Mr Peter Hughes

National Teaching Fellow, 2002 Institution at the time of Award: University of Sunderland Peter Hughes was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2002 while a senior lecturer in Environmental Studies at the University of Sunderland. The award reflected two career-long educational interests: the development of independence and autonomy in HE learners, and the establishment of collaborative and interdisciplinary learning environments, particularly within the context of education for sustainable development (ESD). The focus of the award expenditure has been developing the concept of Autonomous Learning Zones  (ALZ). This work is ongoing, and has unfurled into specific initiatives to do with personal development planning (PDP) and eportfolios, particularly within his involvement with the NTF project strand funded National Action Research Network for PDP, and the Fourth Cohort of the Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research. The award has prompted something a change in career direction: at the start of 2003 Peter joined the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Research in HE at Durham University as a Lecturer in University Education. This was followed in 2005 to a move to his current post at the University of Bradford where he is Senior Lecturer in Learning Development and course leader for the PGCert in Higher Education Practice. Although Peter has moved more into the education/education development field since the award of the fellowship, he has maintained his links with his original subject areas of Geography and Environmental Studies, particularly in terms of contributions to the activities of the GEES subject centre, and through maintaining teaching responsibilities in Geography & ES at the University of Bradford. His longstanding commitment (since 1991) to education for sustainable development is also bearing fruit within the  Ecoversity StuDent project as part of Bradford's Ecoversity initiative.