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This edited volume is the first to exclusively feature the work of doctoral graduates themselves. Critical Perspectives on Educational Policies and Professional Identities offers an important example of doctoral study within the field of education policy, emphasising the impact and transferability of findings across a range of educational sectors.
The collection features the cutting-edge work of 14 doctoral graduates from the University of the West of England (UWE), generally writing in collaboration with an experienced academic from their supervisory team. The volume explores the issue of education policy and its impact on the professional identities of those working across the sector, including the changing professional and policy contexts currently confronting doctoral candidates and their peers. The chapters are arranged into three thematic sections, each featuring work from a wide range of educational settings: Constructions of the Professional and Society; Interrogating Approaches to Becoming, Being and Developing as Education Professionals; and Challenging Education Policy and Practice.
The doctoral graduate is lead author in all instances, and the process of curating and developing the collection to offer Early Career Researchers a supported pathway into academic publication is outlined in the editors’ opening contribution. In the concluding chapter, Prof Meg Maguire (KCL) reflects upon the role of professional doctorates in aiding our understanding of educational policies and professional identities across the sector.
Critical Perspectives is a vibrant addition to the academic literature, echoing the spirit of Bathmaker and Harnett’s influential work while carving its own distinct path. Within its pages, a chorus of practitioner-researcher and established academic voices offer a refreshing perspective on doctoral education that extends far beyond the confines of traditional school or college settings.
This book is a must-read for anyone with a stake in doctoral education, providing a rich tapestry of insights into policy and professionalism across diverse landscapes. From Higher Education to the National Health Service, Further Education, and Early Years, the authors unravel the complexities with meticulous detail. What emerges is a vivid portrayal of local concerns with a resounding impact that transcends boundaries, resonating across phases, settings, and sectors.
What sets this volume apart is its innovative approach to co-production, seamlessly weaving together emerging and established academic voices in each chapter. This dynamic collaboration opens a portal for the researching-professional, inviting them to seamlessly transition into a professional-researcher role. The book balances academic rigor with a grounded practitioner focus, effortlessly straddling theory and practice, conceptual and empirical realms, honouring the individual of voice entangled within an extensive ecology of agency.
At its core, Critical Perspectives will captivate academics and practitioners with a detailed exploration of the 'messiness and situatedness' inherent in the experience of being and becoming an educational professional. The authors skillfully navigate the intricate landscape of constructing, interrogating, and challenging professionalism, unveiling the limitations of a one-size-fits-all approach with poignant clarity.
This volume is more than a departure; it is a welcome revelation. It serves as a powerful reminder that doctoral training goes beyond providing the technical skills required to manage small scale research project, urging us to embrace knowledge generation that is applied, transdisciplinary, and deeply contextualized. It serves as a catalyst for change, reminding us that engagement with policy is not restricted to interpretation and enactment but includes the invisible activism of not only inevitable but welcome disruption. Critical Perspectives is a vibrant affirmation of the landscape of doctoral education as a realm of endless possibilities and transformative potential.
Richard Waller is Professor of Education and Social Justice in the School of Education and Childhood at UWE.
Jane Andrews is Professor of Education in the School of Education and Childhood at UWE.
Timothy Clark is Director of Research and Enterprise in the School of Education and Childhood at UWE.
Chapter 1. Educational Policies and Professional Identities: Showcasing Lessons from Doctoral Practitioner Research; Richard Waller, Jane Andrews, and Timothy Clark
Section 1 - Constructions of the Professional and Society
Chapter 2. Hierarchies of Professionalism in Interprofessional Partnerships for Inclusion: Mapping the Role and Professional Identities of Early Years Educators; Alex Morfaki, Helen Bovill, and Nicola Bowden-Clissold
Chapter 3. Professional Identity within changing healthcare roles: exploring the third or hybrid space; Sally Moyle and Richard Waller
Chapter 4. The impact of symbolic violence on the perceived choices of trainee primary school teachers: a poetic perspective; Laura Manison and Catherine Rosenberg
Chapter 5. Further Education (FE) Sports Lecturer Professionalism: ‘Freedom to Play’, or ‘Do as I Say?’; Jake Bacon and Tessa Podpadec
Section 2 - Interrogating Approaches to Becoming, Being and Developing as Education Professionals
Chapter 6. Teaching and learning as complex phenomena: Implications for policy and teacher professional identity; Ben Knight and Neil Harrison
Chapter 7. Mastering Professional Practises: Primary School Science Teacher Identity and Development; Juliet Edmonds
Chapter 8. Voices from the staffroom: impacts of further education policy on CPD in the sector; Andy Goldhawk
Chapter 9. Teacher Training in England: Exploring trainee teachers’ perspectives on their professional identity formation; Karan Vickers-Hulse and Marcus Witt
Chapter 10. Convergence, Change, Consciousness and Confidence: the impact of initial teacher training policy on confident, career changing practising teachers; Nicholas Garrick and Jane Andrews
Section 3 - Challenging Education Policy and Practice
Chapter 11. Changing the Narrative of mental and emotional health training in an FE context; Explorations of transformational Learning; Georgie Ford and Richard Waller
Chapter 12. ‘It’s our job to take the limits away’: Exploring the beliefs and practices of high expectation teachers; Julie Smith and Richard Waller
Chapter 13. Context, Consciousness, and Caution: Teachers of history in England and the exploration of sensitive and controversial issues in practice; Sarah Whitehouse and Verity Jones
Chapter 14. Counter Terrorism Measures in the Classroom: The Importance of Professionalism, Agency and Autonomy when Enacting the Prevent Duty; Max Weedon, Kathy Mansfield Higgins, and Ciaran Burke
Chapter 15. Home Language Literacy Learning as an Extracurricular Activity by Pupils and Parents: Do the Findings Warrant a Case for Introducing Home Language Policy for Primary Education in England?; Shamsudin Abikar, Helen Bovill, and Jane Andrews
Chapter 16. Reviewing the collection's contribution and value of practice-based doctoral studies; Meg Maguire