Eilidh Slattery currently works full-time at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on the PG Cert & MEd Learning and Teaching in the Arts programmes, working with arts educators from all educational, vocational and community settings. Eilidh has been awarded the status of Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) by AdvanceHE.

Before joining RCS, Eilidh trained as a dancer and dance teacher gaining teaching qualifications in multiple disciplines with the ISTD & RAD and taught in the UK and Ireland. Eilidh has experience teaching dance and choreographing productions for all ages in dance schools, community settings, nurseries, primary & secondary schools and in FE & HE settings. Eilidh later qualified as a GTCS registered primary school teacher and continued to explore dance and creative movement with learners alongside the rest of the school curriculum whilst also delivering CLPL dance events for staff and guest lecturing on several Initial Teacher Education programmes. In the primary education sector, Eilidh held roles of class teacher, specialist teacher, principal teacher and acting headteacher before moving into the position of Lecturer in Teacher Education at the University of Dundee working on both the undergraduate and postgraduate Initial Primary Teacher Education programmes, as well as the BA Childhood Practice, TQFE and MEd programmes. 

Eilidh’s research interests focus on teacher professional learning in dance and creative movement for primary education, and arts-based professional learning. Eilidh’s wider research interests are arts-based pedagogy, arts-based research methods, inclusive practice, and diversification of learning and teaching theory.

Eilidh was awarded funding from the RCS Athenaeum Award to support her Dance in the Primary School in Scotland research, which has now been shared through conference presentation to audiences nationally and internationally, and continues to develop.

To view the Dance Education in the Primary School in Scotland report (2022) please see Research Output to access the pdf document.

Contact: [email protected]

Eilidh's Dance in the Primary School research has been well received when presented at:

The Scottish Educational Research Association (SERA) conference

The British Educational Research Association (BERA) conference

The Dance and the Child International (daCi) global dance education conference in Slovenia.

The research has also been featured in The Times Educational Supplement (TES), and publications by One Dance UK. Eilidh also shared her research as a guest on the ResDance podcast series.

Acting upon the findings and recommendation of Eilidh's Dance in the Primary School in Scotland report Eilidh has:

• Established the Primary Dance Network Scotland - fascilitating an online meeting place for primary teachers to engage in supportive collegiate dialogue focused on dance education.
• Submitted an academic journal article to Research in Dance Education.
• Continued with further emprical research including a case study exploring teachers' experiences of whole school professional learning in dance over one school year, and a second case study exploring teachers' professional learning journeys with dance education - publications forthcoming.
• Completed co-writing a chapter 'Curiosity, Creativity, and Connections: The Role of Dance in Primary Education' for a new SAGE publication Developing subject knowledge across the primary curriculum - publication date April 2026.
• Joined Education Scotland's Collaborative Group for the Expressive Arts as part of the Curriculum Improvement Cycle.
• Developed and piloted a research-informed model for primary teacher professional learning in dance education.
• Applied for external funding from daCi for an International Twinning Project in partnership with Dr Linda Lorenza from Central Queensland University in Australia. The aims to increase children's engagement with dance in primary education by empowering primary teachers through an international professional learning community.