Nidia Aviles Nunez

Dr. Nidia Aviles Nunez joined the University of West of Scotland in September 2022 as a Lecturer in the Masters in Educational Studies (MEd) at the London Campus. She has worked as a lecturer in Higher Education on both undergraduate and postgraduate education courses at the University of Bristol and Bath Spa University. Her background in the field of education started in her native country, Dominican Republic where she worked from early 2011 as a primary school teacher.

Nidia has contributed to a number of research projects that include an upcoming UNESCO publication Decolonising Teacher Professionalism: Foregrounding the Perspective of Teachers in the Global South, a background paper prepared for the UNESCO Futures of Teaching Initiative as well as an INEE (Project for Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies) publication focused on examining the impact of the COVID-19 school closures in children and young people in crisis-affected contexts. In addition, alongside Dr. Janet Orchard and Jez Butler she assisted in the creation of the Re-humanising Teacher Education website.

Nidia's research has been based on the field of comparative and international studies with areas of interests such as sustainable education, teacher governance, inclusion, policy analysis, discourses, teacher professionalism and quality, teacher wellbeing, biopolitics and governmentality. Together with this, as a doctoral researcher she examined 'Discourses of teacher wellbeing in the Dominican Republic', which included analysis of political discourse through policy actor interviews and policy documents, as well as interviews with Dominican primary teachers regarding the influence of the Dominican educational policy agenda.

• Discourse Analysis, Foucauldian Discourse Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis
• Policy Analysis
• Sustainability, environmental sustainability, SDGs
• Wellbeing
• Teacher Wellbeing, professionalism and governance
• Comparative and International Educational Studies
• Education Development
• Inclusive education and practices

1. Paper exploring the role of education in communities for climate protection and conservation in the Dominican Republic.

2. Paper exploring Teacher wellbeing and governance: discourses of responsibilisation.

Currently involved with the modules of Critical Issues across Education and Inclusive Practice as well as the Dissertation module.

My teaching interests include experience with thesis supervision.

• Michel Foucault, biopolitics, governmentality
• Paulo Freire, critical pedagogy, conscientização (critical consciousness)  
• Sociology of Education
• Buen Vivir

• Projects exploring the role of education in environmental issues, particularly, engaging with communities.
• Educational action research projects based in island states or island nations.
• Projects exploring policy formulation and the engagement of communities in this process
• Projects engaging policymakers regarding the enactment of sustainable policies.