Laura Kayes has worked in the further education sector for more than a decade. She currently works for the Luminate Education Group as a research practitioner, contributing to the wider, and often-neglected, field of research in further education, and supporting colleagues to undertake practitioner research within the group. A music and performing arts teacher by trade, Laura now teaches in the group’s teacher education provision. Laura is a member of the board of governors for Hartlepool College, and is also an EdD student with the University of Sheffield. Laura is supported in her doctoral studies by the Association of College’s Research Further initiative.