Dr Christine Szwed

National Teaching Fellow 2015 Dr Christine Szwed joined the University of Birmingham as a lecturer in primary education and has since held the positions of Director of Studies for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and Head of Primary Initial Teacher Education. Her research interests cover the area of special needs and management alongside the area of initial teacher training. Her doctoral thesis evaluated the role of the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) in primary schools, and this research has informed several of her publications in the area. She ensures that the postgraduate teaching courses make excellent links between theory and practice.   Christine is also committed to internationalisation, supporting the British University in Dubai in setting up their teacher training programme and leading the design of a Postgraduate Diploma in Education for international students. She was awarded a University of Birmingham Teaching Fellowship for 2013-14 to advance her work with the development of international programmes. Before joining the University Christine held senior management positions in both secondary and primary schools in London and Birmingham. Her particular area of expertise was in supporting children with special educational needs within mainstream schools. She then moved on to work in the area of continuing professional development, firstly as a Director of a teachers centre and then as a curriculum adviser for primary schools. Her current position as Deputy Head of the Department for Teacher Education involves strategic planning for the area of ITE alongside teaching on the Primary PGCE programme and working in partnership with schools in the supervision of trainee teachers. She also supervises MEd and PhD students. Under Christine's leadership as a Director of ITE the teacher training programmes at the University have gained Ofsted Outstanding status (the highest accolade) for the last three inspections. The impact of this accolade is noted in the high status nationally and internationally of the courses and is reflected by the excellent recruitment and employment rates of the students. As Director of Primary Education she is proud to have trained over a thousand primary teachers, many who have gone on to leadership positions in local partnership schools.