Dr Brian Rock

Teaching

I act as Academic Tutor for students from the Primary Education BA and Secondary School Centred PGCE programmes.

I teach on 2nd and 3rd year of the undergraduate Primary Education BA. I am Module Director for QTS5012M The Research Informed Professional 1. My undergraduate teaching focuses on professional studies, research methods, contemporary issues in education, and supporting students' research projects.

I also teach on the postgraduate Secondary School Centred PGCE programme, focussing on professional studies and subject studies in English. I am Module Director for PGC7017M The Developing Professional, and lead on postgraduate second research assignment focused on policy in secondary education. I also act as Lead Mentor, quality assuring secondary school placements.

I support doctoral supervision on our EdD Programme, currently acting as second supervisor to Ginny Doxey who is researching "The relationship between a teacher’s reading identity and their reading for pleasure practice."

Primary Education BA (Hons) and Secondary School Centred PGCE course modules:

• PGC7016M Learning and Teaching in Subject Studies (Secondary School Centred PGCE)
• PGC7017M The Developing Professional ((Secondary School Centred PGCE)
• QTS6001M Professional Studies 3: The Emerging Professional (Primary Education BA)
• QTS6004M Contemporary Educational Issues (Primary Education BA)
• QTS6004M The Research Informed Professional 2 (Primary Education BA)
• QTS5012M The Research Informed Professional 1 (Primary Education BA)

Research

The main focus of my research to date has been within literary studies. My PhD situates Irish author Brian O’Nolan’s fiction, journalism and pseudonymous identities in relation to minor literary discourse, as developed by Deleuze and Guattari, to explore O'Nolan’s socio-historic position within postcolonial Ireland.

My current research interests lie around oracy in English secondary education, teacher formation, selection and development, mentoring and coaching, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and critical literacies.

I lead and am a member of the ITE Research Group: Teacher Selection, Formation and Development.

I am a member of the Critical Literacies Research Group led by Dr. Emma Walker. We received funding from the UKLA for our project "Reading media: Developing critical media literacies with KS3 students and educators." I act as School Liaison for a participatory research project on critical media digital literacies in schools.

I am co-developing a research project on the challenges, potential and opportunities in the development of the YSJ ITE General and Lead Mentor Training and Professional Development Curriculum following re-accreditation and the ITT Market Review.

I am a Research Lead for ITE and a member of the ITE CYPE Research Steering Group, including collaborative co-ordination and designing of research environment via CPD and seminars for ITE and CYPE colleagues.

Professional activities

QR Funding Panel (School of Education, Language and Psychology) Member.

ITE Mentor Development Group Lead - in charge of the design, delivery, quality assurance and evaluation of General and Lead Mentor training across the YSJ ITE Partnership.

YSJ Primary and Secondary ITE Strategic Group Member.

YSJ ITE Partnership Steering Group Member.

YSJ ITE Improvement and Evaluation Group Member.

Member of NATE, BERA, the UKLA, and the Chartered College of Teaching.

Member of LGBTQ+ Research Network (University of Derby).

Member of the Pathfinder Teaching School Hub Regional ITTE Steering Group.

Member of the Tees Valley Teaching School Hub Regional ITE Steering Group.

Member of UCET CPD Forum and Mentoring and Partnership Forum.

Peer Reviewer for English in Education, Research in Education, and the Journal of Further and Higher Education.

Publications and conferences

Publications

Aitkins, A., Dobson, T., Matthewson, R., Rock, B., Wanless, R., Whitfield, L. and Wheldon, J. "I felt like a robot in front of them’: fostering student teacher agency in primary and secondary school landscapes of practice" to be published in 2026 in Teacher Education for Democracy: Research, Policy and Practice (special edition published by Brill Education).

Rock, B. (2023) The End of Surprise? FORUM, 65(2), 59-71. https://doi.org/10.3898/forum.2023.65.2.06

Birk Lauren, O., Rock, B. & Stadler, F. (eds) (2016). Networking the Globe: New Technologies and the Postcolonial. London: Routledge.

Rock, B. (2003). ‘The practice and effects of literary censorship in the Irish Free State, 1929-46’, PaGeS (University College Dublin Press), 8.1, 76-85.

PhD thesis

‘Irish nationalism and postcolonial modernity: the ‘minor’ literature and authorial selves of Brian O’Nolan’ (2010).

Papers under review

Rock, B., Meredith, M., Collins, J., Elbra-Ramsay, C., Raymond, P.  Whitfield, L. ‘‘It’s actually changed by perspective’: Spaces for genuine dialogic surprise within Initial Teacher Education curriculum.’

Rock, B., Sauntson, H., Ashbridge, C., Atkinson, N., Clare, I., Clarke, M., Greenwood, S., Parker, K. & Walker, E. ‘Media Mindfulness: Evaluating a critical media literacy scheme of learning with KS3 pupils.’

Clare, I., Ashbridge, C., Atkinson, N., Clarke, M., Greenwood, S., Parker, K., Rock, B., Sauntson, H., & Walker, E. ‘Critical Literacy at the Margins: Mapping Curriculum, Policy, and Practice in Secondary Education in England.’

Conference papers and other presentations

An Evaluation of the YSJ ITE Partnership Mentor Training and Professional Development Programme: Promoting mentor autonomy, critically and professional agency.’ ​ Paper presented UCET Conference, Leeds, November 2025.

‘Media Mindfulness: Evaluating a critical media literacy scheme of work with KS3 pupils.’ ​ Paper presented BERA Conference, University of Sussex, September 2025.

‘Media Mindfulness: Evaluating a critical media literacy scheme of work with KS3 pupils.’ ​ Paper presented UKLA Conference, Liverpool Moores University, June 2025.