Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
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.
