I have worked at the Institute of Education since 2003 and have been subject leader for the English and English with Drama PGCE since 2004. I also work on the  English Education MA programme, where I am the module leader for the core module, Contemporary Issues in English Education. I am currently the main or secondary supervisor for sixteen doctoral students. Since 2013, I have been the editor of the peer-reviewed academic journal, Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education.

Before moving to the Institute of Education, I worked for twenty years in three inner London secondary schools. I spent eleven years as head of English at Kingsland School, Hackney, and three as head of the Ethnic Minority Achievement Team at Haverstock School, Camden.