Team biographies
Professor Stuart Foster, Director
Stuart is the Director of the IOE’s Holocaust education programme. Stuart has been an influential figure in history education at the IOE since 2001 and has served as the Course Leader for the MA in Education (Citizenship, History and RE), tutored PGCE history students, and supervised an impressive number of doctoral candidates. Stuart began his career in education as a history teacher, head of department and senior teacher in comprehensive schools in England; he then completed his PhD in curriculum and instruction at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. From 1996-2001, he was a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Social Science Education at the University of Georgia, USA. Stuart Foster’s research interests include the teaching, learning and assessment of history, Holocaust education, comparative education, the history of education, and the study of school history textbooks, nationally and internationally. He has extensively contributed to scholarly journals in the field and published a number of important books in the field of history and history education.
Paul Salmons, Programme Director
Paul is recognised as one of the leading figures in Holocaust education. Paul’s career began as a school teacher of history in 1993 before joining the Imperial War Museum London in 1998. Paul created the Holocaust education service for students and teachers visiting the Museum’s permanent Holocaust Exhibition, opened by HM Queen in June 2000. Paul is author of Reflections, a teaching resource pack that has won international acclaim, and is founder of the IWM’s Fellowship in Holocaust Education. Paul Salmons has represented the UK at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) since its inception, chaired the Education Working Group, which consists of experts from 27 member countries, and is currently chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's subcommittee on Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity. He has acted as consultant on numerous international projects and was invited by the United Nations to create the educational materials for their International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Kay Andrews, National Outreach Co-ordinator
Kay is considered to be one of the UKs leading Holocaust educators. Her teaching experience and expertise spans History and Religious Education and she has taught in a range of schools across Northamptonshire since 1994. Her interest in teaching about the Holocaust developed after visiting Eastern Europe in 1997 and in 1999 she joined the Holocaust Educational Trust, eventually becoming its Head of Education. Kay has built a strong reputation nationally and internationally for her work in teacher professional development in Holocaust education and she has been part of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) UK delegation since 2005.
Emma O'Brien, Lecturer in Holocaust and History Education
Emma worked in Holocaust education at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London before joining the IOE. She worked with both the Holocaust Exhibition and Crimes Against Humanity exhibition and led on the IWM Fellowship in Holocaust Education. Prior to the IWM, she was Head of History in a grammar school in Kent. Emma has contributed to the UK delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance), spoken at European conferences and has worked with international (Fellowship) teacher groups in England, Israel, Lithuania and Poland. Emma is presently undertaking a doctorate in Education (EdD), her current research interests being teacher experiences and perceptions of CPD and teacher professional identity.
Dr Andy Pearce, Professional Tutor
Andy joined the IOE as Professional Tutor in Holocaust Education, previously having worked as an Education Officer at the Holocaust Educational Trust. His professional career began teaching history and politics in London secondary schools, before he undertook doctoral research at Royal Holloway University of London. Whilst completing his studies, Andy collaborated on projects with the Imperial War Museum London, the UK delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance), and authored the Wiener Library Institute of Contemporary History’s travelling exhibition Never Again? Thinking about the Holocaust. In addition to his experience developing educational resources and delivering educational programmes Andy has spoken at various national and international colloquia, and has written on issues related to Holocaust memory and education. His book Holocaust Consciousness in Contemporary Britain will be published by Routledge in 2013 as part of their Cultural History series.
Darius Jackson, Professional Tutor
Darius joined the IOE after a varied career in education. He started teaching in 1984 and spent the next 19 years teaching in Gloucestershire and Birmingham. Initially he was a teacher of Economics and Social Sciences before moving to teach History. He spent the last eleven of those years as a very successful Head of History in two schools in Birmingham. He also taught R.E. and Sociology. In 2003 he moved to become Lecturer in History and Citizenship in Education at the University of Birmingham. In October 2009 Darius was awarded the School prize for “Excellence in Teaching and Supporting Student Learning” as well as being accepted as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Though his research has centred on the construction of meaning(s) in Holocaust education he has also researched into how young children talk about and develop an understanding of time, the concepts that underpin children’s development as historians, how site visits support pupils understanding of history and the tensions between official history, collective memory, commemoration and memorials, especially around issues of identity, diversity and commonality. He has published extensively, nationally and internationally, on teaching history for a diverse society. He has a philosophical commitment to Cultural Historical Activity Theory and Critical Realism. He is happily married with two daughters, lives in Worcester and supports West Bromwich Albion.
