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Dr Jen Aggleton

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Senior Lecturer in Education Studies (Primary)
  • Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies
  • School of Education, Childhood, Youth & Sport
  • Education
  • jen.aggleton

Professional biography

Dr Jen Aggleton is a Senior Lecturer in Education Studies in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education, and Language Studies. Before moving into academia Jen was a primary school teacher and a librarian. She spent several years as a Key Stage 2 teacher in Hampshire and Cambridgeshire, and has worked in both school and academic libraries. Jen joined the OU in July 2019, contributing specialisms in literacy, literature and culture to the Primary Education team. She is also a member of the Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport (ECYS) EDI champions group, with a special focus on antiracist and inclusive assessment and curriculum practices. Prior to joining the OU Jen contributed to teaching at the University of Cambridge, and was a visiting lecturer at City, University of London, where she created and taught the module Child and Adolescent Literature, Literacies, and Library Services.  Jen holds master's degrees in History (University of Nottingham), Information and Library Studies (Aberystwyth University), and Critical Approaches to Children's Literature (University of Cambridge), as well as a PhD in Education (University of Cambridge).

Research interests

Jen's research interests centre around children's culture, and include children's cultural engagements and reader response, children's library collections, and visual texts. Her ESRC-funded PhD research explored children's experiences of reading illustrated novels, and was awarded a special commendation in the United Kingdom Literacy Association student research prize for postgraduate work.  Jen conducts both theoretical and empirical research and is particularly interested in participatory forms of research which position children as co-researchers. 

Jen's scholarship interests centre around antiracist and inclusive approaches to teaching and assessment.

Teaching interests

Jen is currently leading the production of the rewrite of E209 Developing Subject Knowledge for the Primary Years. Prior to this she was chair of the current E209 module.

Previous module authoring:

PGCE Wales (Primary): Lead author for Strand B Understanding Learners and Strand C Planning, and lead on English Language, Literature, Literacy, and Arts, and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion across the PGCE.

L301 Language, Literature, and Childhood: authored the units What is Children's Literature? and Digital Engagements, as well as a print chapter on Comics. 

E103 Learning and Teaching in the Primary Years: authored the study topics Learning from experience, Creativity, and Literacy.

Jen is currently part of a PhD supervising team for a project on Representations of sign language and D/deaf culture in children's literature.

Impact and engagement

Jen worked with the British Library exploring the collection and preservation of digital comics, and developed a new web archive collection of British webcomics. The archive can be found at the link below. Please nominate any British webcomics you know of that aren't currently represented to help the archive grow.

https://www.webarchive.org.uk/en/ukwa/collection/1370

Jen is a member of the learning steering panel for Art UK, advising on their award-winning education project, The Superpower of Looking

Publications

Overcoming barriers and improving outcomes: teachers' perspectives on using narrative videogames to teach literacy/English (2024)
Aggleton, Jen; Mannard, Emily; Aljanahi, Mona Humaid and Ehret, Christian
Literacy ((Early access))

Pictures and picturing: mental imagery whilst reading illustrated novels (2022-06-15)
Aggleton, Jen
Cambridge Journal of Education, 53(1) (pp. 79-95)

Defining digital comics: a British Library perspective (2019)
Aggleton, Jen
Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 10(4) (pp. 393-409)

Where are the children in children’s collections? An exploration of ethical principles and practical concerns surrounding children’s participation in collection development (2018)
Aggleton, Jen
New Review of Children's Literature and Librarianship, 24(1) (pp. 1-17)

“What is the Use of a Book Without Pictures?” An Exploration of the Impact of Illustrations on Reading Experience in A Monster Calls (2017-09)
Aggleton, Jen
Children's Literature in Education, 48(3) (pp. 230-244)

Reading Librarians and school libraries (2023)
Aggleton, Jen; Carter, Carol and Grieve, Mary Rose
In: Cremin, Teresa; Hendry, Helen; Rodriguez-Leon, Lucy and Kucirkova, Natalia eds. Reading Teachers: Nurturing Reading for Pleasure (pp. 150-161)
ISBN : 978-1-032-10502-4 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London

Collecting and Preserving Digital Comics (2017-09-07)
Aggleton, Jen
The British Library, London.