Research output per year
Research output per year
Accepting PhD Students
PhD projects
Dr Emel Thomas is interested in supervising PhD students examining themes such as race, ethnicity, gender, social class, comparative and international education, education in small states (such as countries within the Caribbean) and higher education policy.
Willing to speak to media
Research activity per year
Dr Emel Thomas is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Northampton. She obtained her Doctorate in Education at the University of Cambridge in 2013. She has written and presented papers for various international conferences on education and migration. Emel received her Master’s in Comparative and International Education from the University of Oxford. Prior to this, she taught in a variety of schools in England and has also conducted research for charities that support unreached young people.
Her main teaching and research interests include migration, identity, race, families and communities, intercultural teaching and learning, and education in small states. Other interests include the marketisation of Higher Education in a global context. Her edited book Education in the Commonwealth Caribbean and Netherlands Antilles was published in 2014.
Emel is passionate about research and practice within the discipline of comparative education. She currently co-leads the research Centre for the Advancement of Racial Equality (CARE) at University of Northampton. She is also active within the Centre for Education and Research (CER) co-leading the Special Interest Group (SIG) 'Families and Communities'.
Dr Emel Thomas teaches on a number of educational modules at postgraduate level. Specifically she is module leader for EDUM074 International Perspectives on Education and EDUM100 Thesis (across several student cohorts on campus and online). She supervises many research students at Masters and PhD level.
Current PhD Supervision:
Yinka Amure
Identity and culture: exploring Black women dyslexic encounters in education.
Michelle Bye-Gannon
Exploring the role of gender and identity in the experiences of male secondary school students.
Chimeuma Opuwari
Nigerian students mobility to the UK for higher education: Students' perspectives.
Maria Fox
Digital recordings of lessons as a reflexive tool: improving experienced teachers' classroom practice using Interpersonal Process Recall.
Ezekiel Delgado Martin
The socio-emotional wellbeing of children in 6th and 7th grade, their families and their teachers during the 2020-2021 pandemic school year. An ethnographic study in a Spanish school.
Bhuvana Ramakrishnan
An investigation into parental perspective of inclusive education for primary pupils with SEND in Dubai private schools.
Xianrong Wang
Exploring the perceptions of teachers about the implementation of the SPELL framework for children with autism.
PhD Completions:
Qiuling Bi
Critical thinking instruction through project-based learning in Chinese EFL classes - A case study in HE.
Divya Dubey
An investigation into the professional development needs of teachers (upper primary and secondary level) to meet the diverse learning needs in Indian classrooms.
Hilary Gbedemah
Examining girls' experiences of discrminatory practices in Ghanaian secondary education against International Human Rights Standards.
Emmanuel Maphosa
The Zimbabwean student: examining the experiences of migrant students in English secondary schools.
Yahya Moalin
UK Somali diaspora perspectives on Peace Education as a means of conflict resolution on the National Reconciliation process in Somalia: An exploratory case study.
Rajani Padmanabhan
A case study investigation of a mainstream school that supports inclusion in Bangalore, South India.
Nicola Preston
Stories of restorative justice and school exclusion: an autoethnography of relational understanding.
My Tran Chau
An exploratory inquiry into the adoption of performance based accountability policies for public universities in Vietnam.
Dr Emel Thomas is an ethics reviewer for the UON Faculty of Health Education and Society Research Ethics Commitee. She is also a longstanding member of the Business and Enterprise Research Degree Committee.
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
PhD, Race, Migration and Education: Examining the Perceptions of British born ‘Minority Ethnic’ and Eastern European ‘Immigrant’ Youth in Buckinghamshire, University of Cambridge
Award Date: 11 May 2013
Master, Examining Experiences and Perceptions when Providing for Minority Ethnic Students in Buckinghamshire, University of Oxford
Award Date: 11 Nov 2011
PGCE, Economics and Business Studies, University of Warwick
Award Date: 1 Aug 2001
External Examiner MA Education (full time and part time courses), Liverpool John Moores University
9 Sept 2024 → …
External academic reviewer for the periodic partner review of Regents College London, Buckinghamshire New University
1 Apr 2023 → 30 Apr 2023
External Examiner MA Education, University of Bedfordshire
1 Sept 2021 → …
Reviewer, Gender and Education - Taylor and Francis
Reviewer, Journal of International and Comparative Education - University of Malaya
Reviewer, The University of the West Indies Press
Reviewer, Education Sciences
Research output: Contribution to Book/Report › Chapter › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Conference › Poster
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Book/Report › Book › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Book/Report › Chapter › peer-review
Research output: Book/Report › Book
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › peer-review
Helen Simmons (Organiser), Emel Thomas (Organiser), Robin Sturman-Coombs (Participant), Peter Goy (Participant), Claire Dugan-Clements (Participant) & Beth Garrett (Participant)
Activity: Organising a conference or workshop › Research
JACKSON PAUL (Chair), Emel Thomas (Chair), Patrice Seuwou (Chair) & Dilshad Sarwar (Chair)
Activity: Organising a conference or workshop › Research
Emel Thomas (Author)
Activity: Academic Talks or Presentations › Invited talk › Teaching
Emel Thomas (Author)
Activity: Academic Talks or Presentations › Conference Presentation
Emel Thomas (Author) & Kyffin Jones (Author)
Activity: Academic Talks or Presentations › Seminar/Workshop › Teaching
Emel Thomas (Author)
Activity: Academic Talks or Presentations › Symposium › Research
Emel Thomas (Author)
Activity: Academic Talks or Presentations › Conference Presentation
Supervisor: Dillabough, J. (Supervisor)
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis