Dr Paul Skillen

Visiting Lecturer
+44(0) 1244 512238
Chester School of Education
p.skillen@chester.ac.uk
Dr Paul Skillen

I have been involved in Education all my life. I worked for many years as a primary teacher before becoming a lecturer in Higher Education.

I have always combined my teaching with practice based research. The research has developed into recent publications listed below. As well as lecturing I have a keen interest in music stemming back to my involvement in the music industry in the early 1980s when I released records under the name of This Final Frame. I still write record and release music with two recent albums My Blue Heart (Universal Records 2010) and Ten Portraits (Crashing Records 2013). I am about to publish a book about the creative music scene in Liverpool during the 1980s called Scouse Pop on Equinox Publishing. The research for the book has also developed in to two series of television programmes also called Scouse Pop broadcast in 2015 and 2016. The programmes are available for playback on YouTube.

Memberships:

  • Member of the British Psychological Society (MBPS)
  • Member of the Performing Rights Society (MPRS)
  • Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Awards

  • Winner of CSU 2014 Above and Beyond Award for Outstanding Personal Academic Tutor.
  • Short listed in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

I have taught all age ranges from 3 year olds in Nursery through to adults in Higher Education. I was a primary school teacher for thirty years in schools in Merseyside. I began teaching in Higher Education in 2003 on teacher training programmes as well as mentoring trainees for Liverpool Hope Edge Hill and University of Chester. For the past seven years I have been involved with teaching and leading the BA Combined Honours Education Studies programme at University of Chester.

I have been active in a variety of research projects.  In 2002 I undertook a Best Practice Research Scholarship studying the use of Additional Literacy Support in Schools. This underpinned my M.Ed thesis. I later developed my doctorate research on a comparative study examining the teaching of reading in the United States and England.

I have worked as a researcher on funded projects at University of Chester examining accountability in the professions. This has led to two publications listed below as a book chapter and a journal article.

My current project is writing a book about music, creativity and youth culture in Liverpool during the 1980s. This will be published in 2015 under the title of ‘Scouse pop’.

Books:

  • Chapter 6 Accountability in the professions Murphy, M.Skillen, P. In Murphy, M . Eds (2013) Social Theory and Education Research. London:Routledge
  • Mark Murphy & Paul Skillen (2015) The Politics of Time on the Frontline: Street Level Bureaucracy, Professional Judgment, and Public Accountability, International Journal of Public Administration, 38:9, 632-641
  • Murphy, M. & Skillen, P. (2016) Exposure to the Law: Accountability and its impact on Street-level bureaucracy: Social Policy and Society. Cambridge University Press 
  • Forth coming: Skillen, P. (2017) Scouse Pop. Youth culture and music in Liverpool in 1980s. Sheffield: Equinox publishing.

Additional:

Scouse Pop Episodes 1-11 available on YouTube

Examples of most recent Broadcasts:

  • Ed.D (Keele)2013:  Thesis: A comparison of two approaches to teaching reading.
  • M.Ed Educational Psychology (Manchester) 2003:  Thesis: A Review of the use of Additional Literacy Support 1999-2001
  • B.Ed (Liverpool Institute of Higher Education) 1981