Prior to her appointment as Reader in Education at UWS in 2007, Anne was a contract researcher for many years. As a result, she has diverse research interests, reflected in the range of her publications. In recent years she has published in the area of educational inclusion; education policy; the epistemology of social research; research ethics; lifelong learning in the context of the European Reference Framework; and authority relations in education. She is committed to inter-disciplinary research endeavour and collaborates with visual artists; sociologists; philosophers; cultural theorists; geographers; and urban designers.

Anne is interested in exploring the theme of authority in educational contexts, building upon her existing published work in this area. She has recently published a conceptual paper that explores the history of LEGO as a means to develop a more nuanced understanding of the complex nature of learning. 

As the very term implies, educational discourse privileges written or spoken communication and debate, and there is scant attention to the embodied, situated, creative and effective dimensions of all dimensions of education, including theorising about education. Anne is interested in developing links with a range of external partners in order to redress this perceived imbalance, and to afford participants opportunities to develop the ethical imagination and to surpass the limits of text-based communication. This will entail further adventures in interdisciplinarity.

Anne is currently exploring the possibility of collaborating with LEGO in order to explore new ways of involving a range of stakeholders in haptic co-creation as a means of exploring complex educational phenomena.

Anne is currently external examiner for the BA in Educational Studies at Durham University; and for the MA in Education at Leeds Trinity University.

She is an honorary Research Fellow at the University of York St John.

Until recently, Anne was book reviews editor the Scottish Educational Review.