Faculty spotlight: Dr Paul Armstrong --- Programme Director, MA Educational Leadership in Practice
What was your journey to the University?
I came through an unconventional route - educational academia. I studied psychology as my undergraduate degree and I got interested in research and fascinated with people. I've always been very sociable and like to meet people from different parts of the world and learn about their backgrounds. I was drawn to psychology but not as a career after university I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. But I’d done a lot of research methods training and got a job at The University of Manchester working in administration supporting a research centre for formative assessment studies in the School of Education.
I was working with a senior professor and his team helping collect data across England. It got me interested in the workings of an academic department and eventually, there was an opportunity to do an MSc in Educational Research within the School of Education. I took the opportunity but I wasn't sure about a career in academia because a PhD is a really big step up. I completed the part-time master's and learned about doing research in education and different disciplines and I met lots of very experienced senior researchers.
As I finished the master’s, there was an opportunity for a scholarship for a PhD as part of a research project within the National College for Educational Leadership in England, working with school business managers in England. This amazing project meant visiting schools in England looking at how they collectively pooled their resources to pay for business management expertise and how this helped the pedagogical leadership of the school. I didn’t plan to do a PhD but my wife persuaded me to take this great opportunity for a scholarship for a doctorate at The University of Manchester. I completed my PhD in 2014, which was a great experience. I never looked back.
Post-doctorate life and back to Manchester
After this, I got a position at UCL (University College London) working with an academic looking at Generation X school leaders in Toronto, New York, and London. I spent three years in London but traveling between New York, Toronto, and London, spending time in schools with these young school leaders working in tough neighbourhoods. I met policymakers, school leaders, teachers, students, and some amazing people at the Ontario Institute for Studies and Education and Columbia University in New York.
I joined the conference circuit and spent time in the American Educational Research Association, building my networks and became fully immersed in educational academia and school leadership.
My journey became more orthodox - I was on this typical early academic career going from one post-doctorate position to another while looking for a permanent academic post. However, I got another opportunity at The University of Nottingham and spent two years exploring school leadership in England and Hong Kong – again, working with amazing professors who taught me a lot about research and academic work.
Eventually, a lectureship position came up at Manchester. My family and I were still living in the north of England and I got the post (in 2015) and have been there ever since. One of the first significant roles I had was Programme Director for a part-time master's in Educational Leadership. There were no overseas students and it was home-based but this was my first experience of working with educational practitioners and professionals who were also doing part-time academic study. I ran this programme with Dr Steve Rayner for two years.
I was born in St Mary's Hospital which is literally across the road from the University so, despite travelling the world, I've not actually gone very far professionally. I can almost see the ward where I was born, from my office. I've done nearly 20 years there now and I feel very passionate about the university and the city. That’s why I've stayed there with my family - it’s where home is.
How easy was the transition from research to teaching?
It's a good question because I’m not sure teaching came naturally to me and the first couple of years were challenging. At Manchester, you go through a new academics training programme to ensure you've got the knowledge and tools to teach and research simultaneously. I also did a PG Certificate in Education just to finesse my craft but a lot of it comes with experience. A lot of my teaching has been on master's programmes for education professionals who are working full-time and studying part-time. These more experienced part-time mature students often have as much knowledge as me and it's contextually based knowledge, so teaching them is a joy.
There's a lot of researchers who teach - some find it more rewarding than others. I'm very motivated because teaching is a wonderful vocation and my approach is that we learn as much from each other as we do from the books. I take a collaborative approach and found a group of people that I'm most comfortable teaching - education professionals are my sort of crowd.
How does research inform teaching - and vice versa?
A great question and something our university is very keen to promote - teaching and research are two of the main pillars of the University along with social responsibility. We're a research-intensive organisation and I'm a researcher first and foremost - I'm a trained researcher specifically in education but my research informs my teaching and much of the content I share with my students is research that I've been directly involved with. My teaching is very much informed and underpinned by research.
If you share your research with a group of educators who've been teaching for 10-20-30 years in different contexts they'll challenge and question you, critique it and argue and that's just so rewarding – it’s brilliant critical thinking. You have your research tested with students which is very rewarding for me and my colleagues. We teach the research and so they are symbiotic.
We want our programmes - and certainly ELIP - to reflect the wealth of academic talent in our department. We've got this amazing array of world-leading academics who are at the forefront of educational leadership management policy research. We're very fortunate to have them in Manchester. They write books, articles and deliver papers, talk to policymakers and practitioners, and advise governments on education, while also teaching on the programme (informed by the same research). This is one of the main reasons students to Manchester – the amazing reputation and the wonderful talent that maintains it.
How is the ELIP programme director role going?
It’s a privilege to be leading ELIP - it's a young programme and still developing across all the international centres and in Manchester. It's been a wonderful opportunity because all the other programmes I've taught on are based at the University. ELiP was the opportunity to develop a blended program with the centers and we get to visit twice a year and meet our students in workshops - all educators from around the world. ELIP is one of the most diverse student bodies of in the School of Education, Environment and Development, with nearly 40 different nationalities represented on our student cohorts since 2020 which is remarkable.
It's a real privilege steward this programme with my wonderful colleague, Stephen Rayner who has been a great co-director and deputy director with me and, of course Alex McTaggart, who was there at the beginning, and now our new deputy programme director, Bee Hughes. ELiP has been a team effort and I want to pay tribute to my colleagues because I couldn't do this role without all the tutors. We're a good team and work together in a very consultative way.
Personally, I am fulfilling an ambition - I love to travel and meet diverse people in different organisations and it's a pleasure because it's all about learning. I have learned so much from all those students on the programme. It's a busy job and I also have a school level role as an associate director for research for business engagement in the school, so I have this multifaceted professional life. No two days are the same and I can't imagine doing anything else.
What motivates you most across all your roles?
The thing that probably motivates me most is being amongst people. I love teaching and sharing ideas and discussing, debating things and so that is a big highlight of my professional life. I also love research because I go to schools and educational organisations and find out what people are doing. I’m curious and explore what's happening in organisations and then think about interpreting those findings in ways that are interesting and purposeful. I then try to translate that research back into my teaching practice. So that does drive me.
My mum was a primary school teacher and I grew up in an educational household so I've always been a big believer in the power of education to transform lives and promote social responsibility, social mobility. it's definitely one of the three pillars of society for me, along with healthcare and purposeful government.
I think if you get education right, a lot of other issues in society start to be addressed and so it's a privilege and also a motivating factor for me to spend time with influential educators, school leaders and share my ideas with them, get them to think outside the box about their own contexts and cultures and how they can make a difference in their schools.
In Dubai, there are people from every corner of the globe all here working together. You have all this amazing experience, cultural experience and identity, and all that knowledge in a big melting pot. We get to meet them and share ideas and this is a fantastic space and unique in the international private school sector, which is quite an elite sector. Social responsibility and equity increasingly concerns me as I move on through my career because I’m a strong believer in education. Education should be a priority and it certainly is here where Dubai’s vision for 2071 aims to create the best education system in the world and it's a laudable ambition. I'm also keen to share my knowledge and promote early career colleagues in their work, so provide as many colleagues as I can with the opportunities that I've had and hopefully have that wider impact.