Donald Simpson is a Senior Lecturer in Education at Teesside. Initially he trained (University of Leicester) and worked as a primary school teacher. He has an MA (University College London Institute of Education) and was awarded a full time scholarship to complete his PhD (Open University). Donald worked as a contract researcher before taking up his current post.

Donald's research interests have recently been in the following areas:

1) responses to poverty in the early years;
2) life-course transitions among young people regarded as disadvantaged and care trajectories of childcare professionals;
3) exploring learning experiences of children and young people in poverty in the field of education.

Donald has recently led research considering preschool practitioners’ perspectives on child poverty and how they work with poverty. He is collaborating with colleagues across England and the USA on this project. This research was supported by external funding grants awarded to Donald by The British Academy (in 2012 and again in 2020) and The Society for Educational Studies (2014).

Using a grant awarded by the Sir James Knott Trust to Donald, he helped organise a half day workshop led by Professors Chris Pascal and Tony Bertram from the Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC) based in  Birmingham. The workshop was delivered in collaboration with Durham County Council's Early Years services and allowed for knowledge exchange from CREC's Higher Achieveing White Working Class (HAWWC) Boys project to preschool practitioners and advisers etc from across County Durham. 

Donald is currently supervising postgraduate research students, and welcomes expressions of interest from those who are considering completing postgraduate research - particularly within his areas of interest mentioned in this profile. Please feel free to get in touch.

External Examiner for Education Doctorate (University of Huddersfield)

Donald has collaborated with a number of external organisations including other higher education institutions, charities, local authorities and schools to complete research activity.

Donald is interested in knowledge exchange from his research to help support organisations. To this end, an example includes providing a keynote speech and workshop at Cambridgeshire County Council Early Years Service's Conference.  He has been interviewed about his research by Nursery World and took up an invite to write an article about his research in their supplement Nursery Management. He has taken up an invlite to sit as an expert panel member at a Public Policy Exchange event. Extracts from Donald's research have also been used within others' research projects - e.g. University of Manchester's Local Matters project working with staff in schools and local community groups. 

Donald's teaching interests lie in the areas of early childhood and education. He has led several undergraduate and postgraduate modules in his post as Senior Lecturer in Education. He is a Director of Studies and Supervisor on the MA Education and Education Doctorate at Teesside.