Jessica Pitman
Background
Dr Pitman’s career has centred on children, families, education, and community development. Jessica began as a paediatric nurse, later becoming a community children’s nurse in South Wales, supporting children with life-limiting conditions, their families, and schools. This experience sparked an interest in adult education and led her to postgraduate studies in community development, professional development, organisation, and public health. She has worked in Organisational Development for a local authority, training senior managers in coaching and facilitation.
As a family facilitator, she supported families and led parenting groups in Flying Start areas, embedding restorative and solution-focused approaches including domestic abuse groups. At the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, she advised and supported children and young people, and facilitated participatory engagement using The Right Way approach. Jessica is a systems thinker, skilled in connecting people to address complex challenges.
Specialist Subjects
- Qualitative research
- Lived experience research
- Participatory methods
- Narrative inquiry
- Poverty and disadvantage
- Communities and working with children and young people
- Equity and diversity
- Relational ontology
- Research methods and ethics
Professional and/or Research Experience
Jessica is an expert in lived experience interviews. She has developed a methodology called the Lived Experience Research Method (LERM). This approach enables deep, meaningful engagement with individuals' stories and provides a structured way to analyse lived experiences in research and practice.
Jessica’s interests lie in Communities of Practice and Whole Systems Approaches. I She is particularly focused on collaborative system change, bringing people and organisations together to co-design and implement solutions. Currently, she is exploring the implementation of the Community Focused Schools approach in Wales.
Qualifications
- PhD
- MA PDET
- Cert Ed
- DipN Child
- Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
Languages Spoken
Welsh
Professional Membership or Roles
Academic Teaching
External Recognition or Rewards
Link to Orcid Profile
Professional Publications
- Evans, C., Welton, N., Pitman, J., Clegg, Z., and Williams, D. (2024). An ethic of care in two community focused schools in Wales. Research Papers in Education, 0, 1–18.
- Evans, C.; Pitman, J; Whelton, N.; Williams, D. Clegg, Z. (2023) Close to Practice Research Case Study: Swansea Local Education Authority. Research for Welsh Government in relation to policies for Community Focussed Schools
- Wilson, P., Russell, H., Julings, M., MacDonald, N., Waters-Davies, J., Tinney, G., Pitman, J., Young, N., Darby, P. (2023) Analysis of feedback on the Welsh Government public consultation process on draft assessment arrangements for funded non-maintained nursery settings. Cardiff: Welsh Government.
- Pitman, J. (2021) An exploration of how identity capital is constructed in the narrative life stories of fathers in areas of disadvantage. Doctoral thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
- Pitman, J. (2016) ‘Capturing capital: Exploring identity capital (IC) from the perspective of parents who attend parenting groups in Flying Start areas, and the implications for practice’ In: ‘Happiness, relationships, emotion and deep level learning’ Dublin: EECERA, p. 41.
- Pitman, J. (2015) An investigation into the actions of parenting educators that effect learners’ self esteem, underpinned by Malcom Knowles’ (1998) theory of how adults mature through learning. Postgraduate dissertation. University of Wales Trinity Saint David.