About
Research
Email: kerry.assemakis@stmarys.ac.uk
Biography
Kerry Assemakis is a senior lecturer in Primary English, teaching on both postgraduate and undergraduate programmes. Before joining St Mary’s in 2014, Kerry’s teaching experience included working in primary schools as a subject lead for English, she held the role of a Lead English teacher in the borough of Richmond and was also a staff governor.
Kerry’s research interests lie in the field of creative and arts-based research, and participatory inquiry. This includes her own doctoral work where she is researching the experiences of children crafting visual texts. Kerry’s own MA research focussed on student teachers as creative writers and, as a result, she led a team of researchers where the emphasis was on further understanding the role of writer identity development of teachers and English subject leads in school. Alongside a colleague, Kerry received a commendation from the St Mary’s University Walpole prize in recognition for her work with student teachers as writers. Kerry is involved in a range of research projects, including a transnational teacher-writer identity project. Kerry also contributes to projects that are part of the Wellbeing in Education Research Centre.
Kerry’s co-runs a three-year primary education Writing for Pleasure project for KS1 and KS2 teachers. The project aims to develop the ‘will’ to be a writer and grow a community of expert, engaged teacher-writers in schools across the borough of Hounslow. The Get Hounslow Writing project has been developed to meet the writing needs of schools across the borough and is delivered in partnership with Hounslow Education Partnership. Kerry also co-runs an Open University/United Kingdom literacy association teachers’ reading group, which delivers high quality continuous professional development on reading for pleasure, and includes participants engaging in small-scale research in their own schools.
Qualifications and accreditations
- Kerry has a BA (hons) in Primary Education
- Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)
- MA in Education
- Postgraduate certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE)
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Membership of professional bodies
- United Kingdom Literacy Association
- Chartered College of Teaching.
Research
Research profile
Publications
- Assemakis, K. (2024) ‘Preparing children to be globally and visually literate’
- Assemakis, K. (2022) ‘Student teachers as creative writers: does an understanding of creative pedagogies matter?’. Literacy Wiley, 57 (1), pp.40-50.
- Assemakis, K. and Utton, F. (2022) “The chest of words has allowed me to reconnect with writing”. UKLA English 4-11, 74, pp.2-3.
Conferences
- September 2024 Presentation at BERA Annual Conference: Price, M., Assemakis, K., Cass, G., Davey, J., Fox, K., Lovatt, S., and Wilson, S. (2024) ‘Holding the space: early career researcher-lecturers’ learning from conference experience’.
- June 2024 Presentation at UKLA international conference ‘We rise by lifting others: using powerful picturebooks for wellbeing and emotional development’.
- June 2023 Presentation at UKLA Annual Conference: Assemakis, K. Fox, K. Head, J. Utton, F. and Willmott, A. (2023) ‘A shift in writing identity: teacher reflections on how their sense of self as writers informs practice’.
- June 2023 Presentation at UKLA Annual International Conference. Assemakis, K. (2023) ‘Student Teachers as Creative Writers’.