Dr James Twigg

I am a senior lecturer in primary education at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), with over two decades of experience in the education sector. I am passionate about supporting the career development and progression of aspiring teachers and educational professionals and sharing my expertise in primary school teaching, teacher education and educational leadership with the next generation of teachers and school leaders.

Before joining MMU, I was a primary headteacher in the UK and Malaysia, where I led and implemented school improvement strategies, curriculum design, assessment, and staff development initiatives with colleagues in two fantastic schools. I hold a Doctor of Education (EdD) and Masters in Educational Leadership (MEd) from the University of Manchester, a National Professional Qualification of Headship (NPQH), and am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).

I enjoy combining both my practical and academic experience and interests through my teaching. I lead on the Professional Development and Employability unit and Teaching Placement B for the Primary PGCE and teach on the BA in Education and PhD in Education Research. Learning, community, compassion and continual improvement are at the heart of all of my work.

My research interests focus on primary education, school leadership and socially critical educative improvement. My current research builds on the project in my doctoral thesis which examined aspects of children’s homelife and school-life through the utilisation of two innovative conceptualisations: the Virtual School Bag (from Pat Thomson’s ‘Schooling the Rustbelt Kids’, 2002) and the Virtual School Desk. It gave children a voice in the research, using a Q-Sort method with Year 5 children (ages 9 and 10) as part of its mixed methods approach. In my findings, I introduced the concept of the Virtual Village which is designed to support the understanding of the dynamic interaction between home and school and how this can be used to benefit children’s learning (for the full thesis - click here). I am currently further developing this concept and its utilisation in order to support the relationship between schools and their communities and focus school improvement on matters of equity and education for all.

Qualifications:

Doctor of Education (EdD) - The University of Manchester 

Master of Education (MEd), Educational Leadership - The University of Manchester 

National Professional Qualification of Headship (NPQH) - National College of School Leadership

Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), Primary - Institute of Education, University of London

BA (Hons), Linguistics with German Language, Literature and Culture - University of York

Membership of Professional Associations:

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)