Newcastle alumnus Dr Nick Mead has written a personal blog on his experiences since his time at Newcastle. The blog discusses his university education, his professional career and the release of his book, ‘Values and Professional Knowledge in Teacher Education’, which has been released to Newcastle University's Robinson Library for students to access.
The blog details Dr Mead's career. He has been in education since graduating from Newcastle University, teaching for 18 years before becoming a lecturer in Education at Oxford Brookes University in 1997, where he has since been for 23 years.
In his new book, ‘Values and Professional Knowledge in Teacher Education’, Dr Mead incorporates all of his experience since 1969, the influences of his degree at Newcastle University and his following professional career in education. The book explores Mead’s advocacy for the relationship between a teacher’s personal, moral and political values and the freedom to develop these in their classroom practice, an interest initially formed during his time at Newcastle.
The book also takes note that there is ‘something of worth at stake’ when teaching is undermined by standards-based education that is focused on box-ticking and performance. Dr Mead states that this belief took on more meaning for him whilst he was the head of Religious Education at a comprehensive school and mentored new teachers, making him increasingly aware of trainee’s needs. He states that his self-understanding and communication skills were crucial when developing the relationship between mentee’s values and classroom practice, he called this ‘personal practical theory’.
Dr Nick Mead’s book, ‘Values and Professional Knowledge in Teacher Education’, is available in the Robinson Library on the Newcastle University campus.
