Key details
Gurbax Matoo
Senior Lecturer in Social Work
As an experienced Senior Lecturer and Course Director, I joined the University of Greenwich in December 2022.
I currently hold the position of Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for the MA in Social Work.
As an experienced academic and researcher, I am also a registered social worker with Social Work England. My academic and practice experience spans over 30 years.
I have a strong theoretical approach to my social work pedagogic strategy. One key feature of my pedagogic approach focuses on examining the voices and experiences and perspectives of vulnerable groups across all cultures with the aim of improving the standard of social work practice. This has been demonstrated throughout my professional and academic experiences whereby I am committed to promoting social and economic justice and have experiences of facilitating dialogue and conversation concerning, privilege, oppression and intersecting social identities. This has formed the foundations of my PhD research within the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Birmingham and is evidenced in my thesis.
Throughout my teaching within Higher Education, I continue to display tangible acts of academic citizenship through divisional seminars, wider institutional/ international conferences and television appearances relating to my PhD research and social work practice.
This experience has allowed me to gain substantive experience in methodological, analytical skills and community based participatory methods with diverse communities.
Posts held previously
- 2018 - 2023 Assistant Professor & MA Course Director at Coventry University
- 2017 - 2020 Associate Lecturer at The Open University
- 2016 - 2020 Independent Panel Consultant at Private Fostering Agency
- 2010 - 2018 Senior Lecturer/Course Director at the University of Northampton
- 2007 - 2010 Fostering Manager at Warwickshire County Council
- 2007 - 2014 Associate Lecturer at The Open University
- 1997 - 2007 Social Worker at Warwickshire County Council
- 1993 - 1997 Volunteer/ Case Worker at Women’s Refuge.
Responsibilities within the university
- Currently hold the position of Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for the MA in Social Work
- Lead and hold module leadership on the MA Social Work Programme
- Teaches across the BA/MA and CPD social work programmes
- Actively take part in developing new modules and modes of delivery
- Currently involved in on going Research and Scholarly activities
- As Programme Lead for the MA in Social Work I was actively involved in the successful Social Work reapproval process in March 2023.
Recognition
- Registered Social Worker: Social Work England
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Research / Scholarly interests
- PhD: Department of Modern Languages, University of Birmingham
- Women and Violence
- Women who kill or seriously harm their children
- South Asian women and Mental Health
- Decolonising the Curriculum: I strive to include a pedagogical approach which includes prioritizing the decolonization of the Curriculum within the University of Greenwich. This has included developing tools to promote racial equality, identity and critical awareness of racism.
Media activity
- Television/Media: Akaal Channel: Panel Discussion: Child Sexual Abuse and Black, Indigenous and People of Colour Communities (September 2018).