Ricky Jeffrey works in education. He holds a doctorate from the School of Education, University of Nottingham, where his thesis investigated practicality in educational assessment. He has taught courses in English language, education, and applied linguistics at Edinburgh, Nottingham, Tsinghua, Zhejiang, and other universities in the UK and China. He has published a range of peer-reviewed research in journals of education, and won awards for his work as a practitioner. In addition to teaching in universities, Ricky has also worked closely with schools, and taught in England’s state school system.
Keith taught me 2000-2003, as director of studies on my BA Philosophy at Robinson College, Cambridge. Now decades later, I remember very clearly meeting him in the interview, our first supervision meeting, specific pieces of feedback on my essays, our final supervision shortly before graduation, among other moments. Indeed, Keith’s teaching was the best part of my undergraduate studies. Since then I’ve worked variously as a teacher, teacher trainer, and university lecturer in departments of education. Throughout, I think I implicitly endeavour to enact many of the values I saw modelled in Keith’s teaching, and something of my “teacher persona” with thousands of my own students has been inspired by those earlier interactions with Keith. Fifteen years after graduation, while I was teaching at a university in north-eastern China, I heard that Keith and Maria were planning to visit Beijing. It was my pleasure to take the train to the capital (only a ten-hour round trip) and spend a day showing them around, including a follow-up discussion about philosophy atop the Great Wall (admittedly less rigorous than the Cambridge supervisions). As I explained to him then, I tend to think great teachers deserve appreciation and respect. Thank you, Keith.
Ricky (right) with Keith on the Great Wall of China in 2017
