Catriona is a lecturer in education at the School of Education, University of the West of Scotland and has gained a PhD at the University of Stirling.

She teaches across a range of programmes from SCQF levels 7 – 11, including initial teacher education as well as Master’s level programmes and supervises students at Master’s and PhD level.

Originally a teacher of modern languages, she  has worked for several national agencies including SCILT (The Scottish Centre for Information on Languages Teaching) where she developed citizenship and languages education resources; the National CPD Team; The Strategic Leadership Development Programme and Education Scotland.

Current research interests include critical realist approaches to education research; teacher professional learning and collaborative practices that support PL; digital practices and literacies; partnership working; distributed leadership.

Publications (last 4 years)

• Ferri, G., Campbell, P. & Oates, C., (2020) Teaching a post-pandemic world: narrative accounts of new qualified teachers in Scotland, Hong Kong and England https://research-portal.uws.ac.uk/en/publications/teaching-in-a-post-pandemic-world-narrative-accounts-of-newly-qua
• Robertson, D., Atkinson, T., Bradfield, K., Coker, H., Donaldson, P., Easton, E., Mulligan, A., Munro, J., Oates, C., Quigley, C. & Robertson, J., (2020) The National Framework for Digital Literarcies in Initial Teacher Education 
• Philpott, C. and Oates, C., (2017) Professional learning communities as drivers of educational change: The case of learning rounds. J Educ Change 18: 209. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-016-9278-4
• Oates, C. and Riaz, N. N., (2016). Accessing the field: methodological difficulties of research in schools. Education in the North, 23(2), pp.53-74.
• Philpott, C., Oates, C. (2016). Teacher agency and professional learning communities; what can Learning Rounds in Scotland teach us?. Professional Development in Education, 1-16. DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2016.1180316.
• Philpott, C and Oates, C. (2015). Learning Rounds: what the literature tells us (and what it doesn’t).  Scottish Educational Review 47 (1) 49-65.
• Philpott, C and Oates, C. (2015). What do teachers do when they say they are doing Learning Rounds? Scotland’s experience of Instructional Rounds. European Journal of Educational Research 4 (1) 22-37.
• Oates, C. (2014). Better together? Understanding the processes involved in learning rounds as an instance of teacher collaborative professional learning. [unpublished doctoral report] University of Stirling.