Dr Jon Tan, Senior Lecturer

Dr Jon Tan

Senior Lecturer

Following previous research and teaching appointments at the University of York and the Institute of Education, London, Jon joined Leeds Beckett University in 1999.

During his time with the University, he has continued to specialise in client-based evaluations of education policy and provisions, and of welfare services involving children and young people. At the core of his work is a coupling of issues related to social inequalities, policy and professional practice. Between 2002 and 2004, he was Director of the Birmingham Children's Fund Evaluation, in partnership with research associates in London, and co-director of the 'Challenging Disaffection' project funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC). He has been a proposal reviewer and advisor for ESRC programmes and has completed research for the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation focusing on Literacy.

More recently, he has been significantly involved in international work with partnerships in the USA, France and Australia spanning professional learning with teachers and teacher educators and work to support students' internationalisation, intercultural awareness and understanding of different educational contexts. He is Co-director of Carnegie Faculty's "Leading Learning" programme that supports teachers' professional learning in challenging educational contexts. Other recent work has drawn on critical reflective approaches and the linkage between understandings of community, experiential learning and professional identity and disposition.

In other expressions of career, Jon has been an aircraft engineer and pilot; and is an accomplished musician and military historian.

Current Teaching

Jon's teaching cuts across undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He teaches across Education Studies and Primary Education undergraduate degrees, as well as contributing to Masters, Higher Research degree supervision and professional development in schools.

At an undergraduate level he teaches on the following modules:

  • Social Perspectives
  • Introduction to Educational Research
  • Research Methods & Ethics
  • Major Independent Study (Dissertation)

Research Interests

Current research centres significantly around the areas of professional learning, educator professional identities and social relations. With a continued emphasis on the analysis of social inequalities and how they impact upon people's lives, Jon's current research attempts to interrogate practitioner dispositions and enrich pedagogical approaches and intercultural awareness that attempt to address disadvantage. Some of this work has been utilised in case studies for government agencies and in schools' development of strategic planning.

Dr Jon Tan, Senior Lecturer

Selected Outputs

  • Tan J; Murphy T; Allan C (2009) Critical Conversations, Professional Learning and the role of International Placements in Reflective Pedagogy. In: nd International Conference on Service-Learning in Teacher Education, 25 June 2009 - 27 June 2009.

  • Tan J; Allan C; Harper B (2009) Starting-points and Student Pathways – Inspiring Language Learning. In: The National Primary Languages Show, Liverpool.

  • Murphy TR; Tan J; Allan C (2009) Critical Conversations, Professional Learning and the role of International Placements in Reflective Pedagogy. In: The Second International Conference on Service Learning in Teacher Education: Conservations that Matter II, 25 June 2009 - 27 June 2009, Galway, Ireland.

  • Tan J; Whitty G; Lupton R; Beckett L (2008) Standing at the Border: Teacher Identities, Curriculum and ‘Cultural’ Knowledge. In: British Educational Research Association Annual conference, Manchester.

  • Harridge S; Stokoe S; Tan JE (2014) That’s another story: an alternative to the ‘official’ way the urban school story is told. The Urban Review, 46 (5), pp. 904-918.

    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-014-0310-9

  • Morley D; Bailey R; Tan J; Cooke B (2005) Inclusive Physical Education: teachers' views. European Physical Education Review, 11 (1),

  • Hall KA; Özerk K; Zulfiqar M; Tan JEC (2002) ‘This is Our School’: Provision, purpose and pedagogy of supplementary schooling in Leeds and Oslo. British Educational Research Journal, 28 (3), pp. 399-418.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920220137467

  • Tan JEC; Allan C (2009) Inspiring Language Learning through Student Pathways in teh Bilateral Exchange Programme. TDA Case Studies of Effective Practice in the Bilateral Exchange Programme [Online]. Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA).

  • Tan JEC; Allan C (2009) Research Briefing: Evaluation of New Routes to Primary Modern Foreign Languages 2008-9: A Report on Year One [Online]. Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA).

  • Tan JEC; Jarvis P; Hall K; Conway P (2008) The evaluation of Reading Matters: Final Report [Online]. Reading Matters/Esmee Fairbairn.

  • Murphy T; Tan J (2012) Empowering Educational Practice Through Service-Learning in the UK: Case Studies from Leeds Metropolitan University. In: Murphy T; Tan J ed. Service-Learning and Educating in Challenging Contexts: International Perspectives. London: Continuum, pp. 105-124.

  • Murphy T; Tan J (2012) Empowering Educational Practice Through Service-Learning in the UK: Case Studies from Leeds Metropolitan University. In: Murphy T; Tan J ed. Service-Learning and Educating in Challenging Contexts: International Perspectives. London: Continuum, pp. 105-124.

  • Tan J (2011) Education and Children's Rights. In: Jones P; Walker G ed. Children's Rights in Practice. Sage Publications,

  • Tan JEC; Allan C (2010) Student voices, internationalisation and critical conversations in initial teacher education. In: Jones E ed. Internationalisation and the student voice. Oxon: Routledge,

  • Murphy T; Allan C; Tan J (2009) Service-Learning and the Development of Critical Reflexivity in Teacher Education in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland Contexts: Emerging Paradigms. In: Strait JRJR; Lima M ed. The Future of Service-Learning: New Solutions for Sustaining and Improving Practice. Stylus Publishing (VA),

  • Tan JEC; Harrison C (2009) Sociological Perspectives on Education. In: Warren S ed. An Introduction to Education Studies: The Student Guide to Themes and Contexts. Continuum,

  • Hall K; Ozerk K; Zulfiqar M; Tan J (2008) This Is Our School: Provision, Purpose and Pedagogy of Supplementary Schooling in Leeds and Oslo. In: Murphy P; Hall K; Soler J ed. Pedagogy and Practice: Culture and Identities. SAGE Publications Limited,