Tom Billington, Ph.D.

Professor of Educational and Child Psychology
Director of the Centre for the Study of Children, Families and Learning Communities

Phone: (+44) (0)114 222 8113
Fax: (+44) (0)114 222
Email:t.billington@Sheffield.ac.uk
Web:http://www.shef.ac.uk/education/staff/academic/billington
www.sheffield.ac.uk/education/research/groups/cepch/taoshttp://www.sheffield.ac.uk/

Much of Tom´s work in research, teaching and practice focuses on the professional practices of educational and child psychologists, in particular, the nature of work conducted with children and young people and the theoretical bases upon which practice is justified. He has sought for many years to position Educational Psychology within the context of broader critical and relational frameworks beyond reductionist psychopathologies.

Tom has engaged with qualitative research methodologies, primarily discourse analytic, psychodynamic and narrative approaches, for example, relating to individual case work with children and young people, their families and schools and in inter-disciplinary and multi-agency contexts. Of particular concern is the power of psychological discourses as exercised by practitioners, focusing on fundamental questions as to how we go about our work, for example, `How do we speak of children? How do we speak with children? How do we write about children? How do we listen to children? How do we listen to ourselves (when working with children)?’ (Billington, 2006).

Tom is Professor of Educational and Child Psychology at the University of Sheffield, UK but he has also been fortunate to work internationally, teaching in the Caribbean, Hong Kong and Malta, examining in Australia and Canada and speaking at conferences in South Africa and Greece.