Dr Marion Burns is an early years and primary education specialist with over 19 years of experience as an Inspector of Schools in Scotland. Marion has provided advice to Scottish Ministers and contributes to early education policy. She co-edited the 2017 OECD report, Starting Strong V. She gained her doctoral study at Strathclyde University in 2019, her thesis focussed on achieving curriculum continuity for children starting school. Marion’s international experience includes professional learning activities in New South Wales, New Zealand and Iceland as part of the Pedagogies of Educational Transitions (POET) project. She is a guest lecturer and module tutor for Strathclyde University on the Early Years Masters and the BA childhood practice degree courses. She is the non-executive chairperson of Early Years Scotland, a national not for profit- third sector organisation. She is co-author of Realising the Ambition: Being Me, national practice guidance for early years in Scotland. Scottish Government, 2020. Published works. Chapter in Play is the Way, (2020); SERA REB bulletin. (2020). She blogs on the subject of transitions in the International Network of Transitions Researchers.
Marianne is a PhD student at the University of Dundee. Her PhD research is about the experiences of informal carers of people living with dementia during the transition to formal or paid care. She is passionate about using qualitative methods, and her interests include exploring transitions in later life, particularly in relation to connections with social care and the wider community.
Esranur Efeoğlu-Özcan is a PhD candidate in English Language Teaching Program (Language Studies track) at Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey. She earned an MA in English Language Teaching, a BA in Foreign Language Education and a Minor Degree in Psychology from METU. Her research interests are sociolinguistics, discourse studies, corpus linguistics, and conceptual metaphors. She is an academic coordinator in Turkish National Corpus of Learner Language Project led by The Ministry of National Education of Turkey. She is the co-founder and convenor of Discourse and Corpus Research Group at METU. She is a lecturer at Gazi University and works as a project specialist at Council of Higher Education, Turkey.
Dr Catherine Koini gained her PhD in educational psychology from University of Dundee in 2021. Her thesis focused on the impact of international school transition on family wellbeing examining the facilitators of successful transitions. She is a supervisor and module tutor on the Master of Education programme at the University of Dundee. She also works as a psychologist for international schools in Belgium. Catherine holds graduate basis for Charter Membership with the British Psychological Society and is a member of the International Network of Transitions Researchers. She is an editorial board member for the International Journal of Educational and Life Transitions.
