The UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) introduced impact as an indicator in the evaluation of higher education research quality in 2014. Impact case studies (ICS) are the basis of this evaluation. ICS use "narrative" explanations of how research causes 'benefits to society'. This article analyses the evolving roles of the ICS and the…

This paper asks the question: to what extent do inspection regimes, particularly the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), influence the work of a school, and how might that influence be conceptualised? It draws on an ESRC-funded study of 'policy enactments in secondary schools', which was based on case-study work in four 'ordinary' schools.…

Purpose: This article explores the policy context in the UK around securing impact from academic research, particularly from the perspective of a social science education researcher. Approach: The article locates impact studies within debates about broader accountability frameworks. Insights from this literature are applied to a case study about…

Purpose: This article integrates two distinct discourses to show how an Aristotelian account of character education can supply a valuable framework for developing a habit of social action. Approach: We use a review of relevant secondary literature, a documentary analysis of #iwill materials, and an Aristotelian conceptual framework to analyse the…

Equalities legislation in Britain has in recent years shifted towards requiring public bodies to proactively promote equality rather than simply prevent discrimination. This paper reports on a study of how this requirement, with specific reference to race equality, is enacted in the regulation and inspection of initial teacher education (ITE) in…

A review of the literature on corporate universities finds that the peak for research and publishing on the topic occurred between 1998 and 2002 and fell away considerably after 2005. Given the apparent lack of research during the past decade, the purpose of this paper is to present an insight into what has been happening to corporate…

This document is a summary of the report "What Makes Great Teaching". It argues that improved teacher ­development will positively impact on pupil attainment, particular those from disadvantaged backgrounds. "Developing Teachers" presents five policy recommendations which have been signed by 17 of Britain's leading headteachers…

Outcomes Based Accountability (OBA) is an approach that Children's Trusts and Children's Services can use to assist with planning services and assessing their performance. The OBA approach focuses on outcomes that are desired and monitoring and evidencing progress towards those desired outcomes. OBA makes a distinction between two types of…

This article addresses the notion of "being critical" in the application of the theoretical approach of Pierre Bourdieu to educational policy research. It stems from a concern to avoid a kind of "critical ghetto", where educational research is reinterpreted in Bourdieusian terms, or metaphorised in his conceptual language,…

Multidisciplinary research institutes provide universities with an important vehicle to conduct research across traditional disciplines, and this can be an attractive capability for external funding bodies. However, there can be particular challenges, including managing different reporting lines, the need for effective research coordination, and…

Governments around the world have adopted school self-evaluation as an essential corollary to the local management of schools. Typically this has been accompanied by prescribed frameworks, indicators and scoring systems, tending to promote a form of ritual self-inspection rather than an ongoing and dynamic process of self-evaluation. It is argued…

In discussing the relationship between curriculum and assessment it is commonly argued that assessment should be aligned to curriculum or, alternatively, that they should be congruent with each other. This article explores that relationship in five educational contexts in the UK and in Europe, ranging across school education, workplace learning,…

The purpose of this paper is to identify common patterns in central authorities' steering of universities and the institutional power in neo-liberal higher education regimes. The paper examines the regulatory mechanisms of England and Japan through Foucault's idea of "governmentality" and utilises the concept of autonomy to identify the…

This article will argue that diverse national, regional and local contexts leave different rooms for manoeuvre for school principals. The social technologies applied by the authorities (like accountability systems) can be "tight" or "loose" and so leave little or much room for principals' interpretations of what a good school…

This article draws on data from a single element of a larger project which focused on the issue of "touching" between education and child care professionals and children in a number of settings. This case study looks at a school once internationally renowned as the exemplar of "free" schooling. The authors consider how the…