About Emeritus Professor Stephanie Atkinson
I have undergraduate qualifications as a Product and Furniture Designer from Northumbria University and a PhD from Newcastle University.
I've held senior appointments in design and technology at all levels: in schools as Head of 3D Studies, as Lecturer at Loughborough University and as Principal Lecturer, Reader and now Professor at University of Sunderland.
I am a member of four international journal’s editorial boards. I examine PhD’s internationally and I am an external examiner for several universities. I'm also the external advisor for Design Technology for the International Baccalaureate Organisation.
I have made an outstanding contribution as a teacher, teacher educator and researcher. I am widely respected within both design and educational fields. This was both recognised, and demonstrated, as a keynote presenter at conferences in the UK, Botswana, Slovakia, Cyprus and Australia. In 2010, I was presented by the Design and Technology Association with an award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Design and Technology Education’.
In 2011, I was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Higher Education.
Interests
- Design literacy theory and practice
- Assessment and evaluation of design and technology
- Graphical communication
- Craftsmanship in resistant materials.
Research
My early research for my PhD focused on the de-motivation of pupils in schools. More recently, I have been investigating the design activity of students training to become teachers in terms of learning styles and their relationship to factors such as designing styles, creativity, gender and computer-aided learning.