I have worked in a variety of Primary Schools for 18 years, teaching across the age phases and having various leadership and management roles. My current role is the BA Primary Education Programme Lead at Manchester Metropolitan University and the Departmental Disability Co-ordinator ( DDC). My research interests are in gender, identity and the status and positioning of teachers. More specifically, my current work examines the identity development and enactment of early career primary school teachers, with a focus on those from underrepresented groups. My general research and theoretical interests include, but are not limited to, socio-cultural approaches to education which draw on the tradition of Vygotsky, including ‘Figured Worlds’ theory, Bakhtinian thinking and Western cultural anthropology. A common thread among these diverse approaches is a focus on learning as developing through social interaction having strong links with the study of discourse and social interaction.