Sarah Cobbe

Profile

Academic background

I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Maths and Psychology, which was awarded by Keele University in 1993. This award was held concurrently with a certificate in Education - providing me with Qualified Teacher Status. I also gained a Masters in Education from the University of Birmingham in 2010. My MEd comprised aspects of management relating to special education in home and international contexts.

• My MEd dissertation contrasted the in-service training experiences of teachers in the UK and in Kenya 
• As a Masters student, I also served as a researcher with a team of lecturers compiling a report for UNICEF. The report focussed on natural disasters and education in South East Asia and I was credited as one of the co-authors 
• The report can be located here: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/F8D29B0871704C44852576120065A845-Full_Report.pdf

Biography

I've worked in the field of autism for more than two decades, primarily as a teacher or an advisor.

• This has included posts with the National Autistic Society, VSO in Kenya and Autism West Midlands 
• I have experience of supporting children of all ages between 2-16 and more recently, as an autism advisory teacher in Merseyside - working with hundreds of families and many multi agency services
• My first book was published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers in March 2019. It’s called ‘Simple Autism Strategies for Home and School’ and is designed to help families and professionals supporting autistic children of all ages  

Research interests

My thesis will explore measures of self-efficacy amongst the staff working in private day nurseries and consider how these may be related to inclusive practice. I will be concentrating on the practitioners who support children with autism and speech, language and communication needs. My research will enable me to look more deeply into working practices in early years settings, in contexts which are not yet comprehensively represented in academic literature.

In brief, my research interests / academic interests are in:

• self-efficacy
• inclusive practice
• early years education and childcare
• private day nurseries and nursery practitioners
• early years children with autism and speech, language and communication difficulties

Qualifications

• MEd International Management and Policy
• BSc Maths and Psychology
• Qualified Teacher Status