This paper revisits and reassesses the intellectual and practical contribution of Caroline Benn (née DeCamp, 1926-2000) to politics, policymaking and practice at a crucial turning point in English education, which I call the 'long comprehensive moment' between 1950 and 1990. It articulates a strong sense that her involvement in significant public…

Embodied cognition posits that processing concepts requires sensorimotor activation. Previous research has shown that perceived power is spatially embodied along the vertical axis. However, it is unclear whether such mapping applies equally in the two languages of bilinguals. Using event-related potentials, we compared spatial embodiment…

This paper investigates leadership dynamics in research teams. It studies how principal investigators (PIs) and team members cultivate their relationship through the lens of leader-member exchange theory (LMX). Thirty-one in-depth interviews with both PIs and team members across 15 externally funded teams in the UK are analysed. The findings show…

In response to a proposal to reframe the 'research into practice' agenda in UK education using partnership working, this paper examines a type of collaborative research known as a research-practice partnership (RPP), drawing on models established in education in the United States. It examines their characteristics and what has been learnt from…

Despite recent evidence linking top management power with firm performance, our understanding about the interaction effect between power and personal characteristics of the top manager is still very limited. Building on and extending the Upper Echelons and Power literature, we address the empirical question: How, i.e. UK Vice-Chancellors' (VC)…

Research involving young people is a challenging process that requires managing relationships with diverse individuals and groups, including the young participants and their various gatekeepers. While it is normally assumed that the researcher is in overall control of their research, by using a Foucauldian conception of 'power as effects' that…

Ethnographic note-taking in the field is often imbued with emotions, shaped by power relations and influenced by participants' voice and agency. Though enough has been written about ethnography, discussions on the specific challenges of taking notes, particularly in research with children are limited. Drawing on three ethnographic field studies…

This case study reflects on a project that utilised student-staff partnerships to explore how best to prepare staff for collaboration in such partnerships. Eight student researchers worked together across four higher education institutions in the United Kingdom, conducting interviews with 41 participants, including both staff and students. The…

This article explores gendered day-to-day lived experiences of (relatively) marginalised teaching-only academic staff on insecure contracts through the lens of space and place. It stems from a collaborative auto-ethnography focusing on the experience of two UK early-career academics on temporary contracts (at the time of this research) who occupy…

Students who serve on the governing body of UK and Irish higher education institutions often report challenges due to a perceived power dynamic. This study explored the perspectives of power among current and former student governors (n = 14). This research highlighted the importance of power and its role in determining the influence (or lack of)…

According to Government guidance in the UK, improving attendance is everyone's business. This article sets out the work of one local authority to develop their own multi-agency approach to reduce rates of emotionally based school non-attendance. The Research and Development in Organisations model provided a structure for the action research…

This paper reflects on the dynamic of co-developing knowledge within a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) project in the UK that set out to direct teenage and young adult Ambulatory Care. This is a service that offers cancer treatment that would have once required inpatient hospital stays. Working within a Community-of-Inquiry (CoI),…

This case study examines the challenges of researching one of the most sensitive topics in education contexts: racism. Based on a research project that critically examined the culture in a U.K. university, data were collected using participant observation and in-depth interviews with participants from an underrepresented group. The data were then…

As we tentatively emerge from the imposed isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic and as the status quo reasserts itself, it seems timely to consider the current state of teacher professionalism. This task seems critical, given the wider backdrop of the neoliberal policy pandemic that has driven the commodification and instrumentalization of education…

This paper performs a critical examination of the Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (EIF), which was accompanied by an Inspection Handbook for Further Education and Skills, and argues that this policy document reinforces the neoliberal project in education. Drawing on concepts from Michel Foucault's analysis of the nature and effects of…