Biography: Paula Cowan

[Paula Cowan]

Paula Cowan has over seventeen years experience of teaching in primary schools. Her breadth of experience includes teaching in schools for pupils with moderate and severe learning difficulties but principally teaching in mainstream schools. There she has taught across the primary spectrum as a full time class teacher, as well as in part-time team teaching and job-sharing positions.

Paula was a freelance educational writer during the period 1994 –2001, and a frequent contributor to the education pages of The Scotsman, The Herald and the TES Scotland Supplement. In November 2001, Paula took up a full-time position as a Lecturer in Education within the School of Education of the University of Paisley.

Most of Paula's teaching on campus is a combination of teaching undergraduates on the BEd (Hons) course and postgraduates on the PGCE (Prim) course. Paula is module co-ordinator for English Language and Health modules for PGCE (Prim) and BA Childhood Studies students respectively. In addition, she teaches Social Subjects, Primary Education, RME and PSD, and supervises 4th year BEd (Hons) students during their small scale research study.

Paula also provides courses for local authorities on teaching the Holocaust in primary and secondary schools and is a member of CiCe (Children’s Identity and Citizenship in Europe). CiCe is an interdisciplinary group of about 258 academics from some 79 different institutions in 29 nations in Europe who share an interest in the way in which children and young people construct their identity and citizenship in the context of contemporary Europe.