Stephen Pickering

Biography

Stephen taught in a range of schools over a period of fifteen years, including teaching abroad, before working as the Education for Sustainable Development Officer for Worcestershire District Council. He joined the University on a part-time basis from 2003 and full time from 2005. Stephen is Course Leader of the Primary and Outdoor Education BA (Hons) degree. He also lectures on the BA (Hons) Primary Teacher Training route and also on the PGCE in Primary Education. Stephen still seeks the opportunity to teach in primary schools and has also worked with children in schools and here at the university on a number of different programmes and experiences. He liaised with Worcestershire County Council, for example, to work with gifted and talented children from Government target schools (those with low economic indicators) on a series of programmes and initiatives, one of which was written up in a special report for the Times Educational Supplement (January 2009). He is very interested in global citizenship and education issues and has worked with TIDE (Teachers in Development Education) and the National Environment Agency of The Gambia to develop materials and publications to teach sustainability, climate change and geography both in England and in The Gambia. Stephen is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of, and a consultant for, the Geographical Association where he is on the editorial board of Primary Geography. As a consultant for the Geographical Association he is occasionally invited to support initiatives and schemes, the last one of which was working as a geographical researcher for the BBC series, Through Their Eyes.

Research Interest

Climate Change, Developing World Issues and how they are tackled in the classroom, Valuing Places – how a sense of place is key to a child’s learning and development.