How are teachers motivated to continue to learn throughout their career in a high-stakes accountability context? This innovative mixed methods study employs inductive/deductive hybrid thematic analysis and self-determination theory to investigate teachers' self-reported motivations to continue their professional learning. Through analysis of…

This research explores the relationship between multi-academy trust (MAT) brand objectives, brand advantage and subsequent risk mitigation strategies utilised to position MATs in England in a notional hierarchy. This is exemplified through empirical case-study research: the Co-operative Academies Trust model of school governance; the roles and…

Research suggests that the inspection service in England, Ofsted, has negative impacts on teachers and creates a culture of fear and performativity. Of particular concern is Ofsted's potential to harm schools and educators as they are navigating the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, growing child poverty, and crises relating to teacher retention,…

To afford school middle leaders meaningful opportunities to initiate change, we must provide them with the space and flexibility to engage with agentic and creative responses to policy and practice. Whilst we argue that the tensions identified in Bennett's seminal reviews persist, there may, nonetheless, be opportunities for school middle leaders…

Teacher evaluation and teachers' professional learning are too often confined to separate areas of research and professional practice. Rather than approach evaluation and enquiry as distinct or irreconcilable, this paper applies the ideas of Stenhouse to explore new possibilities for the reappropriation of mandated appraisal in ways that support…

The reduction in local control and oversight of schooling represented by the growth of Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) in England raises critical issues for public policy. These include the articulation and exercise of power in the governance of MATs, the future of democratic governance of local services and accountability. Applying Foucault's…

This paper aims to map and understand tactics and practices of resistance to standardised testing in England by focusing on the "More Than a Score" (MTAS) campaign. More specifically, this paper examines the role of professional organisations affiliated to the MTAS campaign in the production and mobilisation of expert knowledge as a tool…

This paper analyses how teacher identity is shaped by professional standardisation and regulatory apparatuses in the context of English Further Education from a specifically spatial perspective. We focus on how these apparatuses erode teachers' sense of identity and, paradoxically, quality by establishing what anthropologist Marc Augé (1935-2023)…

This article suggests that the rise in referrals for children seen as having specific educational needs in England is the inevitable outcome of a system with ever-rising expectations and accountability. It suggests two key reasons for this. The first is that the increased pressures upon teachers lead to them needing a 'scapegoat' to point the…

Teachers' negative experiences of high-stakes accountability have been documented extensively, but the ways in which teachers are able to engage in tactics of resistance in response are less well known. This is most especially true in terms of the subtle, covert forms of resistance which occur through the practice of teachers' everyday working…

The goal of equity in education in England is damaged by regional disparities in outcomes and a marked social gradient in school exclusion. The most vulnerable groups are disproportionately represented in in-year transfers. Drawing on 24 interviews with school leaders and education decision-makers in a socioeconomically deprived area, this study…

Participants in the Global Education Policy Leadership Program (GEPLP) in the U.S. collaborated with the Schools, Students and Teachers Network (SSAT) in England in 2023 to conduct a study of three high performing schools that are members in the SSAT Leading Edge Network. This article describes U.K. and U.S. educational accountability systems as…

School value-added models are widely applied to study, monitor, and hold schools to account for school differences in student learning. The traditional model is a mixed-effects linear regression of student current achievement on student prior achievement, background characteristics, and a school random intercept effect. The latter is referred to…

The rationale for the principles of effective school governance in England, as set out in government regulations, has never been made explicit. This article addresses that issue and develops and proposes such principles. We argue that effective school governance secures the legitimacy of schools as institutions. Such institutional legitimacy is…

Accountability policy and its negative effects on teachers' working lives and retention is internationally recognised as a problem in education with school evaluation and inspection being a particular issue, particularly in England. Research suggests that the school inspection system Ofsted impacts negatively on the health and well-being of staff…