Dr Lore Gallastegi

Professional biography

Lore has been a Staff Tutor at the OU since 2003. She started in the Department of Languages but moved to her post at the OU in Scotland in the Department of education (currently School of Education, Childhood youth and Sport) in 2007. Her role as a Staff Tutor includes developing the OU’s Associate Lecturers in their role as Distance Learning tutors and facilitators of learning for adults. Lore is also a member of the Education Studoes (Primary) team as a module co-chair for the introductory module Learning and teaching in the primary years (E103) and a lewead cluster manager in Comparative and international studies in primary education (E309).  In her academic role at the OU she has worked with different stakeholders including the General Teaching Council for Scotland, the Scottish Social Services Council, the Scotland Malawi Partnership.

Before working at the OU, Lore had completed a Primary Teaching Qualification and a degree in English Language in Spain. She then worked over 15 years teaching Spanish to children, young people and teachers in schools, as well as to adults in business companies and universities in Scotland.  During this time she completed a Masters degree at the University of Glasgow and a PhD at Strathclyde University on the Teaching and Learning of Spanish in Primary schools in Scotland. 

Lore possesses over 20 years’ experience in teaching, teacher development, and academia in Scotland, with over 8 years in the design and delivery of international education projects in sub-Saharan Africa. She specialises in the development of inclusive models of school-based teacher and learning assistant development in low-resource settings through distance learning particularly. From 2010 to 2016 Lore was involved in two projects funded by the Scottish government and UKAid to support local women to work as Teaching Assistants in their local primary schools. Between 2012 and 2015, Lore was a member of the research team in a European Union funded project on capacity building in faculties of education in Middle East and North Africa universities concentrating on aspects of Practicum in Initial Teacher Education, teachers’ continuing professional development and teaches’ practitioners inquiry and action research. Between 2017 and 2024 Lore was academic co-lead in a Scottish Government- funded project in Zambia to support the development of local teachers in active and collaborative teaching approaches.

Research interests

Teacher development; learner centred education;