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The underrepresentation of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils in higher education
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) children and young people face significant barriers throughout their education, which results in them being severely underrepresented in HE. Perhaps because there is still an urgent need to address the issues faced by these groups in primary and secondary education, there is limited existing research on Gypsies’, Roma and Travellers’…
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White working class boys in the neoliberal meritocracy
I’ve just had a book chapter published as part of a collection on Masculinity and Aspiration in the Era of Neoliberal Education, edited by Garth Stahl, Joseph Nelson and Derron Wallace. The chapter is about white working class boys in the neoliberal meritocracy, and the pitfalls of the ‘aspiration-raising’ agenda. It’s available here on Google…
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Low-income pupils’ progress at secondary school
One of the great injustices of the British education system is that pupils from low income backgrounds are less likely to make good progress at secondary school compared to better off peers. The gap between low income pupils’ attainment at the end of primary school and the end of secondary school has widened; since 2012…
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Youth, education and lifelong learning
‘Education’ and ‘youth’ It’s impossible to think of ‘youth’ without thinking of ‘education’ because young people spend so much of their time in nurseries, schools and colleges and the education they receive there plays such a formative role in their lives. Likewise, it’s impossible to think of ‘education’ without thinking of ‘youth’ – there’s something…
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Ethnicity, gender and social mobility
British families are told that if their children go to school and work hard, they will be rewarded with good jobs and opportunities. But for many groups this promise is being broken. In recent months, the low educational attainment of White British boys has gained significant attention. However, when it comes to the transition from…
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What makes an effective middle leader?
This summer, teachers around the country will be preparing to step into new roles. Many will be taking their first step into management as Heads of Department, a role that is often overlooked and which is generally under-researched. Yet as James Toop, Chief Executive of the charity Teaching Leaders argues, ‘no school can be a…
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The underrepresentation of white working class boys in higher education
Only 10% of the most disadvantaged white British males progress to higher education. Not only is this significantly less than the most advantaged white males, it is also significantly less than the progression to HE of disadvantaged males from all other ethnic backgrounds. Almost twenty years after the Dearing Report highlighted the underrepresentation of students…
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How “space” and “place” contribute to occupational aspirations as a value-constituting practice for working-class males
The March 2016 special issue of Education + Training, focusing on gendered spaces and subjectivities, carried a paper I co-authored with Garth Stahl. In the paper we look at how “space” and “place” contribute to occupational aspirations as a value-constituting practice for working-class males, drawing on fieldwork I conducted in South Manchester for my PhD. The purpose of the paper is…
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Platform 3 for childminders evaluation
In 2015 I authored an evaluation of The Communication Trust‘s pilot of Platform 3 – a model of delivering the Level 3 qualification ‘Supporting Children and Young People’s Speech, Language and Communication’ via e-learning and assessment over two years for early years practitioners, on behalf of LKMco. The Trust was granted further funding in 2015/16 to tailor…
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Aspirations, education and social justice: applying Sen and Bourdieu – book review
The August 2015 issue of the British Journal of Educational Studies carries a book review of Caroline Sarojini Hart’s Aspirations, education and social justice: applying Sen and Bourdieu that I wrote with Loic Menzies at LKMco. In our review we reflect on how Sarojini Hart’s combination of theoretical and empirical work encourages us to unpack the notion of ‘aspirations’ that increasingly…