Programme Leaders (PLs) in Higher Education (HE) hold a complex role that has responsibilities that link to external performance metrics. This role, existing outside of the traditional teaching/research view means it often lacks visibility and esteem (MacFarlane, 2007). How this influences role-holders' understanding of the role, and how they can…

In 2022, for the first time since 2015, as part of the Annual Literacy Survey, the National Literacy Trust ran a survey for teachers and other school staff, asking about their attitudes to literacy as a whole, as well as reading, writing and speaking and listening. They received responses from 1,535 teachers from across primary, secondary and…

Academic middle leaders play a critical role in facilitating the leadership of learning and teaching in universities. Previous research has reported the undervaluing and under-resourcing of these academic middle leadership roles. To promote a greater understanding of academic middle leaders, middle leading and middle leadership of learning and…

The principles of diversity and inclusion are valued across the higher education sector, but the ways in which these principles are translated into pedagogic practice are not always evident. Students who are first in their family to attend university continue to report barriers to full participation in university life. They are more likely to…

This paper explores the experiences of social work practitioners making a career move from front-line practice into academia. Six participants engaged in a focus group and subsequent individual semi-structured interviews to reflect on their transitional experiences. From this, factors that helped or hindered the transition were identified and…

In the UK, government and educational stakeholders perceive the problem with boys' disaffection and underachievement in school as due to a lack of role models. In political role model discourses Black or Ethnic Minority (B.E.M.) teachers are recruited to modify the behaviour of B.E.M. boys, without attaching any blame to the systemic racism they…

This article explores the affordances provided by altering the way in which a traditional structured classroom is perceived. The article, through an exploration of reconfiguring a classroom space in a drama intervention, outlines the affordances provided to young vulnerable people and the adults that they work with. Such reconfigurations are…

Background: This small study explores the lived experience of four UK-based fathers (one black British, one white Polish and two white British) caring for at least one child with a dual diagnosis of learning disability and autism. The key aim was to get as close as possible to understanding the experience of these fathers in their role as carers.…

This paper explores the learning and experience of Western action learning facilitators engaged in developing Chinese facilitators of action learning, all of whom were also managers, as part of a qualification programme based in China. The Western facilitators interviewed for this study had been specifically asked by their hosts to deliver a…

The effects of performativity in academic life are widely discussed and debated. Yet most analysis relies on conventional forms of empirical enquiry, notably interviews and questionnaires. The curriculum vitae (CV) is a comparatively neglected source of insight into the changing nature of academic life that offers a fresh insight. Drawing on the…

This paper explores the use of a range of qualitative methods to measure learning gain of teaching assistants (TAs) in mainland China at a Sino-British University where the authors used to work. It uses a case study to report on an evaluation of TA training at the University, which is part of its Postgraduate Research Development Programme, to…

Background: Transition to adulthood is an important time for young people and may be a particularly challenging time for people with intellectual disabilities. However, there has been little research in the UK regarding the experiences of parents who have son or daughter with an intellectual disability transitioning to adulthood. Method: The study…

A growing expectation that academic staff in higher education institutions (HEIs) will be qualified to doctoral level can mean that doctoral study must be juggled alongside administration, teaching, and academic duties. Many academics study in their own institutions. We wished to explore their perspectives on (i) how the two roles, of being an…

The current research aimed to explore the extent to which school professionals and local authority staff perceived that there was a role for educational psychologists in the processes involved in implementing, monitoring and offering support to young people for whom a managed move was being arranged. The study was conducted in one English local…

In the UK the title "professor" is generally applied only to the most senior academics--equivalent to North American full professors--and whom anecdotal evidence indicates to be often unprepared for the increasingly expansive academic leadership roles that they are expected to fulfil. The study reported in this paper was directed at…