I taught English in secondary schools for 10 years, spending 1 year teaching in the USA. I became PGCE English course leader at The University of Reading in 1988, course leader of the MA in English and Language in Education in 1990, Head of Continuing Professional Development 2002- 2006, Director of Teaching and Learning, Deputy Head of School, 2002- 2007, appointed Professor in 2005, and was Head of School from 2005-2015. I remain Emeritus Professor at Reading. I worked as Director of Research at The Centre for Research and Evidence in Education 2016-17. I have been active in The National Association for the Teaching of English, being Chair 2009-11. I am President of the International Federation for the Teaching of English and I was one of the founders of The International Association for the Improvement of Mother Tongue Education in 1999 [now ARLE]. My other major area of research is teacher expertise, my most recent book about expert teaching is Expert Teaching: an international perspective, Routledge 2016. In the field of English, my latest book is: Goodwyn, A., Durrant, C., Scherff, E. & Reid, L. (Eds.). International perspectives on the teaching of Literature in schools; global principles and practices, London, Routledge.

As well as NATE, for whom I am now IFTE representative, I am an active member of The British Educational Research Association , The American Educational Research Association, The European Educational Research Association, The Australian Association for the Teaching of English and The National Council for The Teaching of English (USA), and try to present regularly at their [and other] conferences. I have worked extensively and developed projects with organisations and universities internationally. In September 2017 I launched the BERA Special Interest Group ‘English in Education’ of which I am convenor.