Isabelle Schäfer

Senior Lecturer in Secondary Education: Modern Languages

Institute of Education

Secondary and Post Compulsory Education

Contact Details

email: i.schafer@worc.ac.uk
tel: 01905 542152

Isabelle is the PGCE secondary subject leader for modern languages. She spent over 8 years in secondary education including middle management roles in school (Second in MFL Department, i/c Spanish) as well as being a moderator for the IBO (French).

Isabelle has worked at the university since 2008 with additional responsibilities as a PGCE module lead, delivering the PGCE part of SCITT programme and Quality Coordinator. Isabelle is also the International Coordinator for the Institute of Education.

Research interests include cross-curricular and cross-phase collaboration, social justice and the development of reading comprehension in modern languages.

She presented PGCE students’ work on language learning for social justice at the Language World 2022 national conference and recently presented her research on accents at the UCET conference (November 2025). She also contributed to the 2026 UCET publication on working with internationally educated trainee teachers. Her latest article on literary extracts in textbooks (Ulma and Schäfer) is due to be published in 2026

She co-presented research on the use of literary extracts in GCSE papers at an international conference in France in 2019. She has a Master’s degree in English Literature and a Master’s degree in Education. She is a senior fellow of the HEA.

Qualifications

  • HEA Senior Fellow
  • MA (Ed) Open University
  • PGCE University of Warwick
  • MA (English Literature) “Maîtrise en littérature anglaise”, Université de Pau (France)
  • BA English "Langues et civilisations étrangères" Université de Pau (France)

Learn Upon Training completed

  • Safer Recruitment
  • Introduction to the Prevent Duty as it affects Higher Education
  • Safeguarding Essentials

Teaching & Research

Teaching Interests  

  • Teaching languages
  • Working with internationally education students
  • Cross-curricular collaboration

Research Interests

  • Teaching reading
  • Social Justice
  • Intercultural understanding

Professional Bodies

  • Member of the Association for Language learning (ALL) since 2008.

Publications

Ulma, Dominique. and Schafer, Isabelle (2022) L’extrait littéraire dans les nouveaux examens de FLE au secondaire en Angleterre. Repères, 64. pp. 197-215. ISSN 1157-1330; Electronic ISSN 2263-5947

Schafer, Isabelle (2022) Multilingual Through and Through. Tide - Global Learning. (In Press)

Schafer, Isabelle (2018) Opportunities for Professional Learning Dialogue Generated by Cross-phase Collaboration in Languages Between Primary and Secondary Initial Teacher Education Students. Education 3-13 International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education, 46 (3). pp. 291-306. ISSN 0300-4279 Online: 1475-7575

Ulma, Dominique. and Schafer, Isabelle (2018) Se Former à enseigner la Littérature dans le Cours de Langue Étrangère en Angleterre : Entre Abandon des Controlled Assessments, Comeback de la Littérature et Apprentissages. Les Langues Modernes. ISSN 0023-8376

Ulma, Dominique and Schafer, Isabelle  (2026) Heurs et malheurs de la littérature dans les manuels de FLE destinés au secondaire en Angleterre (2016-2022). Transmission de modèles et d'idéaux à travers le manuel scolaire, N/A (N/A). (In Press)

Schafer, Isabelle (2014) How do International Trainee Teachers and Mentors Respond to Cross-Cultural-mentoring Relationships? Worcester Journal of Learning and Teaching (9). ISSN 2024-8032

Schafer, Isabelle (2011) Integration of Trainee Teachers ( who Speak English as an Additional Language) into the Student Community. Worcester Journal of Learning and Teaching (6). ISSN 2024-8032

Conferences

Ulma, Dominique and Schafer, Isabelle (2022) L’extrait littéraire dans les nouveaux examens de FLE au secondaire en Angleterre. Repères, 64. pp. 197-215. ISSN 1157-1330; Electronic ISSN 2263-5947 - 2022

Schafer, Isabelle (2022) Multilingual through and through. In: Language World 2022, 18 March 2022, Sheffield.

Schafer, Isabelle and Ulma, Dominique. (2019) L’extrait littéraire dans les nouveaux examens de FLE au secondaire en Angleterre. In: Colloque international L’œuvre et l’extrait, lire la littérature à l’école, 21-22 November 2019, Université de Cergy-Pontoise, Cergy, France. (Unpublished)

Miller, Judy and Schafer, Isabelle (2014) Supporting at Risk Trainees. In: UCET Annual Conference, 4-5th November, Birmingham. (Unpublished)

Schafer, Isabelle  (2025) Do you understand where I'm coming from? Accents. In: UCET 27/03/24, Online. (Unpublished)

Schafer, Isabelle and Robinson, Catriona (2014) Is it possible to Reconcile Relationships and Quality Assurance in the Assessment Only Route? In: 3rd Teacher Education Advancement Network Annual Conference, 18th May 2012, University of Aston, Birmingham. (Unpublished)

Robinson, Catriona and Schafer, Isabelle (2013) Assuring the Quality of the Assessment Only Route for Trainee Teachers. In: UCET conference, 7-8 November 2013, Burton on Trent.

Schafer, Isabelle and Crabtree, Heather (2011) Teaching PSHE/Citizenship through French. In Association for Language Learning, July 2011 London.

External Roles

  • 2026-2029 External Examiner PGCE Languages, St Mary's University
  • 2022-2026 External Examiner PGCE Languages, London Metropolitan University
  • 2019 - 2021 External Examiner PGCE (SCITT), University of Greenwich
  • 2018 – 2019 External Examiner PGCE Languages, University of Greenwich
  • 2016, 2017, 2018 - External Examiner PGCE Languages, University of the West of England
  • 2012, 2013 – External Examiner SKE course, French, University College of St Mark and St John
  • 2011, 2012, 2013 - External Examiner PGCE Languages, University College of St Mark and St John