The Open University

Faculty Member, Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology

Senior Lecturer of Educational ICT & Professional Development

About

Dr. Christopher S Walsh has extensive experience of primary and secondary teacher education with specialisations in new technologies, literacy, multimodality and international development. Currently he works as a team member for English in Action (EIA) and is involved the design of the new primary and secondary teacher professional development modules as well as his lead role in collaboratively assembling, field testing and selecting the new mobile phone-based technology kit for the project’s teacher professional development upscaling. Previously, he worked on a 3-year teacher professional development project in Malaysia aimed at redesigning teacher training institutes’ pre-service curricula to provide a comprehensive credentialing system inline with those used in Australia across all key subject areas. From 2004-2005, working as a consultant for unicef in Afghanistan, he collaborated with Afghan colleagues to co-author and field test 2 primary national English textbooks (now used throughout the country) and worked to develop and deliver pre-service and in-service teacher professional development programmes at  teacher training institutes in Kabul. Simultaneously, through funding provided by the U.S. State Department, Dr. Walsh provided professional development to the education staff at The Teaching University of Kabul to help them redesign their pre-service English teacher training programme emphasising a constructivist student-centred approach.

Dr. Walsh’s on-going work in Thailand, while not specifically aligned with teacher education, has designed, piloted and maintains online and mobile peer education resources to protect public health and promote human rights through a sustainable and reinventing community owned response with stigmatised populations disproportionately at risk of HIV infection. In Viet Nam, for a UNDP funded project, he designed, led on implementing and analysing a large scale research project (quantitative, qualitative and video) assessing the impact of Clinical Legal Education (CLE) programmes initiated at 8 universities across the country. He is also Senior Research Analyst and Policy Advisor for Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia Community Legal Education Initiative (BABSEA CLE).

Dr. Walsh was also central researcher on number of highly completive grants (The Spencer Foundation, amfAR , AFAO and the Australian Research Council) that produced ranked publications indicating an established and strong trajectory of analytical and problem solving skills.  The Australian project, Literacy in the Digital World of the 21st Century: Learning from Computer Games investigated the ways in which English and literacy education might benefit from examining digital games to improve the teaching of print and multimodal forms of literacy. 

He recently published two edited books entitled Transforming practice: critical issues in equity, diversity and education (in press) by Trentham and Equality, Participation and Inclusion: Diverse Perspectives (2010) by Routledge. He has published more than 50 journal articles, book chapters and conference papers.

Dr. Walsh also edits the international peer reviewed journal Digital Culture & Education (DCE) and is a trustee of the Topsy Foundation UK a South African NGO and UK registered charity that provides a range of services to support families and meet the needs and personal development of orphans and children made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS in poor rural communities.

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