Dr Susannah Smith

Senior Lecturer in Primary Education

About

BEd (Honours), MA (Education), PhD

Susannah is a senior lecturer in Primary Education (English) and is an Assistant Programme Co-ordinator for the BA (Hons) Primary Teaching programme. She teaches on primary English modules across all programmes, and on Professional Studies modules. Susannah is also an Academic Advisor and a Link Tutor in schools. Susannah supervises dissertations at Masters and Doctoral level, and is the Research Degrees Co-ordinator for the department.

Susannah joined the University in September 2014. Prior to this, she worked at the University of Birmingham. Before moving into higher education, Susannah taught for seven years in primary schools in Birmingham and Northamptonshire.

Professional Memberships and Activities

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, since 2007

Member of the Institute for Learning and Teaching, since 2002

General Teaching Council for England, since 2001

United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA)

Editorial board of The Journal of Reading, Writing and Literacy

Reviewer for the British Journal of Religious Education

Previously external examiner for Masters programmes and the University of Reading

Interests

Susannah’s initial research interest was in early years education and she completed her Master’s thesis on teaching through play. More recently, her doctoral thesis focused on gender aspects of reading, specifically on young successful boy readers.

Susannah’s main research interest is the teaching and learning of English in the early years and primary school curriculum. Within this, her current areas of interest are:

How young children learn to read
Gender aspects of children’s reading
Successful boy readers
The links between reading and identity
Socio-cultural influences on children’s reading
Use of home language in the classroom
Children’s literature, particularly picture books
Multi-modal texts in English teaching

Encouraging children’s voices to be heard in research
Post-structural feminist discourse and methodologies

In addition to primary English, Susannah also has research interests in the (implicit and explicit) teaching of values and virtues in the primary school, and in supporting the mental health and well-being of university students.

Research and Publications

Chapters in books

2022 ‘What are Professional Values and Why are They Important?, chapter in Stone, G. (Editor) (2022) Professionalism in Primary Teaching Learning Matters

2000 ‘Children at Play’, chapter in Mills, J. and Mills, R. (Editors) (2000) Childhood Studies: A Reader in perspectives of childhood Routledge

Articles in academic journals

2013 ‘From values to virtues: an investigation into the ethical content of English primary school assemblies’, in British Journal of Religious Education, Volume 35, Issue 1. Available online at:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01416200.2011.649344

2006 ‘The reading behaviours of young successful boy readers in the classroom’, in The Journal of Reading, Writing and Literacy, Volume 1, Issue 1, April 2006

2004 ‘The non-fiction reading habits of young successful boy readers: forming connections between masculinity and reading’, in Literacy, Volume 38, Number 1, April 2004

1999 ‘An institutional report on partnership in the training of teachers’, in Bates, T. (Editor) The Development of Innovative Strategies of Cooperation Between Teacher Education Institutions and Educational Services Thematic Network of Teacher Education in Europe Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, December 1999 (co-authored with Hackett, G., Stanton, J., Woods, J. and Woods, R.)
Published electronically at http://tntee.umu.se/publications/journal1_1.html

Conference papers

2018 ‘Using Social Media to Support Trainee Teachers’ Knowledge and Understanding of Children’s Literature’. Paper given at the United
Kingdom Literacy Association conference at the University of Cardiff

2017 ‘Using Social Media to Support the Learning Experience of Trainee Teachers’. Paper given at the Learning and Teaching conference at the
University of Chichester

2005 ‘Learning from the reading behaviours of young successful boy readers in the classroom’. Paper given at the United Kingdom Literacy Association conference, University of Bath

2003 ‘The non-fiction reading habits of young successful boy readers: forming connections between masculinity and reading.’ Paper given at the United Kingdom Reading Association conference, Homerton College, Cambridge

1999 ‘An institutional report on partnership in the training of teachers.’ Paper given at the Thematic Network of Teacher Education in Europe conference, Lisbon

Research projects

2023-present ‘Social Prescribing to improve health, well-being and resilience in Education Studies students’, University of Chichester
2022-present ‘An impact case study on student teacher interventions within their practice’, University of Chichester

2013-2014 ‘Knightly Virtues’. Team member on this research project with colleagues from the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, University of Birmingham

2000-2001 ‘Monitoring the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies in Birmingham primary schools’. Team member on the literacy team for this research project with colleagues from University of Central England (now Birmingham City University)