PhD students

Miles Smith

PhD student - The Past Through Their Eyes: Exploring Children’s Perspectives on the Purpose and Value of History within the Primary Phase

01752 636700

msmith@marjon.ac.uk

Role Summary

Miles has an eclectic professional background, having worked a variety of educational settings and contexts, both domestically and internationally. As the Programme Lead for our Primary Education (BA) programme, and with ten years experience in the primary education sector, Miles’ main research interests lie in children’s learning, curriculum and pedagogy. Miles is interested in how changing social and cultural forces impact education and how the educational landscape continues to evolve. For his research, he is investigating (with children) what purpose and value history holds in the lives of young people, and whether wider changes in education are impacting on children’s experience of history and the value they ascribe to it.

Tweets by Miles Smith

Qualifications

MA (Hons) English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, King's College London
BA (Hons) History, University of Warwick
Qualified Teacher Status - Suffolk & Norfolk Initial Teacher Training
Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Teaching

Miles has diverse teaching experience and has worked in various contexts, ranging from early years kindergarten settings in Taiwan to primary schools in Devon. He has worked with both children, adolescents, young adults and mature learners, and he is a passionate advocate of lifelong learning. As a qualified teacher, Miles draws on his experience and knowledge of teaching in both his professional practice at Marjon University, and also in his methodological approach in his research, which seeks to fully engage children’s voices and perspectives in an ethical and emancipatory way.

At Marjon, Miles leads the Primary Education (BA) programme, but he is involved in a number of other programmes and has various other roles, including as a member of the university’s Pedagogical Innovation Forum and the Ethics Panel. He is also a member of Marjon’s CAPE (Context, Agency, Place and Education) knowledge and research exchange group.

Research

The Past Through Their Eyes

Start date: February 2021
Supervisors: Professor Ian Luke, Dr Arthur Chapman and Dr Gregory Borne

Publications

Miles made various contributions to English language textbooks when working in Taiwan.

He has also written a chapter entitled ‘Working with your Supervisor’ for an upcoming book on educational research.

Other Interests

Miles maintains close links with the Primary Education sector as a Governor at a school in Plymouth and a school in Devon, where he takes a role in challenging the quality of education. He is also a member of the Historical Association.