Email: karen.fox@stmarys.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8240 4146
Biography
Karen joined St Mary’s University in 2020 and is a Senior Lecturer in primary English. She teaches English on the Primary Education Work-based Routes, the BA Hons in Primary Education with QTS, and the PGCE in Primary Education with QTS. She is also a link tutor in St Mary’s partnership schools.
Before this, Karen taught in primary schools across Surrey, Kingston, and Merton for twenty years. She has wide-ranging leadership experience and led English across the primary age range. She completed her MA in Professional Studies in Education at Kingston University in 2004 and her dissertation looked at the different strategies that can be used in the classroom to help improve children’s writing. She is currently a doctoral student at St Mary’s focusing on identity and representation in children’s literature.
Karen is passionate about teaching English, particularly how English can support children with the explorations of their identity and can empower them to tackle issues of social justice. She co-runs an Open University/United Kingdom Literacy Association Teachers Reading Group which delivers high-quality CPD on reading for pleasure and includes participants engaging in research in their schools. She is currently involved in a joint research project on teacher writer identity and the impact this has on teaching and learning. Karen has presented at several conferences including UKLA International Conferences (2022;2023), Teaching and Learning Festival (2021,2022), UKLA Participatory Approaches to Literacy Research, and to online English Special Interest Groups. She recently had an article on writing for pleasure published in the UKLA 4-11 English magazine.
Karen is a foundation governor at a catholic primary school in Kingston Upon Thames and is vice chair of the Children, community, and families committee.
She has always been passionate about primary education and inspiring children to be the best that they can be.