Kate Howen
Lecturer in Primary Education
Primary Education
email: k.howen@worc.ac.uk
Coming from a family of teachers, Kate’s experience in education began at a young age. Her passion was truly ignited while studying Sociology A Level and The Sociology of Education. This led to a BA (Hons) in Sociology at the University of Exeter where her dedication to education combined with a fascination for social research and a love of writing.
In order to build her skills prior to committing to the profession as a teacher, Kate worked as a Teaching Assistant, SENCo Assistant, Physical Therapy, Speech and Language and 1:1 support assistant across Early Years, KS1 and KS2; before embarking upon her PGCE at University of Worcester. During her time in school, she led English, PE and Music, as well as being SENCo and using her skills and understanding from her experience prior to training.
Kate joined University of Worcester as Associate Lecturer for Primary Music in 2017, using her years as a primary teacher to inspire students in a subject that most feel least confident, about teaching. As a Music educator, her subject knowledge comes from a lifelong involvement in performing and supporting children in their musical activities with instruments, voice and (as often as possible!) Dance. One of her proudest moments at UW has been her nomination for the Outstanding Lecturer Award 2020. She is proud of the level of commitment given by the students at UW and she goes above and beyond this to guide and facilitate each one on their journey to graduation and into the teac
Qualifications
- BA (Hons) Sociology
- PGCE Primary Education
- MA in Education
Learn Upon Training completed
- Safer Recruitment
- Introduction to the Prevent Duty as it affects Higher Education
- Safeguarding Essentials
Teaching & Research
Teaching Interests
Kate is dedicated to inspiring a love of all of the Primary Curriculum subjects to children and students; showing how numbers work together so beautifully; how our world works through Science and linking this to spiritual and religious ideas in RE; watching the creation of new products in DT; allowing self-expression in Art, Dance, Music; seeing growth in body confidence in PE and understanding how the geographical and historical contexts shape the people we share our world with.
Most of all, she loves writing with the children, sharing her love of words, her love of reading and helping them find their own voice as a writer.
Research Interests
During her early career, she continued her studies through her MA in Education, focusing her research on finding pathways in Music Education to support continuing musicians. The research findings directly informed curriculum development into outstanding provision for music, repeated and developed over many years.
This focus on research was always present in her leadership in school; using Social Action Research alongside children and colleagues in order to implement change and improve standards across the curriculum. Currently working to develop her contribution to the research and academic writing community, Kate is currently in the planning phase for a piece of social justice in education research and preparing to blog for online publications as part of this process; combining her passion for sociology, writing and education.