scholarship, and crucial for my evolving conception of ‘sustainability.’
I am currently a Lecturer in Philosophical and Ecological Education. I work with MSc and PhD students, and also in biology Teacher Education. I am also co-founder and coordinator of the Sustainability in Education Research Group.
I am eager to discuss opportunities to collaborate on research projects relevant to my interests. Please get in touch if you are interested in the work I do and see potential confluences. I am also keen to consider applications for MSc, PhD and Postdoctoral work that genuinely interacts with and seeks synergies with my research interests. If you are considering an application, please have a look at my writing and other work and have a think/feel about whether you thnk we are a good match. You will see I am particularly interested in ‘ecologising education’, the aesthetic and emotional dimensions of participating in ecologies and the ecological crisis, systems thinking, and the role of art, play and contemplative practice in pedagogy. But what these words mean differ amongst those who use them, and I am looking to see intersections, points of contact, and points of stimulation between how I and a prospective student or colleague see the world.
In my Teacher Education work, I aim to facilitate high quality learning that meets Scottish high school science curricular standards, while also acknowledging and honouring the heart in education. Many approaches to curriculum and pedagogy do not honour the life of the student or that of the living world. However, from my experience, new biology teachers enter the profession because they experience a sense of admiration and care, and a desire to nurture life and help it flourish. This disjunct can be confusing to navigate. I strive to work with my students’ passions and cultivate them, looking for ways they can work symbiotically with existing school conditions, rather than either being either detached or suppressed.