Dr Kirstin Mulholland

Head Of School

School: Communities and Education

Before taking an academic post at Northumbria University, Kirstin was a class teacher, senior leader, and Specialist Leader of Education in primary schools in the North East for more than 13 years. Kirstin is currently the Initial Teacher Education subject lead for English, as well as Languages. She is a module leader for the Educational Research and Enquiry strand of the BA Primary Education programme, and also leads a module on Northumbria's interdisciplinary Professional Doctorate programme in Health, Education and Society.

Alongside her role at Northumbria, Kirstin is a Senior Associate for the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), co-leading a national project to explore school leaders' use of research evidence. As part of this work, Kirstin has co-authored a number of tools and resources to support research evidence literacy, including the EEF's (2024) 'Using Research Evidence: A Concise Guide'.

Kirstin collaborates closely with a number of regional and national organisations, including the Maths Hub Network and Research Schools Network. Kirstin is an invited member of the Royal Society's Advisory Committee for Mathematics Education: Primary and Early Years, a national Research and Innovation Lead for the National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics (NCETM), and a school governor for a local primary school.

Kirstin completed her MEd and EdD at the University of Newcastle, and also holds an MLitt in Latin American Literature. She has a particular interest in innovative approaches for professional development, including simulation-based approaches; teacher research; perceptions and experiences of teaching and learning; and the role of student voice in developing pedagogy.

Kirstin is the chair of the National Simulation Network, a group of academics collaborating to promote simulation-based approaches for Initial Teacher Education and teacher professional learning.

Email Kirstin

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Kirstin's principal interests include:

evidence use in education
professional learning, including simulation-based approaches
teacher research, and participatory research with teachers, students and children
perceptions of teaching and learning, and the impacts of these upon self-concept, motivation and learning outcomes
the development of metacognition through peer collaboration and talk

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Back to basics: Pre-service teachers' experiences of ‘SimulatEd’, a suite of low-technology simulated-scenarios to promote preparedness for professional practice, Nichol, D., Mulholland, K., Counihan, C., Meller, S., Anderson, A., Luke, C., Gray, W. 1 Oct 2025, In: Teaching and Teacher Education
Exploratory analysis of inter-connected factors related to secondary school absenteeism: Caregivers’ perspectives, Carrick, A., Chen, R., Littlefair, D., Friedman, S., Mulholland, K., Hudson, K., Graham, P., Graham, P., Davies, C., Barker, L., Cordier, R. 12 Dec 2025, In: International Journal of Educational Research
Exploring UK residents’ views on substantive education reform: adversarially co-produced narratives indicate fluidity in support, Hudson, K., Mulholland, K., Croft, E., Benton, P., Stark, G., Littlefair, D., Atkinson, J., Johnson, S., Reed, H., Johnson, E., Johnson, M. 6 Oct 2025, In: Political Research Exchange
Stepping Stones: Adopting a fading programme design to promote teachers’ use of metacognitive strategies for mathematical problem-solving, Mulholland, K., Gray, W., Counihan, C., Nichol, D. 12 Jul 2025, In: Education Sciences
The use of simulation-based learning approaches in initial teacher education and teachers’ professional development – exploring the potential for learning and practice., Davies, J., Meller, S., Luke, C., Anderson, A., Nichol, D., Mulholland, K., Gray, W., Counihan, C. 26 Jun 2025, BERA Global Perspectives in Teacher Education
What does transformation in Higher Education research culture look like? Evidence from action research within a diverse post-1992 department, Mulholland, K., Robson, I., Nichol, D., Counihan, C., Gray, W., Luke, C., Meller, S., Anderson, A., Heslop, K., Davies, J., Graham, P., Johnson, S., Hwang, S., Chan, W., Johnson, E., Hudson, K., Haighton, C., Littlefair, D., Defeyter, M., Kellehear, A., Atkinson, J., Johnson, M. 30 Oct 2025, In: Routledge Open Research
How Can We Design Data Collection to Explore Children’s Learning?, Mulholland, K. 2024, Becoming a Teacher-Researcher, London, Bloomsbury
‘Take care everyone!’ Care ethics at work whilst homeschooling and caring for children during the COVID-19 pandemic, Grimshaw, L., Heslop, K., Mulholland, K., Park, V., Duncan, J., Allan, J., Meredith, C., Warnock, C. 2 Dec 2024, Care and Coronavirus, Leeds, Emerald Publishing
Using Research Evidence: A Concise Guide, Mulholland, K. 10 Jan 2024
Using Simulation as an innovative pedagogy to reduce Impostor Phenomenon amongst early career academics, Cole, S., Cole, M., Counihan, C., Gibson, M., Mulholland, K., Nichol, D. 2 Dec 2024, International Federation of National Teaching Fellows (IFNTF) Conference and Symposium

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: The use of simulation-based approaches for teacher education 2024
Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Advance HE Teaching and Learning Conference 2023 2023

PGR Supervision

William Gord TBC ***JWh 10/09/2025*** Start Date: 01/10/2025
Rowan Van Muysen What does deep use of research evidence in English schools look like and what are the conditions which facilitate it? Start Date: 01/10/2024

Qualifications

Education EdD April 18 2016
Education MEd December 03 2009
Education PGCE June 30 2007
Latin American MLitt December 01 2005
Hispanic Studies BA (Hons) July 08 2003
National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics Accredited Professional Development Lead NCETM PD Lead 2018