MICRO-BIO

• I travel the globe as an educational tinker - selling my wares to whichever company or NGO will employ me and whoever will listen. I have been a teacher of Chemistry, K-12; Performing Arts, TVET; and School Leadership and Management at University le...More

  I travel the globe as an educational tinker - selling my wares to whichever company or NGO will employ me and whoever will listen. I have been a teacher of Chemistry, K-12; Performing Arts, TVET; and School Leadership and Management at University level. I am interested in 'knowledge' - what's worth knowing ? what should be taught ? - facts ? skills for learning ? or skills for life ? - or all three ( probably ). My doctorate is in educational technology - policymaking and enactment; it focuses primarily upon education technology in the MENA region, but draws more general inferences relating to education transformation and the contrasting developments of epistemology between the countries of the Global North and the Islamic world. Published by Palgrave McMillan in 2016 and entitled Education Technology in the Middle East - globalisation, neoliberalism and the knowlege economy, it looks at the issues related to policy implementation and social reform as the Modernist Project confronts the conservative ideology of the Arab Gulf states. It is the beginning of a series of arguments that seek to explore over future volumes which seek to find the common ground that unites the worlds of the Occident and the Orient. This is not a wholly original series of arguments, though they have been lost, of late, amidst the siren cries of Islamophobia. Few remember, for example, that The Norman, King Roger II of Sicily, in the 12th Century, presided over a multicultural community which embraced Greek, Latin and Islamic cultures - the existence of the tri-lingual inscriptions on public monuments is one testament to this, to the modern gaze, remarkable achievement. The are many important considerations to be made here for the creation of a more harmonious world - and many hard realities to swallow for the xenophobes and exceptionalists.

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EXPERIENCE

• Michael Lightfoot Assoicates

  • Principal
  • January 2001 to Present

• Office for Standards in Education, England

  • OFSTED Registered Inspector
  • September 1993 to September 2000

• University Campus Suffolk

  • Head of Performing Arts
  • September 1988 to September 1991

• Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London

  • Senior Lecturer in Theatre
  • September 1984 to September 1988

• Free Lance Theatre Pracitioner

  • Designer, Director, Actor, Stage Manager
  • January 1979 to September 1984

• London Borough of Hillingdon

  • Science Teacher
  • September 1977 to September 1978

EDUCATION

• YMCA-Fit, London

  • Diploma in Yoga Teaching
  • January 2014 to August 2014

  Professional Qualification at Level 4 on the European Qualifications Framework to qualify for access to European Register for Exercise Professionals. Main focus on Hatha yoga

• University College London, Institute of Education

  • PhD
  • September 2009 to July 2014

  A doctorate, by research, into Education Technology in the Middle East - policymaking and enactment

• City University, London

  • MA
  • September 1985 to July 1987

  Part time Masters programme in Education Management

• University College London, Institute of Education

  • Post Graduate Certificate in Education
  • September 1976 to June 1977

  Post grad teaching qualification to teach 'integrated science' in secondary schools

• University of Dundee

  • BSc (hons)
  • October 1972 to June 1976

  Honours science degree in Pharmacology undertaken at Ninewells Teaching Hospital in Dundee

Interests

• Teacher Education And Cpd

• Technical And Vocational Education And Training

• Quality Assurance In Education

• Curriculum Reform

• 21st Century Skills

• Education Reform For The Knowledge Economy

Links

• Holistic Lightfoots - spiritual retreats
• Academia profile