Dr Tania Dias Fonseca

Contact

Tania Dias Fonseca
About
Teaching and learning
Research

About

Teaching and working with students is one of my passions. I have been an educator for 20 years, from secondary school to university. I have been involved in Initial Teacher Education at different universities in Portugal and training teachers in various countries (e.g., Portugal, United Kingdom, Greece, Romania, Canada). These programmes focused on Transformative Pedagogy, Educational Innovation and STEM, Education for Sustainability, Inclusion and Diversity, and the Hidden Curriculum. 

I acted as an educational consultant and expert to various institutions (e.g., the European Commission, Bradford University, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute). In the last four years, I have been a guest lecturer and instructor at several universities (e.g., Open University, Portugal, Malmö University, IOE-UCL, and Winchester University). I have also designed a MOOC and other online training for eTwinning, the European Union programme, on educational technologies, project-based learning, inclusion and diversity.

Before joining Kingston, I worked as Open Digital Educational Resource Coordinator for the Secretariat for Education of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, Portugal. In this role, I designed and led the development of an educational resource online platform for teachers and students (http://reda.azores.gov.pt) and designed several digital resources in STEM and Citizenship. 

Academic responsibilities

Strategic Academic Lead for Sustainability

Qualifications

  • 2003 Licenciatura in Physics in Physics and Chemistry Education, variant Physics (University of Lisbon, Portugal)
  • 2005 Postgraduate studies in Child Protection (University of Coimbra, Portugal)
  • 2009 Master of Education (University of Lisbon, Portugal)
  • 2015 PhD e-Planning (University of Lisbon, Aveiro and Nova University of Lisbon)
  • 2016 Qualified Teacher Status, National College for Teaching & Leadership
  • 2021 Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)

Teaching and learning

At Kingston University, I taught Educational Technologies at the master level (2017-2021), Project-based Learning at the foundation level (2021-present), and lead the Introduction to Learning and Teaching Programme (Part II) for new academics and PhD students with teaching responsibilities.

I also deliver CPD workshops on the hidden curriculum and inclusive teaching practices, digital teaching identities, and educational innovation (e.g., problem and project-based learning, role-playing, and educational technologies).

Research

My research focuses on how educational institutions foster students' civic agency and democratic practices. I have focused on how institutions empower youth to participate in social, environmental, and scientific decision-making. Positionality, inclusion, and diversity are central to my research, particularly in addressing social inequalities to climate change.

Recent research projects:

  • Investigator: Advancing Sustainability in Education and Training (2023-2026). Aim: to understand how Sustainability aspects are addressed in teaching, research, and business innovation and how to best develop training programmes for staff and students.
  • Principal Investigator: Digital teacher identities (2022-2025). Aim: to explore and understand the developing nature of individual's digital teacher identities of a group of university academics over the period of covid and beyond.
  • Investigator: Using students' teaching and learning experiences to inform the design and delivery of staff development programmes (2018-2023). Aim: to identify perceptions of inclusivity and belonging to the learning community of staff and students.
  • Principal investigator: iLearn: On the go with digital media (2017–2018). Aim: to understanding mature, commuting, and disabled students' learning perspectives when using video and audio in higher education.
  • Investigator: The Hilali Network – Exploring Lived Cultural Heritage Through Design in Higher Education (2017–2019), Living Curriculum for Cultural Heritage and STEM, jointly led by Kingston University and the City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, Alexandria, Egypt. Funded by the Newton Fund.

Individual grants:

  • Erasmus + Guest Scholar (2020), Global-MINDS Programme. Joint programme  ISCTE, Portugal; University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland; Koç University, Turkey; University of Limerick, Irland; University of Oslo, Norway.
  • Visiting researcher, National Association for Media Literacy (NAMLE), USA. Fulbright travel grant (2011).
  • PhD Scholarship, Portuguese Foundation for Science a Technology (2011-2014)

Other:

  • Steering Group: London Student Sustainability Conference 23
  • Reviewer, Scientific Journals in Education and Educational Technologies
  • Review Committee, European Conference on Education, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

Qualifications and expertise

  • STEM Education and Education for Sustainable Development
  • Educational Technologies
  • Planning and Education

Areas of specialism

  • Citizenship, democracy, and sustainability
  • Hidden Curriculum, Positionality, Values and Believes
  • Educational Technologies and Technology Enhanced Learning

Scholarly affiliations

  • Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE, UK)
  • Association for Learning Technology, (ALT, UK)
  • Children's Identity and Citizenship European Association
  • Portuguese Society for Education Sciences (SPCE, PT)

Publications

Jump to: Article | Book Section | Conference or Workshop Item | Thesis
Number of items: 7.

Article

Maccabe, Rebecca and Dias Fonseca, Tania (2021) 'Lightbulb' moments in higher education : peer-to-peer support in engineering education. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 29(4), pp. 453-470. ISSN (print) 1361-1267

Dias Fonseca, Tania (2019) The internet as a global playground : young citizens and informal spaces of agency, a Portuguese case study. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 26(4), pp. 353-370. ISSN (print) 1074-9039

Dias-Fonseca, Tania and Potter, John (2016) Media education as a strategy for online civic participation in Portuguese schools. Comunicar : Media Education Research Journal, 24(49), pp. 9-17. ISSN (print) 1134-3478

Book Section

Vieira, Carlos Jorge C., Rijo, Catarina Isabel, Fonseca, Tania and Delgado, Vanda (2008) Uma Visão sobre a Terra : proposta de aplicação de uma wiki [A View from Earth : the application of a wiki]. In: Carvalho, Carlos Vas de , Nistal, Martin Llamas and Silveira, Ricardo, (eds.) TICAI2008 : TICs para a Aprendizagem da Engenharia [TICAI2008 : ICT for Learning in Engineering]. Porto, Portugal : IEEE, Sociedade de Educação, Capítulos Espanhol e Portugués. pp. 133-140.

Conference or Workshop Item

Orwell, Suzan, Dias Fonseca, Tania and Casanova, Diogo (2018) TEL communities : bridging the gap between the theory and practice in using virtual learning environments in higher education. In: Advance HE Teaching & Learning Conference 2018 : Teaching in the Spotlight : Learning from Global Communities; 03-05 Jul 2018, Birmingham, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Price, Linda, Downward, Stuart, Lawrence, David, Avery, Barry, Preston, Anne, Dias Fonseca, Tania, Vyas, Nora, Lock, Nick, Alsop, Graham, Orwell, Suzan, Beardsmore, James and Casanova, Diogo (2017) Putting technology in the frame : multiple lenses on evidenced based practice in a university wide roll out. In: HEA Annual Conference 2017 - Generation TEF : Teaching in the spotlight; 04 - 06 Jul 2017, Manchester, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Thesis

Fonseca, Tania Marisa Dias Almeida (2014) e-Literacy, schools and municipalities towards a common goal : e-citizenship. (PhD thesis), University of Lisbon, University of Aveiro, New University of Lisbon, .

This list was generated on Wed Mar 29 06:40:19 2023 BST.

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