Dr Joan Woodhouse

Before working in Higher Education, I was a secondary schoolteacher in the English Midlands for approximately 18 years, during which time I held a variety of middle and senior leadership posts. I subsequently took up a post as Senior Lecturer in Secondary Education at Canterbury Christ Church University, where I was responsible for the dual certification programme PGCE (mfl) with Maîtrise FLE (Français Langue Etrangère), offered via a partnership arrangement with Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale. In 2008, I was appointed to the position of Postgraduate Training Co-ordinator at the University of Leicester, leading a team in the provision of research skills training for doctoral students university-wide. I moved to the School of Education in February 2010, to take up the post of Lecturer in Education, and was promoted to Associate Professor in Education in 2016. I am currently the programme lead for the MSc in Educational Leadership (Distance Learning), working with practising teachers and middle and senior leaders in educational institutions around the world. I am a member of the British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society, where I have fulfilled a number of key roles, including that of co-editor of the journal Management in Education. I am also a member of the British Educational Research Association and the British Psychological Society. In 2021, I was awarded a University Distinguished Teaching Fellowship in recognition of my leadership and success in devising inclusive, equitable, student-centred pedagogies and my contributions to pedagogic research in Higher Education.

I have a keen research interest in teachers’ lives and careers. I have researched the experiences of women teachers and headteachers, career-long teachers and novice teachers. I have a particular interest in the factors affecting women teachers’ careers, especially motherhood. My recent projects include:

(i) Student teacher mothers' perceptions and experiences of combining PGCE and motherhood: This project has involved interviews with student teachers who are mothers, in order to ascertain their perspectives on the challenges of combining initial teacher education (ITE) and motherhood. Twenty women were interviewed over two years (2020-21), allowing for some comparison to be made in women's experiences pre- and during the Covid-19 restrictions. Insights from the women's experiences have implications for policy and practice in ITE. Reports on this work can be found in the following publications:

Woodhouse, J. (2024) Experiences of student teacher mothers before and during COVID-19: lessons in flexibility, Chapter 3 in K. Marsh-Davies & C. Burnett (Eds), Teachers and teaching post-COVID: seizing opportunities for change.  London: Routledge.

Woodhouse, J., Guihen, L. & Scalise, M. (2022) ‘I’ve just got to get through it!’  Student teacher-mothers negotiating the challenges of the Initial Teacher Education year.  Teacher Education Network Journal 14 (1): 46-60.

Woodhouse, J. & Guihen, L. (2022) The missing statistic in Initial Teacher Education:  Experiences and support needs of student teachers who are mothers.  In V. Showunmi, P. Moorosi, C Shakeshaft and I. Oplatka) (eds) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Gender and Educational Leadership and Management, pp. 291-314. London: Bloomsbury. 

(ii) Career histories and reflections of career-long teachers:  This study draws on interviews with teachers who have remained in the teaching profession career-long.  It focuses on their reflections on how policy shift in English education has impacted on their daily work as teachers, and on the factors that have sustained them in the profession, when so many of their peers have left ahead of retirement age. A detailed report on the study can be found in my book:

Woodhouse, J. (2023) Teaching in England post-1988: Reflections and career histories. Leeds: Emerald.

Woodhouse, J. (2024) Experiences of student teacher mothers before and during COVID-19: lessons in flexibility, Chapter 3 in K. Marsh-Davies & C. Burnett (Eds), Teachers and teaching post-COVID: seizing opportunities for change.  London: Routledge.

Woodhouse, J. (2023) Teaching in England post-1988: Reflections and career histories. Leeds: Emerald.

Woodhouse, J., Guihen, L. & Scalise, M. (2022) ‘I’ve just got to get through it!’  Student teacher-mothers negotiating the challenges of the Initial Teacher Education year.  Teacher Education Network Journal 14 (1): 46-60.

Woodhouse, J. & Guihen, L. (2022) The missing statistic in Initial Teacher Education:  Experiences and support needs of student teachers who are mothers.  In V. Showunmi, P. Moorosi, C Shakeshaft and I. Oplatka) (eds) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Gender and Educational Leadership  and Management, pp. 291-314. London: Bloomsbury.

Wood, P. & Woodhouse, J. (2021) The temporalities of the writing experience of part-time doctoral students in Education.  In F. Vostal (ed) Inquiring into academic timescapes.  London: Emerald.

Woodhouse, J. & Wood, P. (2020) Creating dialogic spaces: developing doctoral students' critical writing skills through peer assessment, Studies in Higher Education, DOI:10.1080/03075079.2020.1779686

Woodhouse, J. & Pedder, D. (2017) Early career teachers perceptions and experiences of leadership development: balancing structure and agency in contrasting school contexts, Research Papers in Education, 32:5, 553-577  DOI:10.1080/02671522.2016.1225794

Wood, P. & Smith, J. (2016) Educational Research: taking the plunge Camarthen: Independent Thinking Press Limited.

