Dr Zoe Doye

I joined The Open University as a part-time Associate Lecturer in 1999.  I have been with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences since 2006, first as Senior Faculty Manager and then as a staff tutor/senior lecturer. I was Scholarship Lead for the School of Social Sciences and Global Studies (SSGS) between 2020-23.  In 2023 I became Deputy Director of Teaching for the School and in 2025 I became Director of Teaching.  

I have a degree in politics from London Guildhall University (1993) and an MA in modern history from UCL (1995).  My doctorate, awarded in 2004 from Birkbeck College, University of London, looked at the Labour Party in local government: the housing policies of the London County Council (LCC) and three London boroughs 1951-64.  More recently (2024), I completed an MA with the Open University in Creative Writing, with a focus on creative non-fiction. 

Since 2020, I have been Module Chair of what was one of the largest entry-level modules in the University,  DD102: Introducing the Social Sciences - with student numbers at times reaching over 9000 per annum.  Many students on this module come to us with challenges that include no formal qualifications, declared disabilities, low socio-economic status, and are often time-poor, with many working full-time.  My preoccupation as Module Chair is to ensure that these students have the best possible time at the Open University, that they feel valued, enjoy their study and ultimately that they succeed in whatever their learning ambitions might be.

I am active in scholarship, with many of the projects I have led on investigating areas of learning that I feel would support our level 1 students, including the role of assignment extensions in student success, the benefit of ‘catch-up’ sessions on student retention, the need for personal and empathetic dialogue in correspondence tuition and the connection between language use, achievement and ethno-linguistic identity amongst OU students. I have contributed chapters and VLE material to several modules including DD305:  Personal Lives and Social Policy, TU100: My digital Life, DD102: Introducing the Social Sciences and its replacement module D112: You and your world: introducing the social sciences.

I am currently researching Hedy Schwarz, a woman who pioneered Montessori education in 1920-30 Red Vienna and later in 1938, fled to England to work in Anna Freud’s Hampstead War Nursery and the Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic.  My research is based in both Austria and England and is being steered by the treasure trove of documents, photos and correspondence left by Hedy, including letters received from Anna Freud and other prominent child psychoanalysts and educationalists of the time.