Jo McShane

I have been a qualified Religious Studies and Humanities teacher since 1996, working in middle and senior leadership positions teaching since 2000. Much of this leadership has been within ITT settings, including Director of Secondary PGCE at Newcastle University, Assistant Principal and Director of Shotton Hall SCITT and Programme Leader for Primary PGCE at University Sunderland, which is the first post I held within this vibrant School of Education. During my first year I established a Secondary Religious Education (RE) PGCE programme which launched in September 2019. As part of a suite of Humanities programmes, the course offers the only University subject provision in the North East of England. 

In recent years I have become renowned for my work on the development of strategies for Twenty-First-Century Learning and the essential presence of critical thinking and enquiry, which I have delivered for both international and national audiences.  I have written extensively, served as a magazine editor and led on national initiatives such as a strategic approaches to teacher workload and wellbeing. My current research foci are illegal school exclusion (off-rolling) practices in English Secondary schools, and the development of 'Assessment Literacy' for students in Higher education. I became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2019, and am delighted to be starting my Professional Doctorate this year. 

Key to this year's ITT work will be the consolidation of a visionary and C21st-relevant RE PGCE Curriculum, which develops subject teachers who are critically aware of the changing nature of their discipline in the current national and global contexts. The programme is underpinned by the most recent curriculum development philosophies in its development of rich, interdisciplinary approaches to subject learning drawn from solid consideration of curriculum intent. 

Learning to teach The Humanities via immersion in the Geography and History PGCE programmes promises to build distinctively skilled entrants into the Secondary sector. 

I also teach on the Education Studies (BA), Primary Education (BA and PGCE) and MA programmes in the School of Education. 

I am committed to the development of the best teachers who can make a sustained impact on the removal of barriers to the education of children and young people.