About
Stephanie Atkinson is a Professor at the University of Sunderland with a sustained focus on Design & Technology (D&T) education, creativity, teacher training and gender issues in STEM. Over more than two decades she has led the university’s Initial Teacher Training provision for secondary D&T teachers, published extensively in leading journals, and contributed foundational chapters to major handbooks and encyclopedias.
Education & Career Path:
- Long-standing academic career based at the University of Sunderland.
- Principal architect of the D&T Initial Teacher Training curriculum delivered at Sunderland, continuously refined over 25 years.
Research Domains:
Her scholarship interrogates the intersections of creativity, cognitive/learning styles, computer-aided learning, teacher motivation and gender equity. Representative strands include:
- Creativity versus high-stakes performance demands in design project work.
- Influence of learning-style preferences on achievement in technology tasks.
- Comparative curriculum analyses (e.g., England vs New Zealand).
- Under-representation of women in STEM and the evolving role of female role models.
Publications Trajectory:
Recent outputs (2020-2023) reveal a concentrated focus on synthesising national curriculum developments, producing practitioner-oriented research reviews, and interrogating gendered career trajectories in STEM. Earlier work (2000-2015) is characterised by empirical studies on pupil learning, teacher cognition, and the efficacy of computer-assisted environments in D&T education.
Conference Leadership & Dissemination:
Atkinson is a recurrent keynote and invited speaker at PATT (Pupils’ Attitudes Towards Technology) and related international fora, addressing themes such as curriculum security, imaginative assessment tools, and equity in technology education.
Advising & Grant Landscape:
While specific funded projects and named doctoral students are not listed in the provided materials, her extensive conference and publication record implies sustained supervisory and grant activity within the University of Sunderland’s teacher-education programmes.
Laboratories & Teams:
She is closely affiliated with the University’s Initial Teacher Training team for Design & Technology and contributes to the wider Educational Research cluster evidenced by her prolific output in SURE (Sunderland Repository).
