Sharon Tonner-Saunders is lecturer in Education in the School of Humanities, Social Scienes and Law. She joined the University in August 2008 after working for seven years as a primary school teacher, where the last four years were spent teaching ICT to all primary pupils.  During this time, Sharon was awarded the British Council's eTwinning Award for Excellence due to using innovative methods to connect children with their peers around the world. This followed shortly with Sharon becoming a British Council Ambassador where she shares her knowledge and expertise of intercultural learning with educators around the world.  Since 2018, Sharon has led an innovative intercultural project called Voices of the World (VOTW) that uses a range of communication forms (Music, Makaton and Art) to connect learners together to develop their intercultural awareness of others and preserve their linguistic identities.  This project has won eTwinning Quality Labels from countries around Europe, the European eTwinning Quality Label and the prestigious British Council National eTwinning Award for best project in the UK (2019 and 2020).  The success of Sharon's intercultural work has led to her being invited to be the keynote speaker at conferences around the world where she shares her passion for creating educational opportunities that enable young people to be connected with their global peers whilst preserving their identities.

Sharon's innovative approaches to using technologies in education has been acknowledged at the University where she has been awarded:

• DUSA Student-led Teaching Award: Accessible Edcuation - 2024
• University of Dundee Difference Award: Inspiring Colleague - 2024
• The School of Education and Social Work's Innovation in Teaching Award - Oct 2019
• CASS Award for Professional and Public Research Graduates - Jan 2012
• DUSA Innovation in Teaching Award - May 2011
• Honorary Graduates Award for Innovative Teaching - May 2010

Her work is also recognised by students where in the past two years she has been nominated for a range of student-led teaching awards and in 2023 was short-listed for Innovation in Teaching and 2024 she won the Accessible Teaching award.

Sharon's innovative and forward-thinking approach to using technologies has also been acknowledge by a wider community where she was awarded the prestigious titles of:

• Apple Distinguished Educator - Jan 2011
• SMART Exemplary Educator - March 2011

Sharon is also a trained Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Ambassador, where she delivers workshops pertaining to protecting young people online.

Sharon's work evolves mainly around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 which states that:

4.7 By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.

Sharon works closely with local schools to share her knowledge and experitse and model innovative teaching appraoches, for example, Taskmaster Education, Lego League and Music & Makaton.

She has also been part of the MA (Hons) and PGDE management teams since 2008 through her roles as Placement Convener, Assessment Convener and Group Lead.   She is currently Recruitment Convener for the MA (Hons) Programme.

Sharon's current teaching remit is:

• Intercultural Learning
• Makaton
• Digital Literacies - AI Literacy, Digital Skills, Search Techniques & Online Safety
• Digital Pedagogies - Assessment, Online Platforms, Collaborative Learning, Interactive Whiteboards, Bitmoji Classrooms and Responsive Digital Applications
• Digital Technologies - Moving Image Education/ Stop Motion Animation, Podcasting/ Radio Shows, Talking Avatars, QR Codes and Scavenger Hunts, ICT in Early Years, Coding, Assisstive Technologies & Internet Safety
• Music 
• Theories of Learning - Memory and Information Processing
• Pedagogies - Motivation and Classroom Management & Organisation

At University she has also taught:

• Programming
• Digital Mapping
• ePortfolios
• Social Media Tools

One of her research interests stems from the United Nations SDG 4 (Education) where she has an interest in how intercultural learning can be successfully implemented into higher education.  She is also interested in:

• linguistic identities
• communication barriers
• music and Makaton
• digital technologies (effective pedagogies)