Smith, J., Wood, P., Lewis, G. & Burgess, H. (2016) Critical friendship as a pedagogical strategy.  In V. Storey (Ed) International perspectives on designing professional practice doctorates: applying the critical friends approach to the EdD and beyond. Florida: Palgrave Macmillan.

Smith, J. (2015) Motherhood and women teachers' career decisions: a constant battle in J. Harford & K. Fuller (eds) Gender and leadership: women achieving against the odds Oxford: Peter Lang

Smith, J. (2014) Gendered trends in student teachers professional aspirations Educational Management Administration and Leadership Online first DOI: 10.1177/1741143214543200

Smith, J., Wood, P., Lewis, G. & Burgess, H. (2014) Developing doctoral students’ critical writing skills through peer assessment. Research Intelligence, 124, 12-13

Burgess, H., Smith, J., Wood, P. & Scalise, M. (2014) Developing peer assessment in postgraduate research methods training. York: HEA

Smith, J. (2012) Pastoral care and the role of the form tutor.  In S. Dymoke (ed) Reflective Teaching and Learning (2^nd edition). London: Sage

Smith, J.M. (2012) Reflections on using life history to investigate women teachers aspirations and career decisions, Qualitative Research, 12 (4): 486-503.

Busher, H., Kakos, M., Mohamed, C., Smith, J. & Wilkins, C. (2012) Crossing borders: new teachers constructing professional identity in performative times. Professional Development in Education, 38: 1, 65-78

Smith, J.M. (2011)  Aspirations to and perceptions of secondary headship: contrasting women teachers and headteachers perspectives, Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 39 (5): 516-535.

Smith, J.M. (2011) Agency and female teachers career decisions: a life history study of forty women, Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 39 (1): 7-24

Smith, J.M. (2008) Maslow, motivation and female teachers career decisions, Psychology of Women Section Review, 10 (1): 22-30

I would be interested in supervising doctoral students whose proposed research focuses on, for example:

• Women’s careers in education
• Women's experiences of combining motherhood and study/teaching career
• Teachers’ experiences of academisation
• Life histories of headteachers
• Teachers’ and educational leaders’ careers
• The experiences of part-time workers in education
• Women's experiences of Further and Higher Education

I currently lead the MSc Educational Leadership Distance Learning programme. I convene two modules on the programme, and supervise several students. I also have extensive experience of supervising doctoral students, having supervised approximately 40 postgraduate researchers through to successful completion. My work with postgraduate students has led me to develop a research interest in developing students’ critical writing skills. Reports on some of my pedagogical research can be found on my publications page.     

Women’s career experiences in education

Member of:

• the British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society (BELMAS)
• the British Educational Research Association (BERA)
• the British Psychological Society (BPS)

Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy

University Distinguished Teaching Fellow

Woodhouse, J. (June 2023) Peer feedback helps writers grow. Keynote address, University of Leicester School of Education Doctoral Summer School Writing Retreat

Woodhouse, J. (June 2023) Understanding the longevity of the career-long teacher. University of Leicester School of Education Annual Research Conference.

Woodhouse, J. (June 2022) Towards family-friendly flexibility in Initial Teacher Education: Insights from the Covid-19 cohort of student teacher mothers.  University of Leicester School of Education Annual Research Conference.

Syyeda, F. & Woodhouse, J. (June 2022) Reconstructing life stories using the three dimensional space narrative structure to study adult learners' experiences of re-engagement with Mathematics. University of Leicester School of Education Annual Research Conference.

Woodhouse J., Mohamed C., Wood P. & Sorensen P. (July 2019) Reflecting on an era of reform: older teachers' insights on school sector re-structuring and teachers' work. BELMAS annual conference.

Woodhouse J. & Guihen L. (June 2019) The invisible statistic: an investigation into student teacher mothers’ perceptions of their experiences during the PGCE year Women Leading Education Conference University of Nottingham

Woodhouse J. & Wood P. (June 2018) Creating dialogic spaces: developing doctoral students’ critical writing skills through peer assessment LLI Discovering teaching excellence @ Leicester conference

Woodhouse J., Mohamed C., Wood P.. Sorensen P. & Drari D. (September 2017) Reflecting on an era of reform: full career serving teachers' insights into the impact of constant reform on their working lives. British Educational Research Association Annual Conference Brighton.

BSC (Hons) Human Communication (Aston)

PGCE (Secondary French) (Birmingham)

MBA Education Management (Leicester)

PhD Education (Leeds)