The Moray House School of Education
Staff Profiles

Qualifications

PhD, MEd, PGCE, BA

Principal Interests

Social construction of identity: drawing on a social constructionist view, my work has been built around concepts of layered narratives of self which reflect a dynamic and fluid view of identity and the importance of contextual narratives and the interactions between the inner and outer world of the individual.

Research Supervision

I have particular interest in teacher beliefs and values, giftedness, behaviour in schools and the organization of learning and would welcome students interested in these and related areas.

Biographical Note

Having worked as an English teacher and as a primary teacher, I draw on substantial experience in schools to inform my teaching. However, I am also passionate about educational research. My research profile began to be established while I was still working in schools and my work on perceptions of ability shaped my MEd (1996). This led into PhD study looking at constructs of ability within comprehensive and independent schools working with Professors Sally Brown and Jon Nixon, University of Stirling. From this, my work has developed in relation to (student) teacher beliefs and professional identity, ability and the organization of learning and pupil voice and personhood.

I teach mainly on PGDE primary and PGDE secondary courses as well as MSc Education and MSc Research programmes. A strong focus of my work is on cross curricular learning (Enterprise inspired learning) and assessment, the integration of theory and practice (leading behaviour, theory and professional development course) and educational research methods (leading Educational Enquiry 1 and 2).

Currently Head of Education and Society
President of Scottish Educational Research Association 2007 -
On British Educational Research Association Council 2007 -
Member of planning group newly established UK Strategic Forum for Research in Education (uksfre.ac.uk) 2007 -
Reviewer: British Educational Research Journal, Teaching and Teacher Education and Scottish Educational Review

Current and Recent Research

I am currently part of the team researching behaviour in Scottish schools and this links into work being written up on student teachers and approaches to behaviour on placement experiences. Previous work includes a survey of the use of setting in Scottish primary schools, pupil voice in the examination process and ability dialogues in high school.

Some recent conference papers:

• Hamilton, L. Managing pupil behaviour: preparing student teachers for practice. Paper presented at the Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences, Saskatoon, Canada 2007
• Stack, N; Hamilton,L. & Sutherland, M. Able in Alba. Paper presented at the World Congress for Gifted and Talented Youth, Warwick 2007
• Hamilton, L. A Teacher educator self-study: Search for connection and relevance. Paper Presented at the Scottish Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Perth, 2006
• Hamilton, L. Setting (regrouping) and broad banding: challenges to the organisation of learning in Scottish primary Schools. Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, Dublin, 2005
  
  
  

Publications

Selected Publications

Hamilton, L (2009) Teachers, Narrative Identity and Ability Constructs: exploring dissonance and consensus in contrasting school systems. Research Papers in Education.

Hamilton, L. (2006) Implicit Theories of Ability: teacher constructs and classroom consequences. Scottish Educational Review 38(2) pp 201-212.

Hamilton, L., and O'Hara, P (2005) Organisation of Learning in Scottish Primary Schools. SEED Report. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh.

Hamilton, L., and Brown, J. (2005) Judgement Day is coming; Young people and the examination Process in Scotland. Improving Schools. 8 (1) 47-57.

Hamilton, L. (2002) Constructing Pupil Identity: personhood and ability. British Educational Research Journal, 28(4), 591-602.

More on the School's Publications Database