Staff profile

Rosie is an Associate Professor at the School of Education, Durham University.

An experienced classroom teacher in mainstream and special schools, Rosie taught learners in key stages 1, 2 and 3 across the northeast of England. Rosie joined Durham University in 2012 and contributes to undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in education, including initial teacher education and CPD activities.

Roles have included developing new programmes and modules at undergraduate level, programme leadership (Director of BA Primary Education) and policy and process development for initial teacher training (ITT) programmes. Rosie is currently a programme director for PGCE International programme (based in Geneva, Switzerland) and is developing the online PGCE International programme to be launched in the next academic year.

Rosie is interested in how we can use evidence to help us understand the world better. In teaching and research activity, she explores the idea of ‘evidence’ and how evidence and ideas about evidence can inform decision making and problem solving. She has built on this interest in teaching about learner differences (learners with disabilities and special educational needs), analysing the ways that knowledge is constructed and enacted in policy (in relation to initial teacher education) and developing materials (teaching and research) on the ways we can prepare learners to be engaged citizens in the future (data science and statistical literacy).

Rosie is involved in activity around education and learning of students with special educational needs and disabilities, including leading academic modules and CPD for teachers, school leaders and teacher educators on this subject and the subject of inclusion. Current examples include her modules EDUC1531 Disability and Educational Needs: What’s so special about SEN? And EDUC2431 Disability and Educational Needs: Impairment, Empowerment and Education, and conference workshops.

Rosie is also involved in developing work around statistical literacy, engaging, and embedding data skills in classrooms and beyond to promote engagement and empowerment. Her work as part of the ProCivicStat project built on foundations of statistics education and data science to engage learners and teachers in asking questions about evidence and using evidence to understand the world. Current examples include chapters in book, developing data science CPD and various public seminars and conference presentations.  

Completed Supervisions

Collaborative inquiry into service learning: ethical practice through a Pedagogy of CARE.

The social construction of dyslexia in the UK media: school as a site of failure.

• Data Science
• Civic Statistics
• Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
• Teacher Education
• Continuing Professional Development
• Education

Chapter in book

• Ridgway, J., & Ridgway, R. (2022). Covid-19 shows why we need Civic Statistics: illustrations and classroom activities. In J. Ridgway (Ed.), Statistics for empowerment and social engagement: teaching Civic Statistics to develop informed citizens (297-319). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20748-8_12
• Ridgway, J., & Ridgway, R. (2022). Civic Statistics in context: mapping the global evidence ecosystem. In J. Ridgway (Ed.), Statistics for empowerment and social engagement: teaching Civic Statistics to develop informed citizens (581-607). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20748-8_23
• Ridgway, R. (2017). Supporting struggling learners: teachers, learners, and labels of SEN. In C. Walker-Gleaves, & D. Waugh (Eds.), Looking after Literacy: A Whole Child Approach to Effective Literacy Interventions (67-86). SAGE Publications
• Ridgway, R. (2017). Supporting Deaf Learners. In C. Walker-Gleaves, & D. Waugh (Eds.), Looking after Literacy: A Whole Child Approach to Effective Literacy Interventions (101-118). SAGE Publications
• Ridgway, R. (2017). Writing through Computing. In A. Bushnell, & D. Waugh (Eds.), Inviting Writing: Teaching and Learning Writing Across the Primary Curriculum (96-109). SAGE Publications

Conference Paper

• (2019, December). Citizen Empowerment - changing the face of statistical literacy. Presented at ISI World Statistics Congress, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Ridgway, R. (2018, December). SEND Inclusion: Pedagogy, Content Knowledge, Theory and Practice. Some challenges and opportunities. Presented at Teacher Education Advancement Network, Birmingham, UK
• Ridgway, J., Nicholson, J., & Ridgway, R. (2019, August). Looking Back- Looking Forward; Statistics and the Data Science Tsunami. Presented at ISI World Statistics Congress, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Ridgway, R. (2019, September). Initial Teacher Education: Navigating the Inclusion Illusion. Presented at The Education and Development Forum UKFIET, Oxford, UK
• Ridgway, J., Ridgway, R., & Nicholson, J. (2018, December). Data Science for all: A stroll in the foothills. Presented at International Conference on Teaching Statistics, Kyoto, Japan
• Ridgway, J., Arnold, P., Moy, W., & Ridgway, R. (2017, December). Deriving heuristics from political speeches for understanding statistics about society. Presented at IASE Roundtable Conference, Berlin

Doctoral Thesis

• Ridgway, R. (2017). Giving a voice to the Hard to Reach: Song as an effective medium for communicating with PMLD children who have low social tolerance. (Thesis). Durham University. https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1618003

Journal Article

• Ridgway, R., & Ridgway, J. (online). Crimes Against Statistical Inference: Forcing Teachers to be Accessories after the (Absence of) Fact. Online educational research journal,
• Ridgway, R. (2023). Choice and control: corpus-based discourse analysis of teacher education policy in England (2010-2021). Cogent Education, 10(1), Article 2212118. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2023.2212118
• Ridgway, J., & Ridgway, R. (2019). Teaching for Citizen Empowerment and Engagement. Radical statistics, 123, 15-23