- 2012: Overview of Religious Education in England for Sinobridge.
Geoff Taggart
-
+44 (0) 118 378 2643
-
Associate Professor
- PhD, EdD and MA supervision
- Academic tutor
Areas of interest
All of my teaching and research focusses on ways in which education can help us to flourish as human beings. A key theme centres on adult behaviour in learning organisations which espouse an ethic of care, particularly behaviours associated with professional resilience and reflection. Early years is a rich context for this work. I investigated spiritual development for my PhD and have been ordained as an interfaith minister: I therefore retain a strong interest in the philosophical foundations of education and am exploring the new field of contemplative pedagogy. I convene the following modules:
- EDM174 Values and Practices in Education (with Helen Bilton)
- EDM182 Professional Studies
- ED2BHW Head and Heart: Education for Wisdom and Community
- ED3FRL Reflective Leaders of Learning
- EDM200 Families and Learning
Postgraduate supervision
Masters and Phd/EdD Level Supervision offered in these areas:
- Supervision in early years settings.
- Attachment styles amongst early years practitioners.
- Spiritual development in education.
- Professionalism and an ethic of care.
- Practitioner self-care and burnout.
- Interfaith religious education.
- Contemplative pedagogy
- Ethics and teacher professionalism
- Mindfulness and education
Current and Recent PhD and EdD Students, with Topics/Titles of their research:
- Andy Wall - Applying the pedagogy of Paulo Freire to a curriculum initiative in Ireland
- Hongyan Zhang - 'Left behind' preschool children in rural China
- Wasayef Albouainain - Socio-dramatic play and children's cultural and social development
- Broadfoot, H. Compassion and early childhood practice
- Pawson, G. Supervision in early years settings in the UK
- Morris, L. Early years practitioners' perceptions of their emotional labour
- Blagrove, I. The factors that influence the acceptance or rejection of the Big Bang theory and biological evolution in life-long learning
Teaching
- FD/BA Children's Development and Learning
- BA Education Studies
- BA Ed Primary (Humanities)
- PG Certificate in Early Years Practice
- PGCE Primary
- MA Education
Research projects
- Re-gendering Early Years: from Maternal Care to Political Compassion : interviews with early years practitioners who are also mothers. Argues for the need to re-interpret the maternal tradition in early childhood education.
- Good with Children: ethical formation in early childhood teacher programmes. Argues for an affective approach to ethical formation and development in teacher development
Values in Education.
Additional:
- Taggart, G. (2019) Early childhood education: from maternal care to social compassion In Barton, G. and Garvis, S. (eds) Compassion and Empathy in Educational Contexts London: Palgrave
Academic qualifications
- Senior Fellow of Higher Education Association
Selected publications
Conference Presentations:
- Compassionate pedagogy in the early years International Symposium on Compassionate Organizations, Kentucky USA May 2013
- Taggart, G. (2011, October). Caring plc: professional subjectivity and the commodification of childcare. Paper presented at the 19th Reconceptualising Early Childhood Education Conference, University of East London
- 'Perceptions of Early Childhood Education and Care as a Profession and Career' European Early Childhood Education Research Association conference, Birmingham, 2010
- 'Towards a more holistic form of teacher education' ESCALATE 2007, St Martins College, Lancaster
Enterprise Activity, External Roles and Consultancy:
Publications
- Taggart, G. (2019) Cultivating ethical dispositions in early childhood practice for an ethic of care: a contemplative approach. In: Langton, R. , (eds.) Theorizing Feminist Ethics of Care in Early Childhood Practice: Possibilities and Dangers. Bloomsbury , New York. ISBN: 9781350067486
- Taggart, G. (2016) Compassionate pedagogy: the ethics of care in early childhood professionalism. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal , 24 (2). pp. 173-185. ISSN: 1752-1807 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2014.970847
- Taggart, G. (2015) Sustaining care: cultivating mindful practice in early years professional development. Early Years , 35 (4). pp. 381-393. ISSN: 0957-5146 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2015.1105200
- Taggart, G. (2011) Don't we care?: the ethics and emotional labour of early years professionalism. Early Years , 31 (1). pp. 85-95. ISSN: 0957-5146 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2010.536948
- Taggart, G. (2010) Religious and spiritual identity and citizenship education in the UK . In: Soininen, M. and Merisuo-Storm, T. , (eds.) Looking at Diversity in Different Ways. University of Turku , Turku, Finland. pp. 95-119.
- Sturman, L. and Taggart, G. (2008) The professional voice: comparing questionnaire and telephone methods in a national survey of teachers' perceptions . British Educational Research Journal , 34 (1). pp. 117-134. ISSN: 0141-1926 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01411920701492159
- Taggart, G. and Ridley, K. (2005) Thinking skills in the early years: a literature review. NFER , Slough. pp 73. ISBN: 9781905314126
- Taggart, G. (2004) Whitehead and Marcuse: teaching the “art of life". Process Papers , 8 pp. 53-67.
- Taggart, G. (2002) Spiritual literacy and tacit knowledge. Journal of Beliefs and Values , 23 (1). pp. 7-17. ISSN: 1469-9362 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13617670220125638
- Taggart, G. (2002) Mickey Mouse spirituality? Children’s worldviews and the culture industry. British Journal of Religious Education , 25 (1). pp. 60-68. ISSN: 1740-7931 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0141620020250106