Newcastle University

Background

Gail taught in primary schools in the north-east of England then worked as an LEA advisory teacher for two years, before joining the university in September 2003.

Roles and Responsibilities

Degree Programme Director for the MA Education Research.

Gail teaches on the PGCE (M Ed Practitioner Enquiry programme) and also undertakes student research supervision at post-graduate level.

Qualifications

BA (Hons)Education (1st class)
MA in Education

PhD work examines the barriers to, and opportunities for, teacher development.

Research Interests

Teacher education; neoliberalism and its impact on teachers, teaching and children; epistemology; critical realism; education and social reconstruction.

Research Roles

Gail is a member of RIPE, an educational research centre based in ECLS. The centre's work examines the relationship between education and society.

Postgraduate Supervision

Gail supervises students researching at masters and doctorate level.

Projects

• Recruitment of minority ethnic students to the PGCE at Newcastle University Overview
  Project Leader(s): Heather Smith

• Edwards G. Standpoint Theory, Realism and the Search for Objectivity in the Sociology of Education. British Journal of Sociology of Education 2013, (epub ahead of print).
• Edwards G. Pre-service teachers’ growth as practitioners of developmentally appropriate practice: a Vygotskian analysis of constraints and affordances in the English context. European Journal of Teacher Education 2013, [e-pub ahead of print].
• Edwards G. The Past and Future Inside the Present: Dialectical Thinking and the Transformation of Teaching. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies 2011, 9(2), 43-55.
• Edwards G, Thomas G. Can Reflective Practice be Taught?. Educational Studies 2010, 36(4), 403-414.
• Blake A, Edwards G. Creativity in History and the Humanities. In: Newton L.D, ed. Creativity for a New Curriculum : 5-11. London: Routledge, 2012, pp.80-93.
• Blake A, Edwards G. From "Hope & Glory" to "Waterloo Road": mediating discourses of 'crises' surrounding schools and schooling in British television drama, 1999-2011. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 2013, 34(3), e-pub ahead of print.
• Blake A, Edwards G, Newton DP, Newton LD. Some Students' Conceptions of Creativity in Primary School History. International Journal of Historical Learning Teaching and Research 2010, 9(2), 15-24.
• Edwards G. [Book review] Thomas, G. 'Education and theory: strangers in paradigms' (Maidenhead, Open University Press, 2007). British Educational Research Journal 2007, 33(5), 808-810.
• Edwards G, Blake A. Disciplining the practice of creative inquiry: The suppression of difference in teacher education. International Journal of Research and Method in Education 2007, 30(1), 33-55.
• Higgins S, Wall K, Baumfield V, Hall E, Leat D, Woolner P, Clark J, Edwards G, Falzon C, Jones H, Lofthouse R, Miller J, Moseley D, McCaughey C, Mroz M. Learning to Learn in Schools Phase 3 Evaluation: Year Two Report. London: Campaign for Learning, 2006.
• Hall E, Leat D, Wall K, Higgins S, Edwards G. Learning to Learn: Teacher Research in the Zone of Proximal Development. Teacher Development 2006, 10(2), 149-166.
• Higgins S, Wall K, Falzon C, Hall E, Leat D, Baumfield V, Clark J, Edwards G, Jones H, Lofthouse R, Moseley D, Miller J, Murtagh L, Smith F, Smith H, Woolner P. Learning to Learn in Schools Phase 3 Evaluation Year One Final Report. London: Campaign for Learning, 2005.
• Edwards G. Researching Thinking Skills Strategies in a Primary School: challenging technical-rationalist orthodoxies of learning?. Educational Action Research 2005, 13(2), 213-235.
• Baumfield VM, Butterworth M, Edwards G. The impact of the implementation of thinking skills programmes and approaches on teachers. University of London, UK: Research Evidence in Education Library: : EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, 2005.