Dr Deborah Pope
Senior Lecturer
Deborah Pope is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Chester, specialising in science education and research methods. She is a former teacher and leader with extensive experience of working in diverse roles in schools in Wirral, North Wales and Liverpool. Deborah is currently acting as Deputy Chair of the School of Education Ethics Committee and is a committee member for the National Primary Teacher Education Council. Additionally, Deborah is a member of the university's Athena Swan self-assessment team and a national Athena Swan reviewer for Advance HE.
Deborah teaches across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the School of Education, connected to her areas of expertise. Additionally, she supervises Masters and Doctoral research students.
Subject knowledge for primary teaching
Curriculum, pedagogy, and policy
Teacher identity and professional learning
Recent publications
Pope, D. (2023) Becoming conservation champions through science learning. In K. Doull & S. Ogier (Eds.), Teaching climate change and sustainability in the primary curriculum. Sage.
Pope, D. (2020) Cognitive load theory and teacher expertise: Specific challenges for primary teachers. Impact Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching, Issue 8/Spring, p14-17.
Pope, D. (Ed) (2019) Understanding subject knowledge for primary teaching. London: Sage.
Deborah Pope (2019) Subject knowledge for primary teaching: the influence of the personal dimension on beginning primary teachers’ conceptualisations and interpretations, Education 3-13, 47:3, 293-307,
Pope, D. (2018) Subject knowledge for primary teaching: the influence of the personal dimension on beginning primary teachers’ conceptualisations and interpretations. Education 3-13.
Pope, D. (2017) Conceptions of subject knowledge in primary ITT: the perspectives of student teachers and teacher educators. Unpublished thesis (PhD), Liverpool John Moores University.
Barker, J. and Pope, D. (2016) WebQuests as a tool to support children in carrying out research using secondary sources to answer their scientific questions, Primary Science, 143, p26-28
Centre for Public Health (July 2014) Monkey’s Guide to Healthy Living and NHS Services: An evaluation of the implementation of resources designed to support the learning of primary school aged children in England.
Recent conference presentations
Pope, D. (2020) Keynote: Re-orientating subject knowledge for primary ITE. Annual Conference of the National Primary Teacher Education Council, November 2020, Oxford, United Kingdom. (Conference rescheduled online)
Pope, D. (2020) Ticking the right boxes? School-based mentors and subject knowledge in primary ITT. TEAN Conference May 2020, Manchester, United Kingdom. (Conference postponed)
Pope, D. (2018) Subject knowledge for a broad and balanced curriculum. Annual Conference of the National Primary Teacher Education Council, September 2018, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Pope, D. (2017) Subject knowledge discourses in primary initial teacher education. 13th Annual Conference of British Education Studies Association, June 2017, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Pope, D. (2016) Conceptions of subject knowledge in the initial training of primary school teachers. Annual Conference of the Cambridge Primary Review Trust, November 2016, London, United Kingdom.
Pope, D. (2015) Perceptions of ‘subject knowledge’ in the initial teacher training of primary school teachers: nature, role, purpose and process. Annual Conference of the National Primary Teacher Education Council, September 2015, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Pope, D. (2013) Perceptions of ‘subject knowledge’ in the initial teacher training of primary school teachers: ‘It’s only primary; all you do is cutting out.’ LJMU, Faculty of Education, Health and Community Annual Research Conference.
PhD, MA, BSc (Hons), PGCE, PGCertLTHE, FHEA, FCCT