Fiona has developed a national and international reputation for research in Inclusive Education, Autism and visual research methodologies and her research focuses on issues of Social Justice with a view to impacting upon the lives of marginalised learners. As such, Fiona’s research spans compulsory and Higher Education.

She is also researching aspects of Doctoral Education with a particular focus on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

Fiona began her career teaching in special schools and moved to Edge Hill University in 2004 to lead Masters’ degrees in Inclusive Education, Autism and Social Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties.

She was the Lead EU Academic in a European Tempus IV project (ASPIRE) from 2012-2015, which involved nine other partners in Germany; Ireland; Georgia; Slovakia and Armenia. The project focused on the requirements of individuals with disabilities in Georgia and Armenia. She was also involved in an Erasmus+ funded project in Vietnam and Laos in 2016 which involved the development of communicative approaches in university-based teaching.

Fiona is the joint editor of the British Journal of Special Education, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

In 2021 Fiona became the Associate Dean of the Graduate School at Edge Hill University.

Fiona supervises post-graduate research students in the fields of: Inclusive Education; Social Justice; Autism; and Visual Methodologies.

Fiona is currently editing a book on Doctoral Education for Routledge. This book involves contributions from a wide range of international scholars. She has also contributed to Doctoral Summer Schools at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the University of Hamburg.

Fiona is involved in photo-elicitation research projects in Ukraine and in the UK examining perspectives on inclusion and exclusion.