The Global Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Kia's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
About Kia
Kia is a doctoral researcher of Education, investigating Agents and Agency: Grounded Theorising of FE Educators’ Agency in Embodying ESD in a FE Context. Her research develops a grounded account of how educators in Further Education understand and enact Education for Sustainable Development within the material and institutional conditions of their practice, adopting constructivist grounded theory and situational analysis with posthumanist sensitivities.
She serves as Faculty Representative for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business at the University of Plymouth, representing 335 PhD and MRes researchers. Within this role, she has been involved in the design and delivery of the Faculty’s student led annual doctoral conferences, including Exploring SHAPE Disciplines: Collaboration, Innovation and Diversity in Arts Humanities and Business in 2024, SHAPE Research Impact for Now and the Future: Driving Sustainable Change in 2025, and Methods of Connection: Methodology as Meaning Making in 2026. Her work contributes to fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and critical engagement with research impact and methodological practice.
She is a Trustee and Chair of the Youth Board for SEEd, contributing to strategic charity governance while amplifying youth voice within sustainability and environmental education.
Formerly, she worked as a Climate Education Research Assistant under Allison Anderson, exploring the impact of climate education workshops on the values and attitudes of student and teacher participants at external sites of education, in partnership with The Box Plymouth. The team presented their findings at Evidence Week 2025 in Parliament.
She is an English Lecturer at City College Plymouth, delivering a range of literacy oriented qualifications in the post sixteen sector.
She holds a PGCE in Post Compulsory Education from the University of Plymouth, following graduation from the University of Reading with a first class BA in German Studies and English Language, where she was also awarded the Peter Thurlow Memorial Prize in 2022.
Teaching
Post-compulsory education and ITE; Education for Sustainability; English Language and Linguistics
Contact Kia
kia.shackleton@postgrad.plymouth.ac.uk
