Dr Kevin Palmer is Deputy Director for Pedagogy, Leadership and Professional Learning in the Welsh Government. Having secured a PhD in Literary Theory and qualified to teach in further education in the 1980s, Kevin worked as a lecturer, middle manager and senior manager in Barry and Swansea colleges, and as an assistant principal in Coleg Llandrillo in North Wales. From there he went into local authority as transformation lead in Salford, then into the private sector as a consultant on education transformation across a range of sectors and industries. After nearly 10 years living in North Wales and working across the UK, Kevin came back to South Wales to work as assistant director in the Educational Achievement Service in 2012. In that post as in many others, his interest was in supporting leaders and teachers through processes of change and innovation, and specifically looking at pedagogy and practice as the heart of school improvement. Kevin’s current portfolio includes initial teacher education, research, professional learning, leadership, professional standards and A-levels.