Dr Abbie Cairns is an educator-artist-researcher specialising in professional identity and creative practice within the post-16 sector.
She is a Lecturer in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and an experienced practitioner in adult and community learning, where her work explores the intersections of artistry, pedagogy, and inquiry.
Her research focuses on the dual and multiple identities of educators working in Further Education, with a particular interest in how creative practitioners navigate and integrate their roles as Educator-Artist-Researchers (EAR). Abbie is the author of Exploring Your FE Teacher Identity (Routledge, 2025), which introduces practical tools such as the “Network of Enterprises” model for reflecting on professional identity and development.
Through her facilitation, Abbie creates reflective and dialogic spaces that invite participants to engage critically and creatively with their practice, drawing connections between theory, visual methods, and lived experience to inform their evolving EAR identities.