I am a qualified teacher with over 20 years’ experience. I taught in Chile, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Japan and the UK, with experiences ranging from elementary and high-school teaching to working in government projects and lecturing at under and post-graduate level. I currently work as an Associate Tutor at the University of Glasgow, leading seminars and supervising dissertation students in different postgraduate programs across the School of Education.

In addition to my work at UoG, I am a project leader at Interfaith Glasgow, a charity that facilitates inter-religious dialogue aimed at restorative justice.

Qualifications:

DipTESOL (Trinity College London)

MA, TESOL (University College London)

PhD, Education (University of Glasgow)

My research has inclusiveness at its core; not as a method, but as a holistic dimension that considers the our entire human experience from a social, cultural, sexual and spiritual perspective. By using action research and participatory approaches, it seeks to identify elements of cultural and structural violence present in education, and then to dismantle this violence through a nonviolent approaches that draw on Eastern philosophy, international wisdom traditions and different intercultural perspectives. 

Further to this, I am interested in the intersection between nonviolent philosophical traditions, spirituality and decolonial pedagogical approaches, and how this intersection can help develop more inclusive, compassionate and ethical learning communities. Finally, I am interested in the use of contemplation and self-inquiry as an educational practice. My research interests and activities expand onto the following areas:

- Contemplative Pedagogy
- Higher Education
- Eastern spiritual traditions
- Decoloniality of knowledge, being and power
- Non-violence education
- Spiritual critical pedagogy
- (Participatory) Action Research 

List by: Type | Date

2023 - Scholar conference fund, University of Glasgow (£800)

2022 - Scholar conference fund, University of Glasgow (£800)

- Modern Educational Thought 

- Seminars on Contemporary Issues

- Introduction to Educational and Social Research

- Guest lecturer for Education and Violence, in the course Educational and Sustainable Development

- Case Studies in Religion and Global Challenges

- Religion and Violence

- Research Seminar on Religion, Challenge and Change

Professional Memberships:

• British Educational Research Association (member)
• American Educational Research Association (member)
• Comparative and International Educational Society (member)
• British Association of International and Comparative Education (member)
• Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities

Service:

• Article Editor, SAGE Open Journal
• Editor, Cogent Arts and Humanities Journal
• Article reviewer for the following journals: Current Psychology, SAGE Open, Cogent Social Sciences, Cogent Education

Conferences and presentations:

July 1st, 2024, “A Buddhist-Christian dialogue in education: drawing on the work of Paulo Freire and Thich Nhat Hanh to build a pedagogy of nonviolence” - 15^th Conference of the European Network of Buddhist-Christian Studies (St. Ottilien, Germany)

June 21st, 2024 - “Developing Empathy as a process of re-humanization: insights from South American HE students and their experiences with contemplative practices” – Transforming Higher Education Through Contemplative Practices Conference, California State University, San Marcos (USA)

March 8th, 2024 - Reinforming curriculum and pedagogy through a decolonial lens:  stories and perspectives from trainee teachers enrolled in a nonviolence education course – Nonviolence in Education Conference, Oklahoma State University (USA)

January 17th, 2024 - Guest lecturer, Open Lecture Series: “Doing participatory research in higher education: what are some of the opportunities and challenges?”                 

September 12^th, 2023 - How much participation is “participatory”? Opportunities and challenges in doing Participatory Action Research with Latin American teachers – British Educational Research Association (BERA) conference (Birmingham, UK)

June 28^th, 2023 – Decolonial Care: Place, Practice, Politics (workshop exchange). Center for Peace and Conflict Studies (University of St Andrews, Scotland).

 February 14th, 2023 – “A person's wellbeing is MY wellbeing": decolonial perspectives on non-violence for teacher training - 67th Annual Meeting of the Comparative and International Education Society (Washington D.C.)

 December 6^th, 2022 – “Violence and its sublimation within the fantasy-reality continuum: Between psychoanalysis and the theory of civilizing process” (Warsaw University, Poland)

 July 14^th, 2022 – “Non-violence as a practice of equality: an experiment in the Global South”– The 10^th European Conference in Education (London, UK)

 April 3^rd, 2022 – “Decolonial perspectives for social justice - Challenges and possibilities in Chilean higher education”, Early Career Conference “Potential and Challenges in Education in Today’s World”, British Association for Comparative and International Education (UK)

 October 9^th, 2021 – “Towards a pedagogy of non-violence: a rationale for the Global South”, International Conference on Violence and Society, London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research.

 July 15^th, 2021 – “Developing Socially Inclusive Practices in Chilean Higher Education Classrooms Through Participatory Action Research” – The 9^th European Conference on Education, London (UK)

 April 8th, 2020 – “Teachers’ role in the process of identity construction in second-language learners” – International Conference on Languages, Literature and Linguistics, Rome

 June 2019 – Member of the organizing committee for the Annual Doctoral Research Conference, University of Reading (UK)

 March 25th, 2019 – ‘The classroom as an identity-building environment: an experiment in Myanmar” – Annual Language Studies PhD Conference, University of Reading (UK).