Charlene Earl

I am a part-time Postgraduate Research Student studying a PhD in Higher Education in the Curriculum and Educational Development Team (CEDT)

I graduated in 2008 with a Masters in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) from the University of Wales, Swansea, and my area of specialism was vocabulary acquisition and retention.

I have travelled extensively to several countries and taught English as a Foreign Language in Argentina, at an orphanage in Bolivia and in New Zealand. These experiences have led me to explore the notion of intercultural awareness through a research project with funding from HEA/Advance HE. The outcome of this project resulted in Talking Cultures, modules, short courses and stand-alone workshops encompassing intercultural awareness training in a variety of educational and professional settings. This area of interest has further developed to providing bespoke workshops focusing on enhancing intercultural and interpersonal language and communication skills to international medical healthcare practitioners in the NHS.

My PhD research (longitudinal, mixed-method) research focuses on the development of ICC for students studying in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in the UK. The central outcome of the research is to explore how HEIs can best support students’ knowledge and development of ICC prior to, and during their studies. A further outcome is to create a set of evidence-based intercultural learning outcomes that can be usefully applied to programmes, modules and Internationalisation at Home (IaH) activities to monitor the development of ICC. To help develop her research, Charlene was awarded PG funding via the Migration and Movement Signature Research Theme  

Professional Practice:

I am a full-time member of staff at the University of Kent. My role as a Global and Employability Learning Designer involves working with directors and academics across the University of Kent to provide expert guidance and support to enhance and embed employability and internationalisation into the curriculum.

I previously worked as a Programme Manager, managing Pre-sessional and In-sessional provisions at the University of Kent and at the University of South Wales.

I have attended several conferences delivering presentations and workshops focusing on a range of topics from fostering cross-cultural engagement in Higher Education, exploring transferable skills acquired through specific intercultural cross-curricular activities and assignments, and considerations applied to planning and creating activities to support internationalisation in Higher Education.