Julie Taylor - Head of Primary Teacher Education / Associate Professor

Mobile: +44 (0)7385145068

Tel: +44 (0)24 765 22259

Julie is an Associate Professor and the Head of Primary Teacher Education and a member of the Senior Leadership Team at CTE. Julie has held a number of partnership roles at CTE in recent years including being School Direct lead, the leading and development of mentoring provision, the training of moderation tutors and mentors and the quality assurance of school-based provision. She continues to support CTE colleagues who hold partnership roles. Julie has developed the content related to character and values through CTE programmes and she teaches Professional Practice content and Whole Curriculum Studies sessions across the home and international programmes. She is a moderation tutor and personal tutor. Julie was awarded the Warwick Award for Personal Tutor Excellence in 2020 for her excellent pastoral care.

Professional and Teaching Expertise:
Prior to working at Warwick, Julie had an extensive teaching career and most recently was an Assistant Head in a large Coventry primary school. In addition to being a class teacher, she held a number of other leadership roles in different primary schools including KS2 phase leader; Literacy and Phonics lead; Curriculum Lead and ITE/NQT/RQT mentor. As a senior leader in Solihull, Julie was selected by the local authority to be both a Lead Literacy Practitioner and an accredited lead moderator and supported a number of local schools to develop their practice in reading and writing.

Academic Interests & Teaching & Learning Specialisms:
Julie holds an MA in Character Education from the University of Birmingham and is currently studying for a PhD focusing on the allocentric virtues and their role in teacher education, particularly within the school-based mentor/novice teacher relationship during the professional practice component of teacher education programmes. For her pioneering work in developing character through teacher education, Julie was awarded the prestigious Ambassador of Character Education award from the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham.

Other research interests include: character development in ITE, Moral and Values Education, mentoring and coaching, PSHE, The Arts, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Professionalism, Virtue Ethics in the Professions, Compassionate approaches to teaching and learning, English

Julie is a WIHEA (Warwick Institute of Higher Education) fellow and was co-lead for the Peer Mentoring Learning Circle and a member of the CTE Athena Swan group. She is a member of the Association for Character Education, The Compassion in Education Alliance and the Compassion in Education Network and the BERA Early Career Research Group.

Publications:

3 chapters published in Carden, Taylor, Bower, Hampson-Stemp, Fullard, Peterson (2023) Character and ITE: A Practical Guide – a guide written for all ITE providers to support their development of character in their teacher training programmes.

Case study in ‘Understanding Character Education: Approaches, Applications and Issues’ showcasing the character work that she has led at CTE for our student teachers.

Conference Presentations/Projects:

Julie has presented and had papers published related to her research and work in character education at a range of conferences including the annual Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues conferences, TEAN, UCET, CTE Research in Action Conferences, Warwick Education Conferences and at the Symposium of Graduate Entry Medical Schools where she disseminated the findings from a cross-disciplinary professionalism project with Warwick Medical School. Papers and conference presentation titles include:

The Humble Teacher Educator: Why Humility Matters for Leaders in Initial Teacher Education

The Ethical Role of the Student Teacher Mentor: The Unspoken Moral Dimension of Teacher Education

Rethinking what it means to be a professional: the importance of developing and embedding authentic moral reflection opportunities in professional training.

Learning Professionalism Together: A Cross-Departmental Educational Initiative

The Ethical Teacher: Why Character Matters in the Teaching Profession

Julie was invited to attend and present at the Cultivating Character in the University: Implications for Policy and Practice consultation - joining academics, administrators, and practitioners from the higher education sector to consider how universities might play a role in the character formation and flourishing of students, staff and their own institutions.

Julie has also been invited to speak at a number of Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues webinars including the book launch for the Understanding Character Education: Approaches, Applications and Issues and a webinar on ‘Preparing Teachers and Nurses for Virtuous Practice’.

As a member of the University of Warwick compassionate teaching network, Julie was a key contributor in the development and implementation of the University of Warwick’s ‘Embedding values within the student journey’ week including creating an asynchronous presentation on the importance of a values-based approach in higher education.

Julie has worked collaboratively with a colleague from University Colleague Birmingham to develop and deliver content for a new Philosophy, Values and Ethics in Primary Education module on their accelerated BA Education studies programme.