Ed Podesta

Profile

I am a post-transfer PGR student, combining my studies part time with my work as an Associate Professor (Professional Practice) at Leeds Trinity University. After a Bachelors degree in Law, I completed a PGCE Secondary History at the University of Oxford, a Post Graduate Diploma in Innovation in Education (PGDIE) at the University of Warwick and a Master of Science in Education Research Methods at the University of Leeds. In my PGR studies I am investigating the curricular autonomy of teachers of English in secondary schools. 

I joined Leeds Trinity University in 2015. Before that I had a variety of difference roles in secondary schools and universities. I have been a history teacher, a head of department in the history department at a secondary school, a PGCE tutor at the University of Oxford and held roles delivering Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for middle managers at Secondary school.

Research interests

I am interested in using insights from the philosophy and sociology of power and autonomy to bear on issues of the sociology and philosophy of the curriculum. I am concerned about the way that sophisticated ideas relating to curriculum are translated from domains of academic study into policy and from there into practice.

I am particularly focused on the specific ways in which teachers exercise autonomy in enacting curriculum policy in the way that they engage in curriculum making. I hope to go beyond a conception of autonomy as exercising choice in space created by teachers or the school context in which they work. 

Qualifications

• MSc Education Research Methods
• PGCert Innovation in Education
• PGCE Secondary Education (History)
• LLB Hons