Jean Mcniff

Biography

Jean came to York St John in November 2008 as Professor of Educational Research in the Faculty of Education and Theology, on a part-time basis. Of Scottish/Irish heritage, she lives in Dorset as her base for travel to different countries. She works with practitioners internationally in a range of educational settings, including higher education, supporting their workplace and higher degree programmes that are grounded in the descriptions and explanations they offer for their practices in the form of their personal theories of practice. She took (very) early retirement from her position as Deputy Head Teacher in a large secondary school, and began to develop her independent consultancy business and her writing. She has written a range of articles and textbooks on different aspects of practice-based action research, independently and collaboratively.

Research Interest

Jean’s abiding research commitments are about how she can contribute to fields of enquiry into generative transformational processes across the disciplines, with a special focus on transformational forms of epistemology as the basis for inter-relational forms of educational enquiry. She co-convenes the international Value and Virtue in Practice-Based Research project and is actively involved with the Researching Chaplaincy in Action Project, both hosted by York St John University.