Krishan SoodI have over forty years teaching, leadership and management experience gained across all different sectors of education, industry and leadership. I started as a Science teacher in Derbyshire secondary school and then in another school in the heart of Derby, so am well aware of the challenges and opportunities of urban city education service.
I have been an advisory teacher for anti-racist education in Warwickshire for over 8 years before moving to teach in four universities in England. In between, I spent two years as an assistant head in a Birmingham city school before taking up posts at Universities. Currently, I am the Course leader for Foundation degree in Education Policy and Practice at Nottingham Trent University and I teach across other undergraduate and post-graduate courses.
My expertise lies in educational leadership and management and I specialise in educational leadership for diversity, social justice and inclusion. My research interests and publications are in the areas of leadership and diversity management, English as Additional Language, gender, Early Years and leadership, professional development of support staff, research methodology, curriculum development and globalisation. I have in the past served as a secretary for the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS).
I have been a BELMAS member for over 25 years, on and off. I have always relished exchanging ideas on scholarly matters as well as to get to know the ins- and outs- of BELMAS workings by meeting people. I want to be an active member in promoting BELMAS’s strategic plans that will best serve the whole educational sector, locally, nationally and internationally.
I have a lifetime passion for working with equalities issues. This is evidenced through my educational role at NTU where I am the EDI champion for my Institute which sits within the School of Social Science. To date, I have developed a rolling action plan for EDI for the Institute and supported training for over 100 colleagues with various levels of experience, expertise and interest. I have team taught and led specific training for colleagues in designing their curriculum in ITE, Early Childhood courses and CPD suite of courses (MA/PhD/EdD). I supervise 6 PhD/EdD students currently. So, I know what teaching, designing and practice looks like and how to manage the daily pressures of planning, teaching, marking and moderations. I am therefore well aware of sensitivities of educators who ‘battle’ with mountain of paperwork on top of endeavouring to manage their own time and space for ‘me’.
My values are informed of my own positionality. I am British Asian and have lived in UK since the 1960s having come from Uganda as a teen. All my education has been in English schools. I have learnt a lot from the host country which is now my country and I have given back to society as teacher, adviser, governor and HE tutor. The values most close to my heart are those of respect for all, courtesy and honesty, regardless of age, gender, class or socio-economic background. These are the values I know BELMAS promote in their relationships with the community they reach out to through their conference, publications, online activities and other communication strategies.
I want to be part of that community of BELMAS team that collegially builds and sustains effective communication between BELMAS and its community of practitioners. I think BELMAS needs to connect better to explain the role of education via its publications and outreach events on regular basis. This means forging stronger links with local schools, academies, voluntary sector, national and international educational organisations.
I will reach out proactively to bridge the theory-practice gap through the ‘voice’ of Leadership Preparation and Development or Race and Leadership RIGs. My values of promoting high quality scholarship, engagement, and collaborating through networks align with BELMAS values and the role. These are the values I will promote if elected.
I will bring to the membership a confident personality along with the drive of a successful leader, gained from my current role as Senior lecturer in Education at Nottingham Trent University. I have chaired many exam boards and PhD vivas and undertaken several revalidation events as external examiner at various Universities, which gives me excellent chairing and listening skills.
