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.