Ruth-Anne Lenga, Head of Academic Programmes
Ruth-Anne has held academic posts at the Institute of education for nearly twenty years lecturing on MA, Bachelor of Education and PGCE programmes and many of her former students now hold senior posts in schools and universities across the country. She currently oversees the MA module The Holocaust in the Curriculum, an online module piloted by the IOE's Centre for Holocaust Education in 2011. She has worked in Holocaust education for many years, serving as Head of Education at the Jewish Museum London where she remains an academic fellow. Ruth-Anne is currently a trustee at the Holocaust Centre, Laxton.
Rosalyn Ashby, Research and Evaluation Coordinator
Ros has been a successful classroom teacher and a leading figure in research and teacher education for over twenty-five years. She taught history, politics and economics in secondary school, and was involved from the outset with the design of the Cambridge A Level History Project Option 1 and became Project Officer and Chief Examiner for Option 2 of the Project. Ros became a Humanities and then History Adviser for Essex LEA, and then Research Officer for the ESRC funded Project Chata (Concepts of History and Teaching Approaches). This research has commanded international attention in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe and the Far East, where she has presented research papers and taken part in discussion groups. With Peter Lee and Denis Shemilt, Ros contributed to How Students Learn: History in the Classroom publication for the National Research Council, Washington DC. Ros was leader of the PGCE History course at the Institute of Education University of London between 1994 and 2009, where she has also led and taught the MA programme in History Education. Recently she was also a member of an ESRC funded research project: UHP (Useable Historical Pasts) with Professor Stuart Foster, Peter Lee, and Jonathan Howson.
Dr. Alice Pettigrew, Research and Evaluation Officer
Alice is the lead author of Teaching the Holocaust in English Secondary Schools: An empirical study of national trends, perspectives and practice, the IOE's landmark research report that directly informs the design of our CPD and educational resources. It is this rich research base that allows the programme to directly respond to genuine classroom challenges. Previous to joining the IOE, Alice was a visiting lecturer in education studies at the University of the West of England where she also completed a PhD study: Complexity, complicity and community in the classroom and curriculum: Identifications with ‘ethnicity’, ‘race’ and ‘nation’ in a British secondary school.
Adrian Burgess, Research and Evaluation Officer
Adrian Burgess has a first class honours degree in Sociology from the University of London (Goldsmiths) and an MPhil in Modern Society & Global Transformations from the University of Cambridge. Adrian's research has included working on the IOE's evaluation of the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz project. Alongside Holocaust education and the history and sociology of the Holocaust, Adrian is interested in the ways social class continues to impact on education. He recently presented a paper on Teacher Education and Social Class at an international conference and, as a result, has been commissioned to write two related publications. Adrian also maintains a keen interest in the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, Critical Realism and psychoanalysis.
Shazia Syed, Administrator
Shazia has worked at the Institute of Education for almost three years. In a previous role at the Institute, she worked in the London Centre for Leadership in Learning, working on a contract with the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). Prior to this role, Shazia worked in administration and academic programme management at the London School for Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the London Business School (amongst others), where she organised global bespoke executive education for private and public companies. Shazia enjoys working within an academic environment, supporting teachers and the IOE’s Holocaust education programme in her current role.
Louise Palmer, Operations Manager
Louise provides managerial support to ensure that the various CfHE work streams are planned, coordinated and executed. She has overall responsibility for programme and project management, marketing and communications, and business affairs.
Louise joined the CfHE in October 2012, although she has worked at the IOE for four years, first as Research and Consultancy Coordinator for the Faculty of Children and Learning and then as Business Development Coordinator for the Business, Enterprise and Short Course team. Louise was part of the team responsible for the establishment of the IOE's Business and Enterprise initiative - aimed at maximising the long-term financial contribution of research, consultancy and knowledge transfer (including CPD) activity at the Institute. Louise set up systems and worked with colleagues across the IOE to respond to national and international project funding opportunities. Prior to the IOE, Louise has worked for OCR Examinations and Hays Executive recruitment.