Paola Sangster

Paola Sangster was born in Dundee, and showed an early interest in music. In 1990, she moved to Glasgow to studied music at RSAMD after which she taught in an independent school in Glasgow as a primary and secondary school music teacher for 13 years. In 2003, Paola was appointed Director of Music at the school. On returning to her home-town of Dundee, Paola embarked upon the PGDE Primary course to broaden her experience and qualifications in other curricular areas. In August 2008 she became lecturer in music in primary education at the University of Dundee and senior lecturer in 2018. Paola has held the role of PGDE Programme Director, Head of Taught Post Graduate Studies, Discipline Lead of Teacher Education and more recently Academic Lead for Initial Teacher Education. Paola is currently Programme Lead for the Into Headship Programme and a recruitment convener for Initial Teacher Education. Paola is also keen to promote musical extra-curricular activities and has set up the Staff/Student School of Education Choir which performs annually at Christmas in the University of Dundee Chaplaincy Centre. Paola's research interests include gender issues in Initial Teacher Education, which was a focus for her Masters' dissertation in 2015. More recently, Paola has worked with Wendee White on a study of the experience of PGDE students during a year of COVID. Currently, Paola is interested in the work of Nancy Kline: Time to Think; Listening to Ignite the Human Mind.