Rachel Hunter
Senior Lecturer
Biography
Rachel is a Senior Lecturer who teaches on the BAQTS (both EYs and Primary pathways) and the PGCE Primary courses. She leads a third year module on assessment for learning in the EYFS and supports associate teachers in her role as a Personal Academic Tutor and also as a University Based Teacher Educator Mentor. Rachel has 15 years experience teaching across the Primary and Nursery age range. In recent years she has specialised in Early Years, teaching for the last 6 years in a maintained nursery school with an enquiry-based approach. Rachel has experience of working with the pedagogy of Reggio Emilia and has taken part in two study tours there as well as working on long term, enquiry projects with children and families in the Telford area. Rachel has been involved in numerous Erasmus+ research projects with pre-schools from around Europe, working with educators from Sweden, Spain and Romania to look at different approaches to high-quality early years education. She has an MA in Early Years where her research included ways of developing empathy through a nature-based curriculum, pedagogical documentation as a tool to increase children’s wellbeing and relationship-based pedagogies. She presented her MA dissertation research at the Children and Childhoods conference in July 2022.
Research and Knowledge Exchange
Rachel's research interests lie in Early Years pedagogy and are particularly inspired by the pre-schools in Reggio Emilia. She is interested in the emotional wellbeing of young children and how to support them to develop positive relationships, the role of documentation in creating a sense of belonging and researchful pedagogies with young children.