Rachael Stevens

Background

About Rachael Stevens

I currently work as the Vice Principal (EY & Y1) at an eco, Buddhist Primary School in Chiang Mai, Thailand. This builds on my experience as an Early Years teacher in Bangkok and the UK. My particular interest is play-based, natural education in the Early Years, including the use of natural resources in the EY classroom. As such, I gained an Outdoor Learning Practitioner (Level 2) qualification in the UK in 2013 and Compass Education Practitioner status in 2016 which focussed on Sustainability in schools. In 2015 I trained as a Children’s Yoga Teacher. Working in international schools has developed my skills in teaching EAL pupils, an area which I find particularly rewarding. In all my teaching positions I have taken an active role in training colleagues through in-school INSET. My prior teaching experience includes a period of teaching English to young children at a school in a remote region of Tibet. I am highly interested in future international teaching opportunities. Meanwhile, I continue to persue my interest in Tibetology. The focus of my doctoral thesis at the University of Oxford was a survey of the Tibetan Buddhist goddess Red Tārā, the related lineages of literature and the modern-day practice. This study entailed periods of research in Asia, America and Brazil and was fully-funded by the AHRC. I am currently working on publication of this thesis as a monograph. Other areas of interest include Sacred Landscape and Colloquial Tibetan Language.