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 QTS5006M The Research Informed Professional 1. My undergraduate teaching focuses on professional studies, research methods 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)
• QTS5006M 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, and social justice and LGBTQ+ inclusive practices.

I lead and am a member of the ITE Research Group: Teacher Selection, Formation and Development. We are currently working on a collaborative paper on dialogism in ITE, due to submission for publication in 2025.

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

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. We have collaborative conference presentations and papers in progress. 

I am a member of a project, led by Professor Tom Dobson, on democracy in ITE. We are co-writing a chapter entitled: "I felt like a robot in front of them’: fostering student teacher agency in primary and secondary school landscapes of practice".

Professional activities

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

Member of School of Education, Language and Psychology QR Funding Panel

Co-Mentor Development Lead. In charge of the design, delivery and evaluation of General and Lead Mentor training across the ITE Partnership.

Member of the Pathfinder Teaching School Hub Regional ITTE Steering Group

Member of Primary and Secondary ITE Partnership Strategic Groups.

Member of UCET CPD Forum

Peer Reviewer for English in Education

Publications and conferences

Publications

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

Rock, B. (2010) ‘Irish nationalism and postcolonial modernity: the ‘minor’ literature and authorial selves of Brian O’Nolan’. University of Stirling. Available: https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/handle/1893/2495#.Y0lDr3bMKUk

Conference papers

‘Anonymous and Pseudonymous Column Writing from the Irish Times: Myles na gCopaleen’s ‘Cruiskeen Lawn’.’ Paper presented to the Department of English Studies, University of Stirling, April 2010.

‘Fantasy landscapes for the English traveller: Patrick McGinley’s textual indebtedness to Flann O’Brien in The Trick of the Ga Bolga.’ Paper presented to Fantasy Ireland Conference, North-East Irish Studies Network, University of Sunderland, November 2009.

‘Flann O’Brien’s minor modernism: deconstructing Anglo-Irish heritage in At Swim-Two-Birds’. Paper presented to World Literatures Conference, IASIL: International Association for the Study of Irish Literature, University of Glasgow, July 2009.

‘Linguistic postcolonial concerns within the Irish Free State: Brian O’Nolan’s minor literature.’ Paper presented to Re-imagining Identity: New Directions in Postcolonial Studies Conference, PSA: Postcolonial Studies Association, Waterford Institute of Technology, May 2009.