Hi everyone,
I’m considering retraining as an educational psychologist. I qualified as a teacher in 2017 and taught 11-18 YOs before moving into the HE sector full-time in 2021. I still teach ‘on the side’ as an associate lecturer, but my main job is office-based at the university.
I’ve been thinking about educational psychology recently as a lot of my work currently is around student voice, supporting learners with SEND, universal design for learning, and so on - so ‘how’ our students work and think, and how to support them, comes into a lot of this. I’m also reading a lot at the moment about attachment theory, emotional intelligence and child psychology for my own interest, as DH and I are TTC our first.
The road to qualifying would be long, as I’d need to do the conversion qualification before applying for the doctorate. I’d also want to build up more of a ‘portfolio’ of evidence that I’m engaging with psychology, as I know that this is one of the things admissions look for in the doctorate applications. With my sensible hat on, I also think it would be sensible to wait until potential DC is slightly older before embarking on the full-time training, so we’re talking a long way in the future! But this would give me time to get my ducks in a row, as it were. 🙂 If all goes to plan with TTC (and I know there’s no guarantee of that), I’d probably be looking at applying for the doctorate in 2027 or so.
If any of you work as an Ed Psych, would you be able to tell me how you find your role? Does it feel meaningful and purposeful to you? I’m really keen to do something worthwhile with my working life, where I’m supporting children/young people/schools/families.
How do you find the work/life balance? Is the training and the role itself doable with a young family?
Hope it’s OK to ask these questions. It’s very early days in my research into the role and qualification, so really grateful for any and all experiences and advice!