Suzy Tutchell

Email:
s.tutchell@reading.ac.uk
Phone:
0118 378 2793
Job title:
Associate Professor

Responsibilities:

Associate Professor in Art Education
Deputy Director for the Doctorate in Education Programme
Co-School Director for Racial Equity and Justice
EdD and PhD supervision
Creative Pathway lead for MA in Education
Pathway lead for BA Primary Education with Art

Areas of interest

Art and Education
Collaborative art
Issue-based art and art activism
Intergenerational art
Restorative and wellbeing practices in arts education
Identity
Anti-racist education
Gender and equity in education

Postgraduate supervision

Current supervisions

Ben Smart (with Prof Elizabeth McCrum) Exploring the interplay between creative practice and design theory evident in the assessed artifacts of undergraduate design students
Alhanouf Alajlann (with Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai) A mixed-method study exploring the use of the storytelling in early years mathematics teaching in Saudi Arabia
Tatiana Linaker (with Prof Daguo Li) The cultural gendered leadership identity construction of female leaders within the context of University Wide Language Programmes
Amani Taresh (with Dr Tina O’Connell) Children's Artistic Expressions: Weaving the Threads of Cultural Diversity
Fengyi Lily Wang (with Prof Carol Fuller) How female university students in China construct their identities as learners and women from their life experiences and how they respond to the circumstances they have faced to change their experience.
Steph Dodger (with Prof Alan Laville) Disrupting the social learning of hegemonic gender stereotypes in childhood; evaluating teacher practices on gendered experiences

Completions

Tim Gilson (with Prof Alan Floyd) Leadership succession planning in a Multi Academy Trust. EdD

Research centres and groups

Member of National Society for Art and Design in Education.
Member of AccessArt.
Member of Cambridge Primary Review Trust (South).
Member of TACTYC.

Research projects

I have been involved in a variety of internally and externally funded research projects:

Stitches of Self: Restorative and Inclusive Community Approaches through Art (2024-2025) A restorative textile-based research project aimed at understanding trauma of children, young people and their families who have experienced forced migration.
Re-StART (2021-2022): A UoR funded partnerships schools’ community art collaboration project centred around an art-based community of practice to support the mental health and well-being of our students and the schools they work in.
A Stitch in Time: Inclusive Threads of Learning (2019-2020): A collaborative and inclusive textile-based project students, staff and local special schools to explore and discover creative skills and contemporary imaginative thinking linked to the sensory potential of textile materials and the environment.
Seeds of Diversity (2017-2018): Research project to develop resources for experts in the arts to deepen understandings of community projects opportunities.
Making it Happen (2013 - 2015): A funded staff/student research project at the University of Winchester, aiming to develop aspects of art teaching at university level to equip students with greater confidence in the workplace and to enhance university/workplace links.
Open Sesame! (2011): Arts council funded partnership between early years and arts professionals across Sussex and Surrey, focusing on communities with high levels of deprivation, to introduce art, music, dance and other forms of creative expression into the day-to-day play and development of under 5's.
ECHO (2010): Creative Partnership funded action research project to look at how Creative Development was embedded in 6 early years settings, through the eyes of the children, families and practitioners.
Inspiring Creativity & Imagination (2007): An archived online resource, researched and devised by Curiosity & Imagination and Sure Start. A range of researched case studies demonstrated how anyone working with young children can transform their space into somewhere which inspires children's curiosity, imagination and creativity.

Background

I began my career as a teacher and have taught in a range of primary schools.

I was an advisory teacher for creativity in education and worked as an education officer for a children’s hands-on museum in east London.

I have managed a wide range of externally funded art education and community projects across London.

Within the HE sector, I was previously a senior lecturer at University of Winchester.

At the University of Reading, I have led the art specialism pathway on the BA Primary Education degree, taught art to all students on the PGCE primary and EY pathway. I was the deputy director for academic tutoring and a Senior Academic Manager.

Examining

External Examiner for University of Roehampton (BA Primary Education Art specialism pathway) (2015-1018)
External Examiner for Edge Hill University (PGCE EY pathway) (2012 – 2014)

Academic qualifications

PhD (University of Reading)
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
MA (University College London)
PGCE (Primary) Bristol Polytechnic
BA (Hons) (University of Leeds)

Professional bodies/affiliations

Council member for National Society for Art and Design in Education
Convenor of Gender and Art Transformative Education SIG
Mentor for the Arts Based Educational Research (ABER) SIG

Selected publications

Books and research articles:

Tutchell, S. (2023). Lifting stress form the day: A women’s well-being online community art project. International Journal of Art & Design in Education, 42(3), 261-277
Tutchell, S. & Sharp, S. (2022). Gendered identity: Reminders of equality through art and fiction. Frontiers in Education, 7 983760
Ogier, S. & Tutchell. S (2021). Teaching the Arts in the Primary Curriculum (Eds.) London: Sage
Gregory, P., March, C. & Tutchell, S. (2020). Mastering primary art and design. Bloomsbury.
Tutchell, S. (2014). Young children as artists. Routledge.