I am a Senior Lecturer and currently serving as Deputy Head (Programmes and Teaching) in the English Language and Literature Academic Group. I am a former teacher of English language and literature and have taught in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Kenya, and Singapore. I have taught various age groups from different language backgrounds in primary and secondary schools as well as those in multicultural support centres and universities.

At NIE, which I joined in 2002, I lead and teach undergraduate and graduate courses in curriculum and academic studies in English language, literature, and multicultural education. My consistently excellent teaching has been recognized with nominations and awards in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2019, and 2020. The education community regularly draws on my expertise via my committee work, consultations, and involvement in teacher professional development. I consult with the Ministry of Education, being a member of English language and literature syllabi and pedagogy committees from time to time. I have designed and taught customized in-service courses on topics such as writing learning outcomes, narrative writing, assessment, school reading programs and a specialist course in teaching English in the lower primary and I welcome interest from schools in research and professional development. My varied research interests originate in my education in literature (BA), linguistics (Diploma & MA), and sociology (PhD), as well as my experience in education. I take neurodiversity, humanistic, and equity perspectives on language and literature in cognition and education, and the sociology of childhood and the family in multilingual/multicultural contexts. My work has been published in, for example, Journal of Language, Identity and Education, the Oxford Review of Education, and the RELC Journal. I am currently designing new genres of communicating research to teachers for self-motivated professional development.


I enjoy supervising a range of student research projects, both theoretical and practical, at undergraduate and graduate levels. Recent topics have been the positioning of single women in Singapore, meritocracy, grand/parenting styles, young children’s awareness of gender, classroom interaction, kindergarten teachers' cognition, language in mathematics, reading motivation, and critical, multimodal analyses of textbooks, picture books, fairy tales, and series books for girls. I have also judged the International Undergraduate Awards.


My current work leading funded research projects involves exploring the perceptions of children and teachers on language and curriculum in English and mathematics, factors involved in metacognitive and metalinguistic awareness, transfer of learning, and teacher’s concepts of home support.