Researching Teachers’ Lives, Identities and Stories

About the Project

This PhD opportunity sits within the work of the Inclusion by Design Research Group at the University of Worcester and invites proposals that explore teachers’ lives, identities and stories. The supervisory team is particularly interested in research that foregrounds teachers’ lived experiences and professional biographies, and that takes seriously the meanings teachers make of their work, their values and beliefs, and their ongoing processes of becoming (Goodson, 2008).

The project is intentionally open and dialogic in nature. Applicants are encouraged to develop a focused research question in conversation with the supervisory team, drawing on shared interests in teachers’ narratives, identity formation, and the social, cultural and institutional contexts in which teaching is lived and practised (Clandinin and Connelly, 1987; Beijaard, Meijer and Verloop, 2004).

Indicative Research Focus

While applicants are not expected to arrive with a fully formed proposal, projects may engage with one or more of the following themes:

• Teachers’ professional identities across different phases of education, including primary, secondary and teacher education.
• Teachers’ life histories and career trajectories, including moments of transition, disruption or renewal.
• The role of values, beliefs and prior experiences in shaping teachers’ pedagogical choices and sense of self.
• Teachers’ stories as sites of knowledge, meaning-making and professional learning.
• Inclusion, marginalisation and belonging in teachers’ lived experiences.

Projects may be situated within subject-specific contexts such as science education, English, or Multilingual Education or English as an Additional Language, though broader cross-curricular or professional themes are equally welcome.

Methodological Orientation

The supervisory team has expertise in qualitative, interpretive approaches and welcomes projects that are methodologically thoughtful and theoretically grounded (Mead, 1934, Goodson, 2008). Suitable methodological frameworks may include, but are not limited to:

• Interpretive and constructivist approaches to educational research.
• Symbolic Interactionism, with attention to meaning-making through social interaction.
• Life history research and narrative inquiry.
• Case study approaches focused on individuals, groups or professional communities.

Across all approaches, the supervisors are committed to ethical, relational research that allows teachers’ stories to ‘breathe’ and resists reductive or instrumental accounts of professional life (Frank, 1995).

Who should apply

This opportunity would suit applicants who:

• Have a background in education, teacher education or a related field.
• Are interested in working closely with practising teachers, former teachers, mentors or teacher educators.
• Are motivated by qualitative, story-based or interpretive research.
• Wish to explore questions of identity, values and lived experience in educational contexts.

Applicants may be current practitioners, former teachers, or those working in teacher education or educational research. Both full-time and part-time study routes are available, and the project may be suitable for candidates considering a PhD or an EdD pathway.

Supervisory Team

• Director of Studies: Dr. Tracy Wallis
• Supervisors: Dr Gerard Doyle
• Research Group: Inclusion by Design Research Group

Application Process

To begin the application process please go to: https://www.worc.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/applying-for-a-phd/.

The Interview

All successful applicants will be offered an interview with the proposed Supervisory Team. You will be contacted by a member of the Doctoral School Team to find a suitable date. Interviews can be conducted in person or over Microsoft Teams.