All Outputs (23)

Why bother with arts education in schools? (2024)
Journal Article

Enrolments in school arts subjects are falling in both England and Australia. There are various arguments made in an attempt to reverse the situation. The arts are said to be vital for the economy, linked to success in core school subjects, are educa... Read More about Why bother with arts education in schools?.

The best of times, the worst of times: Continuities in school leaders' work in uncertain times (2024)
Journal Article

The COVID 19 pandemic created new challenges for school leaders. They worked very long hours in difficult circumstances. Improvising and responding quickly to poorly timed central guidelines had an adverse effect on their health and wellbeing. Our mi... Read More about The best of times, the worst of times: Continuities in school leaders' work in uncertain times.

‘The way I know is by looking back’: English primary school children’s views of making progress in arts subjects (2023)
Journal Article

Educators are concerned that children make progress in their learning. While there are both policy and professional debates about how progress should be monitored and assessed, the views of children are rarely considered. Grounded in the ‘voiced’ res... Read More about ‘The way I know is by looking back’: English primary school children’s views of making progress in arts subjects.

English schooling and little e and big E exclusion: what’s equity got to do with it? (2022)
Journal Article

It seems uncontentious that policy development should be informed by evidence, and that researchers should be engaged to assess available evidence. In this paper, we tell the story of a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) about school exclusion, a task i... Read More about English schooling and little e and big E exclusion: what’s equity got to do with it?.

Punk ideals, school leaders and fashioning an “authentic” self (2022)
Journal Article

The field of education is in dire need of different ways of thinking about attracting, supporting, and retaining school leaders. We see the idea of punk as a space that may offer some leeway for thinking differently about professionalism for school l... Read More about Punk ideals, school leaders and fashioning an “authentic” self.

What needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education? (2022)
Journal Article

The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held in September 2021 that sought to explore different ideas and articulations of school autonomy reform across the world (Australia, Canada, England, Ireland... Read More about What needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education?.

Cultural capitals matter, differentially: a Bourdieusian reading of perspectives from senior secondary students in England (2022)
Journal Article

Ofsted, the inspection authority in England, has told schools to ensure that all students have access to cultural capital, taken as a canon of music, literature and art. In this paper, we trouble this guidance by analysing conversations with 1447 sen... Read More about Cultural capitals matter, differentially: a Bourdieusian reading of perspectives from senior secondary students in England.

Vox Poetica: bringing an arts-based research method to school leaders’ lockdown experiences (2022)
Journal Article

The work of school leaders during lockdown has been emotionally charged and emotionally draining, affecting immediate well-being and longer term career plans. In order to communicate the emotions that we were told about and which were obvious during... Read More about Vox Poetica: bringing an arts-based research method to school leaders’ lockdown experiences.

The trust deficit in England: emerging research evidence about school leaders and the pandemic (2021)
Journal Article

Limited research has assessed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on school leaders specifically. Working together with England's two leader associations, we designed and conducted a national survey of almost 1500 leaders in summer 2021 to assess th... Read More about The trust deficit in England: emerging research evidence about school leaders and the pandemic.

‘You just feel more relaxed’: An Investigation of Art Room Atmosphere (2021)
Journal Article

Art educators are increasingly interested in the affective dimensions of pedagogy. This paper contributes by exploring students' reports of feeling more relaxed and less stressed in the art room, data drawn from a three year study of thirty arts rich... Read More about ‘You just feel more relaxed’: An Investigation of Art Room Atmosphere.

Making the Most of School Arts Education Partnerships (2021)
Journal Article

Changing play – writing, researching and learning in an early years arts project (2019)
Journal Article

'Changing Play' is an ongoing project initiated by education curators from the Serpentine, a prestigious London art gallery, working with the Portman children's centre nursery. Viewed by curators as a collaboration between artist, children's centre s... Read More about Changing play – writing, researching and learning in an early years arts project.

Thinking about the school most of the time: studio as generative metaphor for critical reflection (2018)
Journal Article

Busy leaders need time to reflect and renew. They need to consider the particularities of their school and the ways in which they can work with others in the school community to address pressing issues, as well as to make future plans. The metaphor o... Read More about Thinking about the school most of the time: studio as generative metaphor for critical reflection.

A little more madness in our methods?: a snapshot of how the educational leadership, management and administration field conducts research (2017)
Journal Article

The field of educational leadership, management and administration (ELMA) uses methods drawn primarily from cognate educational disciplines. But does this matter? This paper explores the methods used in recently published papers through a snapshot of... Read More about A little more madness in our methods?: a snapshot of how the educational leadership, management and administration field conducts research.

Creativity in teaching: what can teachers learn from artists? (2016)
Journal Article

Since the turn of the century, there have been frequent expressions of concern about a perceived lack of creativity in UK schools, in both curriculum content and in teaching. Recently, as the emphasis on mathematics, science and technology has streng... Read More about Creativity in teaching: what can teachers learn from artists?.

Disciplinary regimes of ‘care’ and complementary alternative education (2015)
Journal Article

In schools, the notion of ‘care is often synonymous with welfare and disciplinary regimes. Drawing on Foucault, and a study of alternative education across the UK, and looking in depth at two cases of complementary alternative education, we identify... Read More about Disciplinary regimes of ‘care’ and complementary alternative education.

Hugs and behaviour points: alternative education and the regulation of ‘excluded’ youth (2015)
Journal Article

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. In England, alternative education (AE) is offered to young people formally excluded from school, close to formal exclusion or who have been informally pushed to the educational edges of their local school. Their behaviour i... Read More about Hugs and behaviour points: alternative education and the regulation of ‘excluded’ youth.

Beyond records and representations: inbetween writing in educational ethnography (2015)
Journal Article

Ethnographers are particularly interested in writing. They have paid particular attention to the practices of making field notes and to the ways in which their public texts represent those that they have encountered and studied. To date there has bee... Read More about Beyond records and representations: inbetween writing in educational ethnography.

‘Everyone can imagine their own Gellert’: the democratic artist and ‘inclusion’ in primary and nursery classrooms (2015)
Journal Article

What do artists do when they work in schools? Can teachers do the same? These were the questions at the heart of our recent research, investigating the work of 12 artists working in primary and secondary schools in England. Funded by Creativity, Cult... Read More about ‘Everyone can imagine their own Gellert’: the democratic artist and ‘inclusion’ in primary and nursery classrooms.

Bringing installation art to reconnaissance to share values and generate action (2015)
Journal Article

The English education system has recently seen something of a revival of enthusiasm for the use of research both to develop educational practices and to gather evidence about their effectiveness. These initiatives often present action research as a m... Read More about Bringing installation art to reconnaissance to share values and generate action.