Maxine has an interest in human development and behaviour across a life span. Her Phd research was a qualitative exploration of the dynamic nature of teachers’ professional identity. A grounded theory approach empowered the voices of primary school teachers in understanding positive and negative influences on their professional identity across different life and career stages. Her work brought together current literature within Education and Social Psychology to develop a theoretical model of teacher career, considering the development of individual, relational and collective identities and associations with career decisions and commitment to the profession. Maxine has also worked collaboratively on projects concerned with the development and maintenance of relationships in school communities, and the influence of those relationships on resilience, wellbeing and teacher retention.
Between October 2018 – July 2021 Maxine was a Lecturer in Psychology within the School of Psychology, University of Worcester.
With a growing curiosity about associations between life stages, identity, and decision making, Maxine is currently working on a qualitative project that seeks to understand the choice options that concern self-funders and their relatives the most about paying for social care. The project aims to develop a prototype of a decision support tool to help older self-funders and their families make informed decisions about paying for social care.