Dr Joanne Bowser-Angermann

Jo has expertise in teaching and learning and excellent classroom practice. She has a vast teaching experience of all ages, giving her vital knowledge on a child’s educational journey through all key stages and beyond. She is currently Deputy Dean for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.

Email: [email protected]

Background

Jo is an Associate Professor of Applied Teaching and Learning and the author of Blending Andragogy and Pedagogy for Adult Learners: Approaches for Higher Education. This work synthesises her extensive experience across all educational key stages to introduce a transformative framework designed to enhance student agency and curricular engagement in the post-16 and Higher Education sectors.

With a teaching career since 2006 spanning across Primary, Secondary, Further Education, and Higher Education Jo’s expertise is built on a unique longitudinal understanding of the learner’s journey. Her book is the culmination of this experience, offering a practical and theoretical manual for educators navigating the transition from teacher-led pedagogy to learner-led andragogy.

Currently, Jo leads the PG Cert in Learning and Teaching (Higher Education) at ARU. She uses the principles established in her research to support new academic staff in enhancing student agency and professional identity. She is a prominent advocate for social justice in education.

Research interests

• Reimagining the restricted curriculum, particularly in GCSE English
• Blending Andragogy and Pedagogy as a mechanism for tensioning the learning experience to balance the pedagogical structure with the autonomy required for successful lifelong learning
• Effects of educational policy on teaching and learning
• Student engagement and motivation to learn, and the effects on student motivation
• Effects of failure on motivation and educational journeys
• The impact dogs and companion dogs have on well-being, anxiety, motivation and engagement in education

Jo is currently researching the effects of educational policy on teaching and learning specifically in the FE sector. She is exploring student and teacher, engagement and motivation. What is a student’s motivation to learn and what the effects on student motivation? What are the effects of failure on motivation?

She is also researching with the Veterans and Families Institute (VFI) at ARU exploring the impact of parent-child separation.

Teaching

• PG Cert Learning and Teaching (Higher Education)

Qualifications

• EdD thesis title ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again: The case of GCSE resit students, teachers and policymakers in 2016-2017
• MBA Master of Business Administration
• MA English Language with merit, University of Essex
• BEd with 1st class honours, University of Hertfordshire
• Awarded the ‘Wall Hall Prize’ for outstanding academic achievement and excellent classroom practice, University of Hertfordshire

Memberships, editorial boards

• Principal Fellow, Higher Education Academy
• Chartered Fellow of Chartered Management Institute CMgr FCMI

Selected recent publications

Bowser-Angermann, J. 2026. Blending Andragogy and Pedagogy for Adult Learners: Approaches for Higher Education. Routledge

Scott, H., Shields, L., Bowser-Angermann, J., & Draper, E. (2025). ‘You need to be built differently for a re-sit class’: further education English teachers’ views of the GCSE re-sit and its influence on their professionalism. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 30(3), 536–558.

Bowser-Angermann, J., and Draper, E. (2022). Rethinking, reimagining English in the post-16 sector; COVID-19 and the future of English. In: R. Smith, P. Bennett and L. Lambert, 1st ed. Rethinking and Reviving Subject English: The Murder and the Murmur by Routledge Publishing, chp 4.