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Dr d'Reen Struthers SFHEA

 

Educatonal Consultant


Academic and Researcher 


(see Publications list)


dreenstruthers@me.com


 

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ABOUT

Since 2014 d'Reen now works at the Institute of Education, University of London where she is involved in the IoE Doctoral Programme as Deputy Programme Lead and Module Lead and tutor for the the first taught Module "Foundations of Professionalism", and as a tutor on  the second Methods module and is a Doctoral supervisor.  She is Module Lead for the PGCE Primary MA Specialism and has taught Geography Specialism. Her work with schools continues as a consultant supporting Practitioner Research and Teacher CPD, and one time Governor. Additionally d'Reen has supervised MA student disserations on the MA EYFS and Primary route, and is a Lecturer in Teacher Education contributing to a range of routes into teaching.


She has reviewed for Teacher Development Journal since 2016 and in 2024 will be the co-editor for The International Journal of Computer Science Education in Schools. d'Reen has contributed to supporting Research mentoring programmes in IoE- DLL Department as well as holding the postion of Chief External Examiner for the PGCE Primary Programme in Nottingham University.

 

In 2017, d'Reen was a UCL-IoE Consultant for 9 months to the University of South Wales, contributing to their Partnership Projects and setting up Action Research Circles in partner schools. A  followup research conference was held on March 19th 2018. d'Reen is on the BME Attainment Working Party at UCL, and has produced a resource bank for staff.

 

Recognised Senior Fellow of the HEA in 2014, d’Reen brings to these posts her experience:

  • As a Teacher Educator
  • Academic and Researcher (see Publications list)
  • External Examiner for doctorates
  • Strategic Senior Leader in HE (Programme Lead of MA and PGCE programmes)
  • Trainer, Mentor and Programme Developer
  • Supervisor and tutor for EdD and MA programmes
  • Quality Assurance Assessor e.g Chartered College of Teachers 2018
  • Peer Reviewer of Journals  Teacher Development 
  • Keynote Speaker at GEMS Conference, Dubai 2015
  • Education consultant to schools - Mentoring, resilience, pedagogies, Teacher Inquiry,
  • Licensed Resilience Trainer, 
  • Active BERA member and Practitioner Research SIG convenor
  • National Chair of APTE (Association for Partnership in Teacher Education)

Prior to working at UCL-IoE d'Reen was a Principal Lecturer at Roehampton University in the School of Education since 2003. After successfully managing Schools Partnership for 7 years, she then held the remit for Training and Development, linked to partnership initiatives. This work involved facilitating the training and development of School-based Mentors /Coaches for the ITE Dept and the former West London Partnership EBITT.  d'Reen also set up a number of Action Research Circles (ARCs) with schools as both an academic partner and research coach.  Her work in Mentoring continues to be recognised by Kingston University; she is the trainer for the Mentoring programme for Staff run by the Equalities Unit, for BME and women staff since 2010/11. Birkbeck College, University of London, also draw on her training for their Athena Swan, Aurora and Trigger mentoring programmes. UCL- ARENA Centre has also involved her in Mentoring developments.


She has supported various Charities eg STIR Educational Charity, visiting their Team in Uganda to QA training on behalf of Roehampton University.

 

 In February 2013 d’Reen was asked to Lead on Teacher Inquiry within Professional Practice Development as well as teaching on the MA and EdD programmes. This built on the former Partnership and Training and Development role in which she led new strategic developments to extend and promote partnerships, for example setting up Regional Cluster Managers (RCMs), Professional Learning Schools (PLS), School based mentoring, all supported with new Partnerhsip software which she institigated alongside ABYASA Software developers.

 

Her role leading Teacher Inquiry built on the partnership work and further extended it in relation to Teaching School Alliances and Academies, and ITT partnership schools. Development work with School Mentors/coaches also remains a feature of this role, as colleagues in schools with these roles step up to take on more of a lead in ITT as it is based in schools. As an Academic Partner d’Reen has supported teachers in schools with their R&D projects, NCTL funded Research programmes, and latterly was seconded by South Farnham Teaching School to assist with the coordination of and writing up of the NCTL Assessment Research Project ‘Beyond levels’ 2014.

 

Additionally she is currently the Co-convener of the Practitioner SIG (Special Interest Group) for BERA (British Education Research Association) and the National Chair of APTE (Association of Partnerships in Teacher Education) with the remit of Research and Publications

 

Her doctorate was entitled: "Towards a pedagogical partnership with teachers: Professional Learning Schools and the challenges for a Schools Partnership Manager". which adopted Self-Study methodology.

 

She was an active member of the Centre for Educational Research in Equalities, Policy, and Pedagogy CEREPP at Roehampton University. 

 

Additionally, d'Reen has held the role of the PPD Fund Manager, as well as the HEI coordinator for the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) and Overseas trained Teacher Programmes (OTTP) attached to the West London Partnership – an EBITT consortium consisting of Kingston, Roehampton and St Mary's College Universities. 

 

Trained originally at Waikato University, New Zealand, d'Reen has taught in NZ, Scotland and England, initially as a teacher and music educator. After her MA (Music Education) at the Institute of Education she worked there as a Part-time Education Tutor on the Professional Studies Programme for both Primary and Secondary PGCE courses. During these 7 years d'Reen also managed a research project at Reading University evaluating the development of software for music education. She also wrote songs and co-produced audio tapes to accompany 2 publications for 'Interaction' an Educational Charity specialising in work with children with SEN. From 1987 she was based at Middlesex University in the School of Education, as a Senior Lecturer, becoming Programme Leader of the Licensed Teacher Scheme from January 1995.

 

In January 1998 she returned to New Zealand to coordinate a Graduate Diploma course for Secondary teachers at Auckland Institute of Technology. When this institution restructured, she returned to full-time teaching in 2000 at Westmere Primary school, Auckland (F/KS1). In March 2002 d'Reen returned to London. Initially at Park View Academy, d'Reen held the pastoral post of Head of Year 7, managing the primary-secondary transfer of pupils for that and the following year and teaching ICT and Business Studies. She joined Roehampton University in September 2003 as Principal Lecturer - Collaborative Partnership. Her work at Roehampton ended due to restructuring in July 2014.


Qualifications

B.Ed., MA (Mus Ed)., EdD