Work
I initially started working in education as a languages teacher in primary and secondary schools before taking a secondment to Scottish CILT in 2004 as a professional development facilitator. Working in the professional development of teachers was something I enjoyed very much and I move to the National CPD team in 2011, but the team didn’t last long after being absorbed into Education Scotland – 6 months and then we were effectively disbanded. I taught at Stirling University on the ITE programme (initial teacher education)and I’m now a lecturer in education at the University of the West of Scotland which is great. Much of the work I was involved with at NCPD team was online facilitation for teacher professional learning, and I’ve been able to continue this for SELMAS, the educational leadership forum; occasionally for SCSSA, and I’m also involved with the government funded Strategic Leadership Development Programme in a coaching capacity, under the direction of Dan McGinty. I’m interested in teacher professional learning; collaborative practices; technology in learning; leadership development and system-wide change in education.
Studies
I was awarded my M.Ed in November 2012 and am now enrolled on the Stirling University PhD programme. The M.Ed was the reason I started this blog, so it is definitely going to be a big feature of my PhD as well. The PhD study is building on what I learned from my M.Ed study into learning rounds, as you’ve probably gathered by now. I’m really encouraged by the interest it seems to inspire – there certainly seems to be a big appetite out there in the education community for more knowledge about it. I think it’s definitely an area where much more research is needed. I’ve got two fantastic supervisors to work with (Professor Mark Priestley and Dr John I’Anson) and am very excited (and apprehensive) about what lies ahead.
Publications
Oates, C. and Riaz, N. N., (2016). Accessing the field: methodological difficulties of research in schools. Education in the North, 23(2), pp.53-74.
Philpott, C., Oates, C. (2016). Professional Learning Communities as drivers of educational change; a case of Learning Rounds in Scotland. Journal of Educational Change (in press).
Philpott, C., Oates, C. (2016). Teacher agency and professional learning communities; what can Learning Rounds in Scotland teach us?. Professional Development in Education, 1-16. DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2016.1180316.
Philpott, C and Oates, C. (2015). Learning Rounds: what the literature tells us (and what it doesn’t). Scottish Educational Review 47 (1) 49-65.
Philpott, C and Oates, C. (2015). What do teachers do when they say they are doing Learning Rounds? Scotland’s experience of Instructional Rounds. European Journal of Educational Research 4 (1) 22-37.
Oates, C. (2014). Better together? Understanding the processes involved in learning rounds as an instance of teacher collaborative professional learning. [unpublished doctoral report] University of Stirling.
Oates, C.(2007). Education for Citizenship: Languages are the key. A rational for languages teachers Scottish Languages Review.
Doughty, H and Oates, C. (2006). Languages in Scotland -what’s the problem? Report prepared for the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Academic conference presentations
SERA (University of the West of Scotland) Ayr, Nov 2012: Presentation: A Masters’ study of Learning Rounds.
BERA early stage researchers’ symposium (University of Glasgow) October 2013: An overview of learning rounds study.
SERA (University of Glasgow) Nov 2013: Presentation with Dr Carey Philpott: Instructional Rounds: how the Scottish experience can inform the international debate
Stirling School of Education annual doctoral conference (University of Stirling), May 2014
poster presentation : an international literature review of instructional rounds
presentation: An empirical study of learning rounds
ProPEL International Conference; (University of Stirling) June 2014. Poster presentation – Learning Rounds as a migrating practice: an international literature review.
SERA/WERA (University of Edinburgh) Nov 2014. Presentation with Dr Carey Philpott: Learning Rounds and the development of teacher agency; an empirical study in Scottish schools.
SERA/WERA (University of Edinburgh) Nov 2014. Learning Rounds: a PhD study of a migrated practice in Scottish schools.
ECER (Corvinus University, Budapest) September 2015. Presentation with Professor Carey Philpott: Teacher Agency in Collaborative Professional Development: Missing in Action?
SERA (University of Aberdeen) Nov 2015. Presentation with Nighet Rasim Riaz: Methodological difficulties of early – career researchers in schools.
Cat's eyes 