Estelle Brisard was an exceptionally talented researcher who had already, at the age of 33, made a significant contribution to the comparative analysis of teacher education.
Her death was very sudden and unexpected and occurred at home in Liverpool on 6 November 2006. She leaves her husband Adrian Quinn and their beloved daughter Ella, who was born in May of this year.
Estelle was born in Niort, France and raised in Normandy where she took a first degree at the University of Caen. She later trained as an English teacher and worked near Paris before moving to the UK on a Leeds University scholarship in 1999. Estelle earned a Master's degree with distinction at Leeds before registering for a doctorate at the University of Stirling, where again she was awarded a full studentship.
It was whilst undertaking her doctoral studies on a comparison of secondary teacher training in England, Scotland and France, that she was appointed as a Research Fellow at the University of Paisley. Here she worked with Ian Smith and myself on a two year project entitled Convergence or Divergence?: policy and practice in initial teacher education in Scotland and England. Her contribution to this work was enormous. She brought her earlier work to bear in regular animated discussions between us about the methodology of the project. Among her many roles in this work, she was the project's archivist gathering together a huge range of policy documents, research reports and other materials and compiling an outstanding bibliography for the project. She also undertook a full part in the field work, carrying out a range of interviews with key stakeholders on both sides of the border. She made a series of intensive field visits to providers of ITE in eight locations and gathered a wealth of rich data that served as the basis for the practice‐based element of this study.
While working at Paisley she also played a major part in a literature review carried out for the General Teaching Council for Scotland on models of partnership in initial teacher education. During that work she built upon her existing network of international contacts, especially in the USA, New Zealand and Australia as well as liaising with key colleagues in the four parts of the UK.
On the conclusion of the Convergence or Divergence? project at Paisley, she was appointed to a lectureship there and was contributing to a range of programmes, including providing research methods training for students at various levels of study.
Throughout the time she was based in Scotland, she continued to collaborate with French colleagues (notably Agnes van Zanten and Régis Malet) and was successful in securing a British Council grant to pursue aspects of this work. As an Assistant Editor of the Journal of Education for Teaching she was in the process of establishing a European colloquium to carry out an analysis of trends in teacher education across the continent.
At the time of her death Estelle had recently returned from maternity leave following the birth of her daughter. During that leave she had accepted the offer of a new post at Liverpool John Moores University and was anticipating starting there early in 2007. Her arrival was being eagerly awaited by colleagues at John Moores.
Those who had the pleasure and privilege of working with Estelle during her cruelly shortened life will remember her full commitment to her work, her exacting and insightful questioning, her facility with and sensitivity to the English language and her dry sense of humour, all of which she used to powerful effect. It is fortunate indeed that there is a record of what she achieved in the form of a number of papers, reports and books that she authored and co‐authored. This will be an influential legacy.