Dr Tracey Colville is Co-Programme Director of the MSc in Educational Psychology and a Lecturer in Educational Psychology in the School of Humanities, Social Science and Law   She was previously a Depute Principal Educational Psychologist in Edinburgh Psychological Services where she stated her career in Educational Psychology in 2005.  Before moving to Dundee, she was Programme Director of the MSc Educational Psychology Programme at Strathclyde University.   Prior to being an Educational Psychologist, she taught primary-aged children (aged 5-12 years) over a period of 13 years in Fife, Edinburgh and East Lothian, holding posts of Class teacher, Senior Teacher, Principal Teacher and Depute Head Teacher.

Dr Colville holds a MA (Hons) degree in Psychology from the University of St. Andrews, a PGCE primary teaching qualification from Moray House College of Education, a MSc in Education from Edinburgh University, a MSc in Educational Psychology from Strathclyde University and a Doctorate in Educational Psychology from Strathclyde University. She recently achieved Fellowship status (FHEA)

She is registered as an Educational Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council and she is a registered teacher with the GTCS.  She also holds Chartered Psychologist and Chartered Scientist status with the British Psychological Society and is also an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.   .

 Dr Colville has delivered an extensive range of national and international conference presentations on academic and practice topics.  She has published several papers, four of which were published in 2023. She is a review editor for several journals.  

 Current academic research focus:

•  Cultural-historical activity theory in educational and work settings. She  convened a successful conference on this topic in January 2022 and she is a lead guest editor of a Special Issue of Educational and Child Psychology to be published in July, 2023 the focus of which is application of cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) in educational contexts. She is a member of the international forum CRADLE that promotes learning and discussion on CHAT. Dr Colville teaches CHAT to students on the MSc in educational Psychology, supervising theses using the approach and supporting publication. Her  research in this area has focued on the application of activity theory and developmental work research to examine authority processes for the placement of children with special needs in specialist educational provisions (Colville, 2023). She also undertook CHAT-based research examining how students learn and develop on the MSc training programme and the need to develop a doctoral programme (Colville & Horribine, 2023). 
• A key focus of Dr Colville's work has been children's voices and their participation in meetings. She developed strengths-based, child friendly multi-agency meetings in several local authorities in Scotland and in Denmark using solution focused and narrative approaches (Colville, 2013).  She is  involved in ongoing collaboration and knowledge exchange with colleagues in Copenhagen leading professional learning and development in inclusive practices and child-friendly meetings in schools (Colville, 2013; Colville & Mitchell, 2022). She provides consultation to  univeristy EP training programmes in Denmark.  Her work in Denmark has led to a change in legislation, policy and practice for the promotion of children''s rights, agency and voice in schools. 
•  New research: Planning stage. Collaboration with Scottish and Danish EPs/schools/universities to examine the views and  attitudes of professionals working to promote pupil voice within the GIRFEC framework.  This follows on from previous work (Mitchell & Colville, 2022) and (Lenz, Colville & Montgomery, 2017) 

Dr Colville is a  supervisor for several Ph.D and professional doctorate students.

MSc Educational Psychology Programme

Research Interests

• Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research in educational contexts
• Models of disability and inter-professional assessment pathways
• Equity, Diversity and Inclusive practice in education
• The voice of the child in educational contexts, consulting and research with children
• Collaborative and partnership working in children’s services
• Strengths-based approaches to child planning /GIRFEC
• The EP role in assessment and intervention: children with complex additional support needs
• Narrative and Solution focused approaches in EP practice
• Implementation science
• Research collaboration between practitioner psychologists and academic researchers