Prof.  Vicky Duckworth

Prior to working in education Vicky was a nurse and midwife. She worked as a staff midwife as well as a Sister. Subsequently, after a period of travelling and being involved in voluntary work overseas and voluntary teaching of adult literacy in the North West of England she decided to transfer the skills she had learnt in the field and move into the area of Basic Skills and Adult Education. This professional move was driven by her passionate belief that Further Education and Adult Literacy education can offer a critical space to support and empower learners to take agency, no matter what their trajectory so far.

Vicky is presently based at Edge Hill University, in the role of Senior Lecturer, Research Fellow in Education and Schools’ University Lead.  She received her PhD in Educational Research from Lancaster University, Department of Educational Research, and received the International Professional Award from the Adult Education Alliance (AHEA) based in the United States of America for the praxis of the research. She had published widely and is an active member of a number of national and International organisations.Vicky’s research has a strong social justice and theoretical focus, most recently she drew on a critical perspective, applying Bourdieu’s work as the theoretical framework, as well as using a range of feminist, sociologists of education, literature on the ethics of care and critical literacy pedagogy, including the New Literacy Studies to explore and add to the debate on the impact of violence and trauma on learning and its link to class, gender and basic skills.

Vicky’s research has resulted in the investigation of symbolic violence and learning; possibilities, resistance and transformation;  widening participation; social justice and teacher education; community activism aiming at addressing issues of structures of power with the form and content of the curriculum, community empowerment and  social identities in education and educational in/equalities. The research was published in the monograph Learning Trajectories, Violence and Empowerment amongst Basic Skills Learners (Routledge, 2013).Vicky is  passionate about education and deeply committed to ensuring that it is linked to hope and social justice for all.