Becky Cozens

After gaining experience as an academic tutor with the international distance learning team, I am now a Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Society. 

I have varied experience in the education sector including Early Years (working as a teacher in a maintained nursery school in a Sure Start Children's Centre), primary and further education (FE).

My most recent role, before joining the University as a Lecturer, was at an FE college where I taught adolescents (16-19) and adults across the Early Years provision (FE and HE) and taught mathematics (Functional Skills and GCSE) to GCSE re-sit students. Alongside my teaching role, I worked as a Programme Manager for two curriculum areas: (1) Early Years and (2) Health and Social Care before developing and project managing the introduction of Initial Teacher Training provision into the college. My role also included being the Initial Teacher Training Co-Ordinator and delivering cross-college teacher staff development with the Quality team. 

I am currently a Governor for two schools: an infant school and a primary school. 

My research interests are centered around the development of relationships between teachers/practitioners and children, the value of caregiving and the child's voice, situated within childhood and feminist scholarship.

My PhD research explores the lived experiences of giving and receiving care in a nursery, with a focus on gathering children's perspectives on caring relationships and to what extent these relationships nurture and/or constrain their agency, interests and needs. I also have a specific interest in ethics related to research with young children. 

I am Programme Leader for the iQTS (Primary) February 2025 cohort and module leader for the second teaching practice module on this course. I am also module leader for the second teaching practice module on PGCE Early Years Teaching (DL) EYT301 – Professional Practice in Early Years Teaching. I am also a Personal Academic Tutor on PGCE iQTS.