The research team
Principal Investigator
Dr Fiona Copland
University of Warwick
Head of the School of Education, Learning and Communication Sciences
Professor
Fiona Copland is a Professor, and Head of Department at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England.
She has extensive experience of teaching English and teacher education and has worked in Nigeria, Hong Kong, Japan and the UK. Fiona has researched and published in the areas of language teacher education, teaching English to children and linguistic ethnography, including the Routledge Handbook of Teaching English to Young Learners (with Sue Garton), Linguistic Ethnography: Collecting, Analysing and Presenting Data (with Angela Creese), and Analysing Discourses in Teacher Observation Feedback Conferences (with Helen Donoghue).
Fiona is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a National Teaching Fellow.
Co-investigator
Dr Sue Garton
Aston University
Professor in Applied Linguistics (TESOL) in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities
Sue Garton is Professor in Applied Linguistics, and Co-Director at ACAL at Aston University in Birmingham, England. She has been an English Language Teacher, and Teacher Educator for nearly 40 years, working with teachers from all over the world. In her current role, she teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate modules in TESOL and English language, as well a supervising PhD students.
She has published widely in the area of TESOL including The Routledge Handbook of Teaching English to Young Learners, and she is co-series editor of the 15-volume International Perspectives in ELT series, published by Palgrave Macmillan (both with Fiona Copland).
Sue‘s research interests are in language teacher education, teaching young learners and classroom discourse.
Co-investigator
Dr Marina Shapira
University of Stirling
Associate PGT Dean at the University's Faculty of Social Sciences
Associate Professor in Sociology
Marina Shapira is an Associate Professor at the University of Stirling, and the Associate PGT Dean at the University's Faculty of Social Sciences in Stirling, Scotland.
She coordinates and teaches core and elective undergraduate modules on Research Methods (quantitative), Race, Ethnicity, and Migration, and Sociology of Education. She is coordinating the Sociology, Social Policy, and Criminology Honours Dissertations, module and supervising undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD students.
Marina‘s research focuses on curriculum studies, educational inequalities and transitions, socio-economic inequalities, immigration impacts, and ethnic and national identities (including immigrants and ethnic minorities).
Co-investigator – Asia hub lead
Subhan Zein is a visiting professor at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. He has taught at a number of institutions in Indonesia and Australia, including Australian National University (ANU), Trinity College, The University of Melbourne, and The University of Queensland.
His works have appeared in a variety of refereed journals, and he is the author of three monographs: Language Policy in Superdiverse Indonesia (Routledge, 2020), English as a subject in basic education (ESBE) in ASEAN: A comparative study (British Council, 2022), and Country profiles: English as a subject in basic education (ESBE) in Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam: Recommendations for policy and research (British Council, 2022).
Subhan has been awarded Australia’s Best Researcher in English Language and Literature for two years running (2021 and 2022).
Co-investigator – Latin America and the Caribbean hub lead
Mario López-Gopar is a Professor, and the leader of the Critical Applied Linguistic Research Group at Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca in Oaxaca, Mexico. He has been a SNI member (Sistema Nacional de Investigadores) since 2011.
He has been widely published and his latest books are Decolonizing Primary English Language Teaching (Multilingual Matters), and International Perspectives on Critical Pedagogies in ELT (Palgrave MacMillan).
His main research interest is intercultural and multilingual education of Indigenous peoples in Mexico.
Co-investigator – Africa hub lead
Dr Elizabeth Selemani Meke
University of Malawi
Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Educational Research and Training (CERT)
Acting Director for the Centre for Educational Research and Training (CERT)
Elizabeth Selemani Meke is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Malawi in Zomba, Malawi. She has conducted quantitative and qualitative research, and consultancy projects for the Ministry of Education, UNICEF, UNESCO among others, and she has also collaborated in numerous research projects with colleagues from universities across the globe.
Elizabeth has also published articles in a range of peer reviewed journals.
Her research interests include conducting evaluation studies and needs analysis on all levels of education in the areas of teacher development and management, and teacher classroom practice among other areas.
Co-investigator – Europe and the Middle East hub lead
Yasemin Kırkgöz is a Professor at Çukurova Üniversitesi in Adana, Turkey. She teaches undergraduate students in teaching methods, and teaching skills, as well a supervising PhD students.
She has published widely, including The Routledge Handbook of Teaching English to Young Learners, and Preservice EFL Teachers' Perceptions and Their Reflected Experiences in a Service-Learning Course.
Yasemin’s research areas include social sciences and humanities, education and teacher training.
PhD student
Sally Song
University of Warwick
PhD student
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Sally Song is a PhD student and a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England.
She has taught English in Beijing, China, and in 2009, she became a Teaching Researcher, followed by a Teacher Trainer at the New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. Beijing School in 2014. In 2016, she worked as a Recruitment Supervisor, managing the recruitment of and providing teacher training. Later, she transitioned into the role of a Course Developer, designing and developing English language programmes and materials. She obtained her CELTA certificate in 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand.
In 2021, she graduated from the University of Stirling, completing her postgraduate degree in TESOL.
PhD student
Rebecca Preston
Aston University
PhD student
Bekki Preston is a PhD student at Aston University in Birmingham, England. For the Future of English project, their main focus is upon the coursebook analysis.
They began their studies at the University of Leeds where they studied Russian and Spanish languages with time spent abroad at both Lomonosov Moscow State University and Universidad de León. Following this they completed the MA TESOL with Translation Studies at Aston University in 2021 where they passed with Distinction. Their Masters dissertation focussed upon attitudes towards learning English amongst adults who had learned English while in school.
Research Assistant
Cecilia Paulsson
University of Warwick
Research Assistant, Future of English
Research Assistant, Warwick Climate Finance Research
Cecilia Paulsson is a Research Assistant at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. Prior to joining Warwick, Cecilia provided research support on projects at UCL, Imperial College London, and the University of Toronto, among others. Between 2016 and 2021 at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, she co-ran a programme for established entrepreneurs and business owners.
She is a trained journalist, and before she transitioned into higher education her background was predominantly in the media and broadcast television industry.