SCHOOL FOR POLICY STUDIES

Debbie Watson

Debbie Watson

Personal profile

Debbie took up her position as Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies at the School in August 2007. She is the Programme Director for the BSc Childhood Studies programme.

Debbie is an experienced teacher in schools and in Higher Education. She has taught on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes including Early Childhood, Childhood Education and Interpretive Research Methods. In particular, her interests have been in the sociology of childhood and in the health and well-being of children and young people.

Her research experiences include her PhD studies where she conducted a longitudinal study of young people's dispositions to scientific knowledge; and the national peer-led sex education programme "A PAUSE", based at the Peninsula Medical School, Exeter, where she worked with adolescent peers in a drama-based programme to develop accreditation processes to recognise their performance skills. She has also researched the qualification needs of excluded young people in Manchester; and young people's experiences of school nursing provisions in Croydon. Other projects have included two projects funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation where she worked with teaching and learning support assistants in primary, secondary, further education and special schools to determine aspects of practice for supporting learning and ways of formally assessing these through assessment of performance methodologies.

Current research includes a project funded by the Welsh Assembly working with Arad consulting determining how children’s service professionals across Wales can judge ‘distance travelled’ for young people in respect of their social and emotional learning. She is also involved in an EU funded Tempus project with colleagues in Europe, Jordan and Egypt developing a diploma in public policy and child rights for professionals working for and with children in these MENA countries.

Teaching interests

Sociological constructions of children; provision and professional practice working with children and families - including issues of diversity and inclusion; health and wellbeing of children and young people; teenage pregnancy and parenthood; sex education; children’s rights and voices; creative and interpretive research methods.

Research interests

Theorising identity and child well-being; assessment of performance; sex education; ethical working with vulnerable children; interprofessional working in children’s services and schools; participatory and creative research methods.

Research projects

Current

(Back to top)