Sue completed her DPhil (Oxford University) in 2003 and has worked as a researcher at the Open University (Rural Belonging), Lancaster University Literacy Research Centre (Literacy and Health) and then as a Lecturer in Educational Studies at The University of Edinburgh from 2006 to 2010.  Before completing her doctorate, Sue was a teacher and an EAL specialist support teacher.  Her research interests include:

• the learning experiences of minority ethnic pupils and EAL learners in mainstream and supplementary schooling as well as in the home and community;
• issues of 'race' and ethnicity in educational contexts;
• literacy, particularly socio-cultural approaches to understanding reading, readers and learning to read;
• English as an Additional Language and multilingualism in educational settings;
• ethnographic, qualitative and micro studies of learning sites and domains.

Recent interests lie in developing the use of Appreciative Inquiry as a methodology for paticipatory research in education and in exploring the more affective aspects of learning and teaching.  A UCL Changemaker project making use of Appreciative Inquiry to explore what students want from formative feedback has just been completed.

Post graduate research (supervision):

• Minority ethnic and multilingual learners' experiences of education;
• Literacy (socio-cultural understandings of literacy practices and learning);
• Literacy in the primary school;
• Learner identities (from a socio-cultural/post-structuralist perspective).