Dr Paula Hamilton
Senior Lecturer
Biography
Paula is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and is currently Programme Leader for MA Education, Society and Globalisation. She has worked as a senior lecturer in higher education since 2007 on programmes related to early years, childhood, family, inclusion, and education studies. After leading the BA (Hons) Education and Childhood Studies programme for 10 years at Wrexham Glyndwr University, she took up her position at the University of Chester in January 2018. Paula's areas of teaching and research relate to social justice, inclusion and equality, particularly issues concerning children and young people. Previous to working in higher education, Paula worked in further education for 10 years at Coleg Cambria (Deeside College and Yale College) teaching on childhood studies and health and social care programmes. She also has experience of teaching in primary and secondary schools.
Teaching and Supervision
Paula delivers modules on under-graduate and post-graduate programmes and, supervises dissertations, on a range of topics relating to social justice, equality and diversity, health and well-being, and research methods. Modules taught include: Children and Communities Marginalisation in Childhood Research Design Dissertation Human Rights and Reflective Practice Dissertation supervision: BA, MA, EdD/PhD
Research and Knowledge Exchange
Paula’s research interests lie in the field of social justice, equality, diversity, and inclusion, particularly issues relating to gender equality, cultural diversity and the health and well-being of children and young people. She is a keen advocate of creative participatory research methodology which enables children, young people, and marginalised groups, to better express their lived experiences. Paula's journal and book publications relate to gender equality; children in care; Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities; migrant worker/EAL children; and children's perceptions of disability. Paula's PhD, completed in 2011, focused on the transitions made by Eastern European children as they settled into primary schools in Northeast Wales, and the pedagogical practices of practitioners who had little previous exposure of linguistic and ethnic diversity. Prior to the completion of the PhD, Paula had attained a Master of Philosophy which focused on the European Network of Health Promoting Schools in the 1990s and later, in 2007, a Master of Education (Primary and Inclusive Education).