SURE

Stephanie Atkinson is a Professor of Design and Technology Education at the University of Sunderland. She has undergraduate qualifications as a Product and Furniture Designer from Northumbria University and a PhD from Newcastle-upon-Tyne University. Stephanie has held senior appointments in design and technology at all levels: in schools as Head of 3D Studies, as lecturer at Loughborough University and as Principal Lecturer, Reader and now Professor at University of Sunderland. Her early research for her PhD focused on the de-motivation of pupils in schools, but more recently she has been investigating the design activity of students training to become teachers in terms of learning styles and their relationship to factors such as designing styles, creativity, gender and computer aided learning, with many internationally publications to her name. She is a member of three international journal’s editorial boards, examines PhD’s internationally, is an external examiner for several universities and is the external advisor for Design Technology for the International Baccalaureate Organisation. She has made an outstanding contribution as a teacher, teacher educator and researcher. Stephanie is widely respected within both design and educational fields. This was both recognised, and demonstrated, when she gave the John Eggleston Memorial Lecture at the 2009 Design and Technology Association’s International conference and was invited to present her research on creativity to all design and technology teachers, inspectors and teacher trainers in Cyprus also in 2009. In 2010 the Design and Technology Association presented her with an award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Design and Technology Education’ and in 2011 she was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Higher Education.