I am inviting students to take risks, to reflect openly on their processes and practices
within a group of their peers and to experiment with different ways of learning and
thinking. These are the conditions that can lead to transformative learning
experiences. However, this can be – many transformative learning pedagogues
would say needs to be – disorientating for the student and requires a sophisticated
level of self-analysis.

For this to work, I must be prepared to be as openly reflexive and questioning as I am
asking my students to be. I must be seen to take risks in the classroom – risks that
don’t always result in the intended objective – and then be open to students reflecting
on my practice and approach, however uncomfortable.

Naomi has an extraordinary capacity for promoting and enhancing the Warwick experience for students. Drawing upon her background in creative practice, Naomi has extended her classroom to promote student engagement and wellbeing by promoting a person-centred approached to learning. Her teaching environments are welcoming, encouraging and transformative.

In her first year as IATL Teaching Fellow, Naomi has led two groundbreaking interdisciplinary modules and a major event on innovation and HE pedagogy (The Dark Would, 13–14 May 2015). She has also contributed to Warwick’s consultation with NMITE, the new university college for Hereford. Any one of these achievements, by an early career academic in their first year of institutional employment, might have been evidence enough for a WATE nomination; but all of these factors taken together prove the case for an award of this significance.