Year of graduation: 2025
Supervisors: Prof Holly Joseph & Dr Daisy Powell
Research focus: My PhD thesis consisted of three research papers. The first used corpus linguistics to explore the vocabulary found in the reading texts in GCSE English language exams. The second paper explored the responses to a reading survey sent to 16-18 year old students. The final paper explored the vocabulary found in a sample of adolescent students’ independent reading materials and in curriculum materials used across a range of school subjects. The findings highlighted the high challenge of the vocabulary that students’ face both in their curriculum reading and in their exams.
Memorable experiences at the IoE: I enjoyed the opportunities offered at the IoE to meet and mix with other PhD students, from reading groups to presenting at the summer conferences.
Career: When I started my doctorate I was working as a secondary school teacher. Since graduating I have moved to work for the Education Endowment Foundation, where I project manage large educational research trials and also create resources that translate research into useful teacher and school facing content. I use the skills that I learnt at the IoE every day in my new job and love being involved in educational research that helps schools.