Emma is the Secondary English PGCE course tutor and an English consultant at the English and Media Centre. She graduated from Trinity College, Dublin with first-class honours in English Literature in 2000. After that, she lived and worked in Bologna, Italy, teaching English in secondary schools as well as through the British School. She then returned to London to take up an Arts and Humanities Research Board award to study for an MA in Renaissance to Enlightenment literature and ideas at University College London (UCL).
Emma Barker
Emma gained her PGCE at the Institute of Education in 2004. Since then she has taught English and media studies in state schools in London. During that time she has held various posts within English, including Head of Department and worked supporting teachers and Heads of English across the borough as part of the Islington local education authority team.
In 2015 she started working at the English and Media Centre, where she leads the English PGCE in conjunction with London Metropolitan University, as well as delivering CPD for teachers with a focus on key stages 4 and 5, and organising student conferences, attended by A-Level/IB students from across the country.
Emma is the subject lead for the Secondary English PGCE and teaches all aspects of the course. She has special interest in:
- the impact on pedagogy of the 2015 National Curriculum for English and the GCSE specifications for English Language and English Literature, first taught in 2015
- students’ reading identities
- teachers’ perceptions of the social classroom and the impact on pedagogy
Emma Barker
Course Tutor for Secondary English with Media PGCE
E: emmabarker@englishandmedia.co.uk