Pamela Graham

Biography

Before moving into Higher Education, she worked for 24 years in practitioner, leadership and management roles in a range of settings in education, health, social services and the voluntary sector. She managed a multi agency family support centre for ten years and worked as a training and development officer for a local authority social services department for six years. Pamela is an Endorsed High Scope Trainer (High Scope GB) and trained to deliver programmes including Emotional Intelligence (Hay McBer) and the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (National College for School Leadership). Pamela has completed the national Preparation for Senior Strategic Leadership programme (Leadership Foundation for Higher Education) and the most recent Academic Leadership programme at Northumbria University. Her work in HE has involved working with partner employers on the design, development, leadership, delivery and quality assurance of undergraduate and post graduate programmes and initiatives for children, families and communities. She is a member of the Departmental Management Group and currently has responsibility as a line manager and a teaching and learning lead. She teaches on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Her subject expertise is in child and adolescent development and the social and emotional wellbeing of children and young people.

Research Interest

Pamela is interested in relational practice and how the development of authentic relationships can support and empower all round human growth, learning and development. Her masters degree focused on power dynamics in adult/child and parent/professional relationships and highlighted the diverse ways in which different paradigms of care and control influence different systems and professions, which in turn result in different perceptions of, and responses to children’s ‘challenging behaviour’. Her post graduate research activity has included a number of evaluations for local authorities, including evaluations of Sure Start programmes, children's workforce training and development strategies and more recently a case study of the impact of attachment informed training for support staff in secondary education. Pamela’s particular interest is in Equine Assisted Therapies; her doctoral thesis examines young people’s experiences of interacting with horses and the impact on their self esteem. Some of her work has been published and presented at national and international conferences.