Researcher · Educator · Theorist
An applied linguist and interdisciplinary researcher working across three connected areas: generative AI in education, human agency and emotion, and evidence synthesis for policy and practice. My research examines how people learn, exercise judgement, and respond to change, and how research evidence can inform educational and public decisions.
01 · About
My research is grounded in education and applied linguistics and organised around three connected programmes: generative AI in education, agency, emotion, and educational change, and evidence synthesis for policy and practice.
The foundation of this work is a sustained engagement with Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory. Research on teacher agency, perezhivanie, and the relationship between emotion and cognition established an account of how educators interpret challenging experiences and act within the opportunities and constraints of their professional environments.
Building on that foundation, my current empirical work investigates the changes associated with generative AI: how learners use these tools when composing and reasoning, how critical thinking and accountability can be understood and assessed, and which educational conditions support equitable participation.
In parallel, I conduct systematic, scoping, and rapid reviews that appraise and integrate research for decision-makers in education, health services, and disability. This work also informs my conceptual writing on how evidence-informed policy should respond to AI-generated knowledge.
02 · Contributions
My scholarship contributes in three ways: conceptual clarification of cultural-historical ideas and of critical thinking in AI-mediated learning, empirical studies of learners and educators in language and higher education, and evidence syntheses prepared for policy and practice.
03 · Research Programmes
Applied linguistics is the principal field in which much of this research is conducted, and cultural-historical theory provides its intellectual foundation. The three programmes retain distinct contributions, and their intersections are described in the next section.
This programme investigates how generative AI changes learning, thinking, authorship, and assessment, with a particular focus on language and higher education.
This programme examines how educators interpret challenging experiences and act within the opportunities and constraints of their professional environments. It brings together systematic reviews of teacher agency, conceptual work on perezhivanie and the unity of emotion and cognition, and empirical studies of language teachers.
This programme involves the appraisal, integration, and interpretation of research for decision-making. Reviews span education, hospital settings, assistive technology, disability, and sustainability education.
04 · Connections
Each programme stands on its own, and not every project addresses all three. The map shows where the programmes inform one another most directly.
05 · Connect
Invite me to give a talk, propose a research collaboration or consultancy project, or follow my work through the academic profiles listed here.