Rate My Professor Ruth Swanwick

Professor Ruth Swanwick is Professor of Deaf Education in the School of Education at the University of Leeds, where she leads the deaf education research and contributes to the PGDip/MA Deaf Education (Qualified Teacher of the Deaf) programme. This online blended distance education programme, approved by the Department for Education, prepares deaf and hearing practitioners to work with deaf students across educational settings and was the first in the UK to recognise the role of sign language and deaf adults in deaf children's education. Her academic qualifications include a PhD, Masters in Education, Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in Modern Foreign Languages, BA Honours, and Teacher of the Deaf Diploma. She began her career in modern foreign language teaching before transitioning to deaf education, working with children and young people who are deaf in inclusive sign bilingual settings. In these contexts, she developed curricula and approaches to teaching English as a second language for deaf learners. She joined the University of Leeds to lead the MA in Deaf Education/Teacher of the Deaf programme, expanding it into a national distance and blended provision.

Swanwick's research specializations encompass childhood deafness, language and learning, inclusive and bilingual education, and teacher development, with a particular focus on deaf children’s multilingual and multimodal communication and language learning, as well as the development of pedagogies and practitioner understanding. She has served as Principal Investigator on funded projects including Critical Thinking and Reflective Practice in Deaf Education (British Academy), Deaf Children's Early Literacy at Home (ESRC), The Role of Sign Language for Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants (Nuffield Foundation), Deafness and Reading for Meaning - 'DReaM', Early education for young deaf children and their caregivers in Ghana (British Academy Global Challenges Research Fund), Improving educational and social outcomes for deaf children of Roma families in the UK, and Reframing Multilingualism: Examining the multilingual experiences and repertoires of DHH children growing up in migrant contexts of Germany and the UK (Multi_DHH, AHRC/DFG). As Co-Investigator, she participated in a National Institute for Health Research systematic review of early interventions for parents of deaf babies and the EU Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network Comm4CHILD. Her international collaborations support deaf leadership, training, academic capacity building, and bilingual curricula, influencing contextually sensitive early development, care, and education for deaf children.