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All Outputs (51)

Signature pedagogies for leadership development: a comparison of headteacher preparation programmes in England and Scotland (2025)
Journal Article
GREANY, T., Thomson, P., Perry, T., & Collins, M. (in press). Signature pedagogies for leadership development: a comparison of headteacher preparation programmes in England and Scotland. London Review of Education,

School systems worldwide wrestle with school leader recruitment, preparation and retention challenges. This paper presents and discusses findings from the Researching Sustainable School Leadership (ReSSLe) project, which shows that while most leaders... Read More about Signature pedagogies for leadership development: a comparison of headteacher preparation programmes in England and Scotland.

The challenges of educational inclusion: Arts education in and as alternative education in England (2025)
Book Chapter
Howard, F., & Thomson, P. (2025). The challenges of educational inclusion: Arts education in and as alternative education in England. In T. Klepacki, E. van Meerkerk, & T. Pernille Østern (Eds.), Arts and cultural education in a challenging and changing world. ENO Yearbook 3 (45-59). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-1896-2_4

The arts are often assumed to be inclusive because they offer a wider range of media, platforms, processes, and genres than are usually found in other academic subjects. For this reason, the arts often feature in programmes intended to include studen... Read More about The challenges of educational inclusion: Arts education in and as alternative education in England.

The Researching the Arts in Primary Schools Project (2025)
Report
Thomson, P., Hall, C., & Maloy, L. (2025). The Researching the Arts in Primary Schools Project. arts primary.com: Freelands Foundation

Arts-rich primary schools are highly diverse. There is no one way to be arts-rich. However, there are patterns across the schools that can inform other schools and the school system more generally.

Arts-rich schools offer art and music to all chil... Read More about The Researching the Arts in Primary Schools Project.

Towards a framework for care-full teacher learning: stories from the British art show professional development programme (2024)
Journal Article
Thomson, P., & Coles, R. (2024). Towards a framework for care-full teacher learning: stories from the British art show professional development programme. Professional Development in Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2024.2433069

The education system in England can arguably be characterised as careless. Art teachers for example are rarely offered opportunities to acquire subject-specific knowledges. This paper reports on a programme which supported art teachers to engage with... Read More about Towards a framework for care-full teacher learning: stories from the British art show professional development programme.

Doctoral memes as public pedagogy? Or, heaven knows I’m miserable now (2024)
Journal Article
Thomson, P. (2024). Doctoral memes as public pedagogy? Or, heaven knows I’m miserable now. Studies in Continuing Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2024.2417095

Social media afford the proliferation of doctoral memes across numerous, generally anonymous, accounts spread over multiple platforms-the timeline where the PhD candidate starts off gleaming with health and beaming in delight and ends up an overweigh... Read More about Doctoral memes as public pedagogy? Or, heaven knows I’m miserable now.

Why bother with arts education in schools? (2024)
Journal Article
Thomson, P. (2025). Why bother with arts education in schools?. Australian Educational Researcher, 52, 781–801. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00741-0

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?.

Leaders resisting? The very idea (2024)
Book Chapter
Thomson, P., McKay, A., & Blackmore, J. (2024). Leaders resisting? The very idea. In A. McKay, P. Thomson, & J. Blackmore (Eds.), Resistance in Educational Leadership, Management, and Administration (3-23). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003279334-2

While educational researchers have taken up the question of resistance, their interest is not shared by the majority of researchers in the educational leadership management and administration field. Our review of literatures within and beyond educati... Read More about Leaders resisting? The very idea.

Resistance in Educational Leadership, Management, and Administration (2024)
Book
McKay, A., Thomson, P., & Blackmore, J. (Eds.). (2024). Resistance in Educational Leadership, Management, and Administration. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003279334

This edited volume brings together a range of perspectives on Educational Leadership, Management and Administration (ELMA) and various theories of resistance or compliance along with how policy and politics play out in school communities.

The book... Read More about Resistance in Educational Leadership, Management, and Administration.

The best of times, the worst of times: Continuities in school leaders' work in uncertain times (2024)
Journal Article
Thomson, P., & Greany, T. (in press). The best of times, the worst of times: Continuities in school leaders' work in uncertain times. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432231218544

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
Thomson, P., Maloy, L., & Hall, C. (2024). ‘The way I know is by looking back’: English primary school children’s views of making progress in arts subjects. Education 3-13, 52(2), 251-263. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2023.2253075

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.

Research Subjects, Participants or Co‐researchers? Extending the Involvement of Students in Art and Design Research (2023)
Journal Article
Maloy, L., & Thomson, P. (2023). Research Subjects, Participants or Co‐researchers? Extending the Involvement of Students in Art and Design Research. International Journal of Art and Design Education, 42(3), 353-366. https://doi.org/10.1111/jade.12470

Art education has a range of purposes. Art is said to support students to explore, interpret, ask critical questions, communicate and realise ideas, experiment, take risks, collaborate, tell stories and/or engage in social and political actions. In t... Read More about Research Subjects, Participants or Co‐researchers? Extending the Involvement of Students in Art and Design Research.

Arts-rich schools (2023)
Book Chapter
Thomson, P., & Hall, C. (2023). Arts-rich schools. In Schools and Cultural Citizenship: Arts Education for Life (13-30). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003093084-2

The chapter addresses the first key concept – the arts-rich school. It establishes the key characteristics of the arts-rich school and offers views from senior leaders about why they think the arts are important and how they ensure that the arts are... Read More about Arts-rich schools.

Schools and Cultural Citizenship: Arts Education for Life (2023)
Book
Thomson, P., & Hall, C. (2023). Schools and Cultural Citizenship: Arts Education for Life. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003093084

‘Why study the arts at school?’ This book offers a fresh perspective on this question. Informed by rigorous research, the book argues that the arts help young people to develop key skills, knowledge and practices that support them to become both crit... Read More about Schools and Cultural Citizenship: Arts Education for Life.

English schooling and little e and big E exclusion: what’s equity got to do with it? (2022)
Journal Article
Mills, M., & Thomson, P. (2022). English schooling and little e and big E exclusion: what’s equity got to do with it?. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 27(3), 185-198. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632752.2022.2092273

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
Heffernan, A., & Thomson, P. (2023). Punk ideals, school leaders and fashioning an “authentic” self. Research in Education, 115(1), 80-99. https://doi.org/10.1177/00345237221131107

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
Keddie, A., MacDonald, K., Blackmore, J., Boyask, R., Fitzgerald, S., Gavin, M., Heffernan, A., Hursh, D., McGrath-Champ, S., Møller, J., O’Neill, J., Parding, K., Salokangas, M., Skerritt, C., Stacey, M., Thomson, P., Wilkins, A., Wilson, R., Wylie, C., & Yoon, E.-S. (2023). What needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education?. Australian Educational Researcher, 50(5), 1571-1597. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-022-00573-w

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
Thomson, P., & Hall, C. (2022). Cultural capitals matter, differentially: a Bourdieusian reading of perspectives from senior secondary students in England. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 43(6), 860-877. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2022.2083582

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
Thomson, P., Greany, T., Cousins, S., & Martindale, N. (2023). Vox Poetica: bringing an arts-based research method to school leaders’ lockdown experiences. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 55(2), 215-230. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2022.2071849

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
Thomson, P., Greany, T., & Martindale, N. (2021). The trust deficit in England: emerging research evidence about school leaders and the pandemic. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 53(3-4), 296-300. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2021.1975366

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.