Dr Jan Huyton

Overview

Dr. Jan Huyton has been a Senior Lecturer at Cardiff Met’s School of Education since 2004 when she became Programme Director of the Community Education undergraduate programme, having previously spent 3 years as a Programme Director within Cardiff Met's Housing Studies undergraduate programme. During this time Jan achieved the PGCE (PCET) and fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. Jan is now has an additional role as the School of Education PDP and Personal Tutoring Co-ordinator. Her doctoral thesis at Edinburgh University explored the personal tutoring role in UK higher education. This study combined interpretivist and critical theory and utilised innovative reflective practice methods.

Jan graduated with a BA (Hons) in English from Lancaster University in 1987. After many years of experience in the voluntary sector, including housing, community development and education, she returned to academia, achieving an MSc (distinction) in Housing from Cardiff University, and decided to opt for an academic career.

Commensurate with a wider interest in higher education institutions, Jan has managed the delivery of study programmes for colleagues from King Saud University and other universities from the Arab Gulf states. The programmes have been designed around managing and enhancing quality in higher education.

Jan received a Cardiff Met Extended Research Leave award in 2008, during which time she conducted and disseminated the findings of a UK-wide on-line survey researching the experiences of higher education tutors. The results of this survey, combined with findings from her doctoral research, underpin Jan’s views on the state of personal tutoring in the UK, and the need for radical reform.

In 2010 Jan received a research grant from the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Education (ESCalate). This award facilitated research into the emotional and physical well-being of trainee teachers, with particular interest in the impact of Fitness to Teach guidance. The research was carried out with fellow team members Dr Lalage Sanders (Graduate Studies Co-ordinator, Cardiff School of Sport & Health Sciences) and Emily Hillier (Research Assistant, Cardiff School of Education and Social Policy).

Jan teaches across a number of undergraduate and postgraduate professional education programmes and has a particular interest in workplace learning on professionally accredited higher education programmes. She also specialises in teaching qualitative research methods, with a particular focus on innovative methods for reflective, emancipatory research.

Jan has held a number of external examiner positions. She is currently external examiner at Aberdeen University where she examines the BA and MA Professional Development programmes, the BA Community Development and Learning, and associated programmes.Jan was also an external examiner on the MA Youth/Health and Community Development programme at De Montfort University (DMU), and was also external at DMU on the Theory and Practice of Parenting MA. She was previously external examiner on the Postgraduate Certificate in Community Education at Strathclyde University. Jan is a regular chair and panel member of academic validations and periodic reviews for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. She also contributes to professional validation panels for the National Youth Agency.

Having maintained an interest in personal tutoring and staff and student wellbeing, Jan is also working on the new area of Community Philosophy. An active community philosopher herself, Jan is also working on a number of research and practice projects looking at the purpose and benefits of community philosophy in a community development and community education context, as well as looking at the motivations and benefits for individuals and groups. Jan works closely with the national organization Philosophy in Pubs (PiPS) http://philosophyinpubs.co.uk/ and will be addressing the annual PiPs conference in 2015 to share the outcomes of her research and practice.

Jan is an active member of the Pontypridd Canal Conservation Group http://www.pontypriddcanalconservation.com/ and this work has been the inspiration for her creative writing work in the psychogeography tradition. Jan recently had a poem published in the Literature Wales funded collection Behind Many Doors http://www.accentpress.co.uk/behind-many-doors.

Jan is an active school governor, and is currently developing a research interest in the area of governance (schools and voluntary sector).

Research Publications

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