My research focuses on initial and continuing teacher development for widely-valued, but ambitious, policy change – in this country, but also in a variety of second and third world jurisdictions: what is needed to teach mathematics effectively - what knowledge, skills and affect, and how can that best be acquired in different contexts? I am interested in the answers to those questions particularly in relation to mathematics education, but also in how answers to such questions differ across disciplines: what is it that makes disciplines, their learning and teaching, unique - and what can we learn from approaches in other disciplines? I have developed a national and international reputation for my work in mathematics and teacher education policy. 

At present I lead a group of ten researchers  studying teacher classroom enactment of recent changes in mathematics curricula 5-18 in England. We ask what it is that teachers draw on, how is that shaped by the available resources, assessment, and teacher professional development, and what impact do those have on student learning? Those projects span year 1 to A-level Further Mathematics, complementing recent research on the development of A-level teaching, and build on my personal research showing the necessary centrality of appropriate teacher affect for deep change. At present they have an additional focus on the responses of schools to the COVID pandemic, and the impact of that on young people's learning. Outcomes have been incorporated into a number of ITE and CPD courses in schools and HEIs in this country, and are shared with a range of policymakers and influencers, but also applied in Uganda, Jordan, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. I am, or have recently been, PI for several other studies, and am a national mathematics specialist for current iterations of the PISA and TIMSS international assessments teams.  

With teachers and teacher educators in sub-Saharan Africa I am researching effective, affordable and sustainable ways of harnessing technology for teacher development - and working with them and with policymakers to identify approaches that have been successful in similarly resource-challenged contexts for supporting teachers to discriminate among, and apply, what is available in a mathematically-informed way. Where possible I try to collaborate with local mathematics education researchers for such purposes.

I choose to have an active role in early career researcher development, including mentoring early career second supervisors and contributions to researcher development events. I am happy to consider approaches from potential doctoral (EdD or PhD) students whose proposals align with my research interests.