The Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure all children have the best start in life and are prepared for school. This includes the requirements for staff: child ratios for all providers delivering the EYFS and the…

This paper contributes to critical understandings of the significance of employability in current debates about the transformation of Higher Education (HE). We express our concerns about the implications of orientating HE to utilitarian demands in the light of a tendency to align discussions about the significance of studying at university with…

This paper explores the identity of teachers in international schools who are embarking on postgraduate studies in education. Based on semi-structured interviews with 20 teachers starting an international qualification, it establishes key aspects of their identity and notes that they feel distinct from teaching professionals in their passport…

This article reviews the adult literacy campaign in the 1970s in the United Kingdom (UK) and the influence of Paulo Freire's thinking on how we worked. We argue that much adult literacy provision had been designed to 'domesticate' rather than 'liberate'. The mid-1970s 'Right to Read' campaign in the UK rejected this approach (BAS, 1974). The use…

Instrumental and vocal tuition is an important part of music education but relatively little is known about musicians who participate in this profession or their views on what makes someone 'qualified' to do so. An online survey was completed by 496 musicians teaching instrumental or vocal pupils in the UK. Findings focus on respondents'…

In recent years, play-based learning (PBL) has attracted attention, debate and controversy across different national contexts. There is no definitional consensus which may have undesirable consequences for enacting its potential in professional practice. The aim of our study was to synthesize international research on ECE practitioners' views on…

Recent changes to policy directives now require newly appointed Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) in UK mainstream schools to be qualified teachers. Training and accreditation through a nationally approved postgraduate award is now mandatory. Concepts drawn from poststructuralist biopolitics and critiques of neoliberal educational…

This study explores how Further Education (FE) lecturers are perceived in secondary school settings and their professional prospects in the context of the UK parity status Act of 2012. Designed as a mixed method research, it sought the views of FE-trained teachers on their experience of working in secondary schools, the perceptions of recruitment…

It has long been recognised that schools serving disadvantaged communities are more likely to be staffed by teachers without qualified teacher status, with fewer years of experience and by non-specialist science and maths teachers. Inequality in access to suitably qualified, high quality teachers is likely to be an important contributor to the…

Open online courses could provide stepping stones for audiences that are underrepresented in higher education (HE). However, there are concerns that these instead proliferate forms of exclusion and do not address known difficulties for widening participation. We explore how organisations that represent the perspectives of particular underserved…

Teachers in academia are usually not required to have teacher training but must often be evaluated by their students who expect them to have much better teaching qualifications than their high school teachers. However, teachers in elementary and high schools are required to go through several years of teacher training, resulting in a teaching…

In this article the author suggests a number of measures and policies that should be part of a socialist education manifesto. These specific suggestions address curriculum and assessment issues such as an anti-discriminatory curriculum for equality, funded education outside the school, the development of critical thinking and democracy in schools,…

Research has found differences in students' abilities, attitudes, and family and community background to be the largest source of variation in student learning, but these are difficult for policymakers to influence, at least in the short run. However, the single most significant school variable affecting student achievement is "teacher…

In 2007, Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills standards (QTLS) were introduced for all teachers working in UK further education institutions, with the expressed aim of improving professional standards within the sector. British Sign Language (BSL) teaching is largely delivered by deaf native signers through evening classes at local FE colleges,…

English language is a fast-growing and popular subject at A level, but the majority of qualified secondary teachers in the UK have subject expertise and backgrounds in literature. This paper reports on interviews with seven secondary English teachers who discuss the strategies they used when taking on the responsibility of A-level English language…