Maggie Pitfield BEd MA
Maggie is lecturer in Secondary English with media and drama on the PGCE Programme at Goldsmiths and is Coordinator, with Emma Snowden, of the Flexible PGCE Programme. Prior to joining the department in 2002 she taught Drama and English, and latterly Media Studies, in London secondary schools, a career spanning some 24 years. Maggie has had considerable experience as a Head of English. She was also Chair of Harrow Teachers’ Consultative Committee for a number of years, and was a member of the BBC English Education Consultative Group.
As well as designing and writing the self-study, distance learning modules for the flexible PGCE Secondary English course, Maggie has investigated and written about the experience for student-teachers following a flexible PGCE programme and the role of the school mentor in this process. She has also researched the perspectives of student-teachers and trainees pursuing different routes into English teaching.
Maggie has worked with the education arm of The Complete Works Theatre Company to develop an assessment and reporting system to support the company’s work with ‘looked after’ children in the London area.
In the Spring of 2007 she participated in a series of visit to schools in Georgia, USA, a joint project with Georgia Southern University and Deptford Green School. She also presented at the National Youth At Risk Conference with the teachers from Deptford Green School and course leaders for the Georgia Southern Writing Project. She was invited for a further visit to Georgia Southern University and returned in March 2008.
Maggie is keenly interested in the relationship between English and Drama in the secondary curriculum, and has recently undertaken research involving both the PGCE Drama and English cohorts of students. She is currently pursuing MPhil/PhD studies in this area at the Institute of Education, London.
Maggie was appointed to the post of Deputy Head of Department, Educational Studies, in January 2010.
Conferences
July 2005: SCUTREA conference, University of Sussex, UK. ‘The implications of flexibility for Postgraduate Initial Teacher Education’.
March 2007: National Youth at Risk Conference, Georgia Southern University, USA. ‘The impact on pupil progress of different approaches to teaching writing’. (With colleagues from Deptford Green School and the Georgia Southern University Writing Project.)
April 2009: BERA Literacy and Language Conference, University of Reading, UK. ‘How do student-teachers approach reading?’
May 2009: ESCalate ITE conference, Glyndwr University, Wrexham, UK. ‘How flexible is flexible? Flexible learning in Initial Teacher Education: implications for programme design and school-based experience’.
March 2010: presentation at the Centre for Arts and Learning, Goldsmiths, University of London. ‘The development of drama teacher identity’.
Selected publications
(2006) Making a crisis out of a drama: the relationship between English and Drama within the English curriculum for ages 11-14, Changing English, 13 (1) pp. 97-109
(2006) Flexibility in Initial Teacher Education: implications for Pedagogy and Practice, Journal for Education in Teaching, 32 (2) pp. 185-196. Co-authored with Dr Liz Morrison
(2006) Routes into English Teaching: beginning teachers’ reflections on college-based and school-based Initial Teacher Education programmes, Changing English, 13 (3) pp. 283-292. Co-authored with Jane Coles
(2009) Teachers’ experiences of mentoring on a flexible initial teacher education programme: implications for partnership development, Journal for Education in Teaching, 35 (1), pp.19-32. Co-authored with Dr Liz Morrison
(2010) How Student-teachers Approach the Teaching of Reading: At the Interface Between Personal History, Theory and Practice, Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, 17 (1) pp. 35-44. Co-authored with Dr Vicky Obied.
Publications Submitted
Constructing and re-constructing the relationship between drama and English in the secondary curriculum: student-teachers’ perspectives at the end of an initial teacher education year. English in Education (Special Issue Life Made Conscious: the drama of English, Spring 2011).
Student-teachers of secondary drama and the pursuit of pedagogical subject knowledge. Submitted to Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance.
Book chapter: Drama in English. In Green, A. (ed) Becoming a Reflective English Teacher. McGraw-Hill.