Sarah Misra

Doctorate in Creative Education, Chester University

After a lengthy (and happy) career in Primary Education, Sarah Misra moved to Edge Hill University where she worked as a Senior Lecturer in Education & Early Years and led the Primary Foundation Subjects Team before finally “coming home” to Staffordshire University where she was originally a student herself and where she now leads and develops postgraduate primary teacher training (PGCE) for both the core and School Direct provision at Lichfield and Stoke campuses, as well lecturing on all aspects of primary education.

She gained degrees in both History of Art & Design and Business Studies before studying Education in a Museum setting at the V&A Museum and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She also worked in stage and costume design in the USA and as a Children’s Books Buyer for WH Smith & John Menzies before training as a teacher in 1996. She currently campaigns to raise the profile of the Arts in Primary Education and she is involved in the Stoke on Trent City of Culture 2021 bid.

As a successful classroom teacher for many years, she has robust experience of working across the entire primary age range in mixed and single age year groups, teaching all subjects and in a variety of different schools and areas. She has had specific subject responsibility for most curriculum areas, but was particularly responsible for developing curriculum provision for Literacy and the Arts (art, music, dance and drama).

She has a Master’s Degree in Education and she is currently completing a professional doctorate (EdD) with Chester University. She is passionate about social justice, particularly working towards the wellbeing and equality of women and, in particular, mothers. She is the founder of the Staffordshire Red Tent group which aims to support and empower women of all ages and its offshoot The Staffordshire Red Tent Book Group.

Her research is primarily focused around developing more creative and inclusive methods of research. Her award-winning Plastic Ceiling Project was chosen to be featured in an exhibition of artist-researchers in the Tate Liverpool in March 2018. She has also published and presented at international conferences on the challenges of juggling work and motherhood and she is currently writing a chapter for a book on motherhood. She has also edited and co-written a book for trainee teachers: “Teaching the Primary Foundation Subjects” with Open University Press.