Goldsmiths - University of London

Dr Roberto Di Napoli (PhD, MA, PGCE, Dott Lett)

Roberto started at Goldsmiths in October 2009, when he took up his position as Head of GLEU. His role is to provide academic leadership for the Unit (which brings together  two existing units, the Learning and Teaching Office and the Centre for Excellence in Learning Technology). As Head of Unit, Roberto works with academic departments to enhance the learning experience of Goldsmiths students and assists in the introduction of new academic practices. He also has a remit to promote scholarship and research in learning, teaching and assessment. Roberto plays a leading role in developing staff networks for the dissemination of effective and forward looking practice in learning and teaching.

Before joining Goldsmiths, Roberto worked at Imperial College London, for a number of years, as Senior Lecturer in Educational Development and as Director of the MEd in University Learning and Teaching. He also took a very active part in the delivery of the MEd in Surgical Education. He also worked in a number of other institutions: the University of Westminster, Cork University (Republic of Ireland), International House London and two secondary schools, one of which in Madrid (Spain). The first part of Roberto’s career was firmly embedded within Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, before he progressively became more fully involved in teacher education, in the mid-Nineties.

Studies

Roberto took his first degree in Modern Languages in Italy. He worked on his PGCE in ESOL and Modern Languages at the Institute of Education (University of London). Subsequently, he studied for his MA in Applied Linguistics, also at the Institute of Education, before embarking, at the same institution, on his doctoral studies in Higher Education Studies, where he completed his thesis: Modern Languages: Which Identities? Which Selves? under the supervision of Professor Ron Barnett.

Consultancy, Supervision, External Examining and Other Activities

Roberto has a long experience in the development of teachers and has acted as external examiner and/or advisor in a number of institutions in the UK (King’s, Bath, Open University, Nottingham Trent and many more). He has also organised conferences at the University of Westminster, the Institute of Romance Studies (University of London) and Imperial College London.

He also has consultancy experience in Uzbekistan (Tashkent), Spain (Barcelona, Zaragoza and Alicante), France (UNESCO, Paris) and Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur). One of his workshops, Communicating Knowledge, is now firmly embedded within the teacher education programme at the University of Barcelona.

He has also co-edited four books and written a number of scholarly papers.

He is currently co-supervising, with Professor Carrie Paechter, a PhD on surgical education. He still works in a consultancy role at Imperial College London, on the MEd in Surgical Education. He still supervises dissertions on the MEd in Surgical Education at Imperial College London. 

Roberto has been a grant holder at Imperial College London and with the HEA-based CELT on Academic Practice (University of Oxford). His research focussed on the identities of educational developers and of early career academics. Scholarly-wise, Roberto is particularly linked with the University of Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium).

Roberto regularly talks at national and international conferences on higher education and educational development. He regularly reviews articles for Studies in Higher Education, the Oxford Review of Education and IJAD (International Journal of Academic Development). He is part of the editorial committee of RED U (Revista de docencia universitaria).

Roberto was interviewed by the THES in November 2008 (John Gill ‘Is student-centred learning a true pedagogical advance or just a fad?’ (THES, 11-18 December 2008, No. 1,875).

Roberto is a full member of the SRHE (Society for Research into Higher Education), the HEA (Higher Education Academy) and EARLI (European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction).

Selected publications

Theoretical Books

Barnett, R. and Di Napoli, R. (2008) (eds). Changing Identities in Higher Education: Voicing perspectives. London: Routledge.

Di Napoli, R., L. Polezzi and A. King (eds) (2001). Fuzzy Boundaries? Reflections on modern languages and the humanities. London: CILT.

Pedagogical Books

Project Co-ordinator (2001/2008).  Foundations Italian 1. Palgrave/MacMillan.

Editor (1998). What? Listening to British Culture. Milano: Colonna.

Chapters in books

Borg, M., Maunder, R., Jiang, X., Walsh, E. and Fry, H. and Di Napoli, R. ‘International students and academic acculturation: the role of relationships in the doctoral process’. Jones, E. (ed) (2009). Internationalisation and the Student Voice. London: Routledge.

Di Napoli, R. (2008) ‘Case study on reflective practice and writing’. Fry, H., Ketteridge, S. And Marshall, S. (eds). A Handbook for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing academic practice (third edition). London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Kingsbury, M. and Di Napoli, R. (2008) ‘Academic Conferences’. Hall, G. and Longman, J.(eds). The Research Postgraduate's Companion: A handbook for all potential and current postgraduate research students. London: Sage.

Journal Articles

Jiang, X., Di Napoli, R., Borg, M., Maunder, R., Fry, H. and Walsh, E. ‘Becoming and being an academic: the perspectives of Chinese staff in two research-intensive UK universities’ Studies in Higher Education, March 2010.

Di Napoli, R., Fry, H., Frenay, M., Verhesschen, P. and Verburgh, A. ‘Academic development and educational developers: voices from different European higher education contexts. IJAD - International Journal of Academic Development, December 2009.

Di Napoli, R. (2008).‘A view from outside: educational development between national trends and institutional issues at Imperial College London’. RED-U – Revista de Docencia Universitaria. No. 1-2 – 15 May 2008, pp. 17-30.

Di Napoli, R. (2006). ‘The possibility of (another) island: ontological and epistemological spaces in the doctoral journey’, in Educate, Vol 6, No 1, pp. 13-24.