About Dr Elizabeth Hidson
I am an established practitioner researcher in teacher education. My educational technology and teaching expertise spans from 14 years of hands-on classroom experience and senior leadership in diverse London schools to cutting-edge academic research in digital pedagogies and teacher professional development.
I've pioneered video-enhanced dialogic assessment methods that are now embedded across the University of Sunderland’s international teacher training programmes, reaching 500+ students annually across 60+ countries. As Chair of the Technology, Pedagogy and Education Association TPEA(opens in new tab)) and TPE journal editorial board member, I help shape national and international conversations about technology in education.
My research-active portfolio includes competitive funding successes, international collaborations, writing, editorial work, and leadership of Unit of Assessment 23 (Education) for REF 2029, positioning our institution at the forefront of practitioner research excellence. As a Vice-Chancellor’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Fellow, I co-founded the InterAction (opens in new tab)research unit, developing research partnerships with schools and supporting teachers as agents of educational transformation.
In addition to developing next-generation teachers and school leaders, and supervising postgraduate researchers, I am now the programme leader for the MA in International Education via distance learning, enabling educational professionals worldwide to pursue advanced study in international education, leadership, and pedagogical practice while continuing their teaching careers.
Teaching and supervision
My main current teaching is within our School of Education Master's degree provision. I lead module EPDM27: Understanding the Mission and Vision of International Schools, as well as EPDM83: The Nature of Teaching and Learning. I teach on module EPDM09: Introduction to Criticality and also on EPDM95: Research Methods. I supervise MA students on the EPDM93: MA Thesis module.
I am also a doctoral supervisor for PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) and DProf (Professional Doctorate) candidates, under our Graduate School.
Interests
My research interests include international teacher education and professional development, practitioner research, educational technology, video-enhanced lesson observation and dialogic assessment, technology-enhanced learning and digital pedagogies, ICT and computing education, and the use of digital and visual research methods.
Research
Research and Knowledge Exchange Fellow 2023–2025
Appointed as a research and knowledge exchange fellow to collaborate on impactful research with schools. The goal is to co-construct evidence-informed solutions to teaching and learning priorities that the school wants to focus on, and facilitate reciprocal knowledge exchange between teachers, schools, and the University. This work comes under the InterAction(opens in new tab) umbrella, a school-focused research unit that sits within the School of Education Centre for Research in Education and in partnership with a range of schools and school networks.
International Participatory Research Project 2022
Led a funded pilot project to develop collaborative, co-produced school-focused research with international school leaders. We worked together to explore 'English for Science' with multilingual iGCSE students in China. This project won the BERA Best Practitioner Research presentation award at the BERA 2023 conference. Find out more about the BERA 2023 conference.(opens in new tab)
The Vice-Chancellor's Teaching Fellow Award 2021–2022
Initiated the Reflective Action in Education (SunRAE(opens in new tab)) project: an internationally-focused staff-student research e-journal(opens in new tab) and e-conference now integrated into the PGCE (DL) provision at the University of Sunderland. This incorporates a podcast(opens in new tab) project developed with the support of the University of Sunderland's Radio, Audio and Podcasting team and the Sunderland Creatives Agency(opens in new tab).
The Vice-Chancellor's Fellowship Team Award 2020–2021
I led a team of fellow international teacher education staff to develop the use of Video-Enhanced Dialogic Assessment (VEDA). We were awarded one of four fellowship grants for the 2020–2021 academic year and have been sharing our work nationally and internationally on this exciting project from mid–2021 onwards.
Ongoing collaborations
I am part of the RATED(opens in new tab) consortium with UK-based teacher researchers and HEI colleagues, looking at Research-informed Approaches to Tackling Educational Disadvantage. We are currently exploring enhancing awareness and attention to biases in classroom interaction through the use of video-enhanced observation.
Past projects
Part of an international team working to build research capacity and develop CIERN(opens in new tab), an interdisciplinary network(opens in new tab) funded by the British Association of International and Comparative Education (BAICE(opens in new tab)). We held an international symposium in July 2023.
I worked in collaboration with colleagues at Ulster University, looking at the potential of adapting pedagogy to counter the stress and anxiety inherent in learning computer programming. The project was funded by an AdvanceHE 2019 SDP(opens in new tab) grant.
I have been involved in a range of funded international EdTech research projects: on video-enhanced lesson observation(opens in new tab) for teacher education and CPD; the creative use of mobile technologies(opens in new tab) for teacher education; self-organised learning(opens in new tab) to support schools tackling early school leaving; and multimedia apps(opens in new tab) for language learning.
My doctoral research(opens in new tab) looked at teachers' perceptions and pedagogical practices following the 2014 ICT to Computing change in the English National Curriculum.
My MA dissertation(opens in new tab) looked at multimodality, moving image, and the kineikonic mode in relation to student digital video production.
Areas of expertise
- Education
- International education
- Educational technology
- Teacher education
- Education and Teacher Training
- Research
- Comment and opinion
Further information
- Winner BERA 2023 conference Best Practitioner Research presentation award
- Member of the editorial board for Technology, Pedagogy and Education(opens in new tab) journal from 2023
- Vice-chair of the Technology, Pedagogy and Education Association(opens in new tab) 2023–2026
- Finalist judge on the Wharton-QS international Reimagine Education Awards(opens in new tab) 2021 judging panel
- Nominated for Best Evaluation Award at the Practical Pedagogy 2021(opens in new tab) conference for the "Video-Enhanced Dialogic Assessment: Online vivas for teacher assessment(opens in new tab)" paper
- Winner of an individual Vice-Chancellor's Teaching Fellow Award 2021–2022
- Winner of a Vice-Chancellor's Fellowship Team Award 2020–2021
- Winner: Delegates' Award for Best Conference Poster 2019 along with co-authors Shukla, P. and McLean, S. 'Enhancing teaching practice in a cross-disciplinary subject using positive pedagogy approaches'. SRHE Newer and early career researchers conference(opens in new tab). 10 December 2019
- Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
- Fellow of the College of Teachers (FCOT, MCollT); Chartered London Teacher; MirandaNet fellow
- Member of BERA, TPEA, NAACE, BAICE, NALDIC and the Chartered College of Teaching
- Associate Membership of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT)
- JCQ (Joint Council for Qualifications) Award for Services to Examining, 2017
- Foundation governor at a County Durham primary school
- Awarded the Gerald Collier Schoolteacher Scholarship by the College of St Hild and St Bede, Durham University, 2014