The 'Does RE Work?' project, part of the AHRC/ESRC Religion & Society Programme, ran from 2007 to 2011. Drawing on textual analysis, ethnographic case studies and practitioner enquiry, the study identified core confusions as to the purposes and entailments of Religious Education as practised across the jurisdictions of the UK. This paper…

The poverty-related attainment gap is an internationally recognised problem. It resides within a culture of performativity in which international comparators, underpinned by neo-liberal ideology, drive national policy. This conceptual paper interrogates the relationship between poverty, attainment and children's mental health and wellbeing to…

Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence typifies many international trends in curricular policy, through its emphasis on generic skills and competencies, its focus on pedagogy and its apparent extension of autonomy to teachers as agents of change. Such curricula pose considerable challenges to school systems, where prevailing practices are often at…

The poor success rate of policy for curriculum change has been widely noted in the educational change literature. Part of the problem lies in the complexity of schools, as policy-makers have proven unable to micro-manage the multifarious range of factors that impact upon the implementation of policy. This article draws upon empirical data from a…