Increasing research focus is placed on how to embed social justice within Education degrees. This paper reports findings from the first two phases of a cohort study completed just before and at the start of the pandemic, which track Scottish Education students' reflections on social justice at one university. We used three focus groups (n = 14)…

This paper locates the educational psychologist's (EP) involvement in addressing social justice in practice. It uses some philosophical ideas from Jacques Rancière, particularly the idea of the distribution of the sensible and dissensus, to help us question how systems that are aimed at contributing to a socially just society can limit social…

By its very nature ethnography is an emergent methodology. To be ethical the ethnographer needs to manage research ethics in-situ. This need to manage ethical dilemmas as they arise often comes into conflict with increased ethical regulation and procedures from ethics review boards that require the researcher to foresee ethical quandaries before…

'Global citizenship' entered public parlance prominently during heightened globalisation. To be a citizen of this new globalised, interconnected world was to be a subject of capital. Like Janus, a subject of this neoliberal world order was to be both an inwardly-gazing subject of the nation state, and simultaneously an outwardly-gazing subject of…

The role of anti-racism in early childhood remains a salient concern for many educators working with young children. Yet to what extent, and through what socio-political paradigms, government guidance supports proactive engagement remains an area to be mapped and explored. In this article, through a critical scoping review we aim to consider the…

The rise of 'Black Lives Matters' has brought to the fore a need to unsettle early years praxis that positions race as separate from the individual, as a problem to be solved through the tokenistic provisioning of resources. In this paper, we explore how a team of early years practitioners were able to bridge the space between themselves and the…

This article presents the findings of a comparative study of values-based adult learning and education (ALE) fields; specifically, in Austria, critical-emancipatory adult basic education; Scotland, learner-centered, community-based adult learning; and South Tyrol, Italy, the "Winterschule," a radical-critical popular education format. We…

The United Kingdom (UK) is facing a series of long-term economic challenges. To confront increasing regional inequality, flagging productivity and an ever-widening skills gap, universities and local businesses need to work together better. University Enterprise Zones (UEZs) offer a promising solution. The report, "Our Universities: Generating…

Students who spent time in state care as children, usually due to neglect or maltreatment, are a growing community within higher education in many countries. However, their participation rates generally remain below average and they are more likely to withdraw early, while their experiences have not yet been well-theorised. In this article, we…

Teacher quality has attracted much attention both conceptually and empirically, especially in tackling some global challenges. Initial teacher education (ITE) has historically been one of the key actors in developing teacher quality and one of the foci in research. The article contributes to these debates by comparing two ITE programmes, from…

This research study evaluated an Artist-in-Residence-project (AIR-project) at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, focusing on inclusive music education. For this project, the Conservatory invited the organization Drake Music Scotland to work with its students. The project's aim was to provide students with practical skills regarding music technology,…

This paper reports on findings from a small pilot study undertaken with early years practitioners in Scotland. The Scottish Government is currently implementing its key election promise of almost doubling the entitlement to publicly funded early learning and childcare (ELC) for all three and four-year old and eligible two-year old children. A key…

As art museums increasingly commit to socially engaged practices that require critical ways of engaging with artworks, collaborators, and visitors, what does gallery educators' ongoing learning look like, and what motivates it? How does it inform or respond to change? Drawing on research with freelance gallery educators in Scotland, this article…

Data from two research projects with adult literacies practitioners based in Scotland are used to illustrate how policies underpinned by ideologies based on Human Capital Theory (HCT) lead to a narrow conceptualisation of the purpose of literacies education. It is argued that HCT ideology permeates international and national policies and thus…

This article examines the policy construction of leadership at all levels in Scottish education. In the current reforms 'leadership at all levels' is being used to mobilise support around changes to the role of the headteacher and of the local authorities (LAs) to bring about greater system alignment. From a critical policy analysis six themes are…