Assistant Professor

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Job Description - Assistant Professor (Research & Education)

Job Description

Assistant Professor (Research & Education) ( Job Number: )

School of Education

Open-Ended/Permanent - Full Time

Closing Date Closing Date : 14-May-2025, 10:59:00 PM

Disclosure and Barring Service Requirement : Not Applicable.

Working at Durham University

A globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a warm and friendly place to work, a unique and historic setting - Durham is a university like no other.

As one of the UK's leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career. The University is located within a beautiful historic city, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and surrounded by stunning countryside. Our talented scholars and researchers from around the world are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.

We believe that inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham enables Durham people to do outstanding things in the world. Being a part of Durham is about more than just the success of the University, it's also about contributing to the success of the city, county and community.

Our University Strategy is built on three pillars of research, education and wider student experience, but also on our keen sense of community and of inspiring others to achieve their potential.

We want our University to be a place where people can be free to be themselves, no matter what their identity or background. Together, we celebrate difference, value one another and are each responsible for creating an inclusive community that is respectful and fair for all.

Find out more about the benefits of working at the University and what it is like to live and work in the Durham area on our Why Join Us? - Information Page

Discover more about our total rewards and benefits package here .

The role

The School of Education invites candidates with a specialism in safeguarding and child protection in an educational context to join the Global Centre for Contextual Safeguarding (GCCS). Research experience in safeguarding and child protection in education is essential, this may also align with the School's Thematic Research Clusters, particularly the research areas of international and cross-cultural education, digital education and online harm or teacher education and development. The successful candidate will contribute to development of education and training programmes within the GCCS working with interdisciplinary colleagues (Professor Carlene Firmin- Co-PI Sociology, Professor Pablo Munoz- Co-PIBusiness & Enterprise, Dr Rosie Ridgway Co-PI Education) as we develop our online training and professional development offer. Practitioner experience in working with children and young people, in schools or in education related contexts would be beneficial.

This post offers an exciting opportunity to make a major contribution to the development of internationally excellent research and teaching while allowing unrivalled opportunities to progress and embed your career in an exciting and progressive institution. For more information, please visit our School pages at School of Education - Durham University and the GCCS pages

The Centre

In September 2025 Durham University will launch the Global Centre for Contextual Safeguarding (GCCS). The GCCS, led by Durham's Sociology Department, Business School and School of Education, will bring together departments across the four faculties of the University to: transform how societies understand and deliver services that safeguard young people beyond their homes; create systems that look beyond the capacity of parents to protect children; and build sustainable partnerships in which safeguarding is truly everybody's business.

This is not a Centre simply focused on researching and improving existing safeguarding practices; it is instead committed to a radical transformation in how safeguarding is conceptualised, studied, and practiced, and by whom.

The Centre will achieve this by building a critical interdisciplinary effort to cement an emergent field of research. It will implement that research in collaboration with others to reform policy and legal frameworks, and the organisational practices, which govern the provision and evaluation of services around the world.

It will scale that implementation through commercial partnerships with industries beyond traditional safeguarding partnerships; providing various routes to learn about Contextual Safeguarding that transcends sector boundaries.

The Department

The School of Education at Durham University is one of the best in the country and beyond. We feature in the World Top 100in the QS World University Subject Rankings 2024; firstin The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025 and 4thin The Complete University Guide 2025.

The School represents an environment that is conducive to producing research of world-leading quality and enabling outstanding impact, in the most recent Research Excellence Framework exercise (REF 2021), 86.7% of the publications produced by colleagues at the School of Education was considered world leading or internationally excellent in terms of their rigour, significance and originality. Our research has a strong impact beyond academia as it benefits the economy and wider society (culture, public policy, services, health, the environment, and quality of life). 100% of impact case studies that we submitted to REF 2021 were outstanding in terms of their reach and significance.

The School of Education is committed to research-led teaching and diversity in approaches to accommodate needs and potential of student learners. Our current portfolio of teaching ranges from undergraduate programmes (BA in Education Studies, BA in Primary Education), through Postgraduate Taught Masters pathways (from MA Education to MA Intercultural Communication and Education) to Postgraduate Research.

Assistant Professors at Durham

Assistant Professors on the Education and Research track are encouraged to focus on research and teaching but are also expected to engage in wider citizenship to enhance their own development, support their department and discipline, and contribute to the wider student experience.

Academic colleagues are supported to publish excellent research in their area of interest with a focus on high quality outputs (including monographs and journal articles ) , rather than quantity.

We aim to support your research needs , including practical help such as resources to attend conferences and to fund research activities, as well as a generous research leave policy and a designated mentor.

Durham University is also committed to ensuring outstanding teaching quality, stimulating learning environments, and innovative curricula for all our students. You will be supported to develop your teaching expertise and skills.

We are confident that our recruitment process allows us to attract and select the best talent to Durham. We, therefore, offer a reduced probation period of 1 year for our Assistant Professors and thereafter, subject to satisfactory performance, your position will be confirmed as permanent.

Applicants must demonstrate high quality research in the field ofsafeguarding and child protection in Education, with the ability to teach our students to an exceptional standard and to fully engage in the services, citizenship and values of the University.

We strive to provide a working and teaching environment that is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate these key principles as part of the assessment process.

Key responsibilities:
•  To pursue research that is high quality in terms of originality, significance and rigour.
•  To develop clear plans for the pursuit of national and international funding opportunities to support research and end-user engagement.
•  To contribute to the GCCS CPD and training offer enabling the development and delivery of new online and in person materials promoting Contextual Safeguarding
•  To play a role in relevant teaching and research supervision, and contribute to ongoing curriculum development.
•  Contribute to enhancing the quality of the research environment in the Department, the wider University and beyond through collaborative research activity.
•  Demonstrate a willingness to contribute to the administrative work, citizenship and values of the Department.
•  To deliver lectures, seminars and tutorials at undergraduate and taught postgraduate levels, as well as engaging in related activity such as assessment.
•  To fully engage in and enhance the values of the Department.
•  To contribute to attracting and supervising research students, and to enhance the Department's commitment to its vibrant and inclusive postgraduate culture click apply for full job details