Mathew Tobin - Oxford Brookes University

Mr Mathew Tobin

Senior Lecturer in Education: Primary English and Children's Literature

School of Education

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Phone number: +44 (0)1865 488376

Email: mtobin@brookes.ac.uk

Location:

Mat Tobin teaches English, related Specialist Pathways (such as Inclusion and Storytelling) and Children's Literature in both the Primary BA and PGCE ITT courses. He also leads an MA/PGCert Course in Children's Literature and Reading for Pleasure. Since joining Brookes in 2014 after 16 years of Primary teaching in Oxfordshire, Mat is continually invited to deliver keynotes and workshops across the UK on Reading for Pleasure, Picturebooks and Engaging children (and all stakeholders) in the reading and writing process. He has research interests in Children's Literature, the Reading for Pleasure agenda and Reflecting Realities through Literature. He is also interested in the link between comprehension, language and locality through high-quality children's literature.

In 2021 his co-written book, Understanding and Teaching Primary English, was published by Sage. Mat is also passionate about sharing the high quality work that his students do on his module. These cross-curricular plans that focus on the teacher 'knowing the text' and 'blending objectives across the curriculum' are shared publicly and well-received across the social media community.

Research

Mat is currently working to complete his PhD which is on rewilding young readers through Literature and Landscape. He is interested in how vocabulary, comprehension and locality can all work together to increase reading ability and ecological consciousness.

Mat is also interested in representation in children's literature and works hard to organise the annual Think Human event at Brookes around this topic as well as ensure that inclusion in its broadest sense is celebrated on his own modules through an annual Reflecting Realities symposium. Mat is specifically interested in the roles and representations of Fathers in Children's Literature.

Mat has had several pieces published around this area in magazines and journals.