Meet your tutors

I worked with youth offending as a social worker. I’ve always been interested in young people whose lives are not standard, who have really different experiences, or who are a bit marginalised. 

My current research is with refugee children and young people, and asylum-seeking children and young people.

I’ve done lots of research with children in the UK who come alone, without their families, to seek asylum. I’ve looked at what happens to them in the care system, when they leave the care system, how they get into their adult lives, and how they develop over time.

When I teach, I like to have a lot of interaction and collaboration. I like to learn from the students and their experiences. I get a real buzz out of walking into a classroom, communicating, and seeing how it all plays out. 

When it really works, when you’ve got a good relationship in the classroom, with a good dynamic, you can feel an energy that builds up as everyone is learning from each other. You can feel that movement in people’s minds. You can feel how they are challenging themselves, and challenging each other, and you all walk away feeling like something has changed in the way that you perceive something.

To research the areas that I focus on, you need a lot of curiosity, inquisitiveness and reflection. I like jumping into things that aren’t necessarily my area of expertise, and coming at it fresh. You bring a different perspective if it’s not something that you’ve been embedded in for years.

I like to have my assumptions challenged, and to ask 'what can the person who is experiencing it tell me?', rather than approaching it saying 'I’m an expert on this, and I want to find out more'.

You’ve got to be aware of what you don’t know, and take a critical approach to what other people think they know. You should question what knowledge is, what other people are saying about what you are hearing in the media, and even what you’re taught about something. Then try to go out and experience it for yourself, and make connections with people for yourself.

In the past, I’ve always done interview-based research, based on meeting people. Working with children and young people, you’ve got to find alternative routes into getting them to talk to you, rather than just sitting face to face and asking lots of questions. I use quite creative methods of research, where they do drawings and timelines.

I’ve also spent time working with a refugee camp in Kenya, widening my research focus to see how support works internationally. In the camp, we did a lot of observation, getting a feel for what people’s lives are like, as well as one-to-one and community interviews. I’m interested in what people’s day-to-day experiences are.