Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine instructional leadership (IL) in outstanding secondary schools within a centralised (Greece) and a partially decentralised (England) education context. Design/methodology/approach: Since the purpose of the study is exploratory, the researchers adopt a qualitative approach, employing a series of four…

The English education sector is undergoing major restructuring with the coalition government placing great emphasis on two key principles of policy: deregulation and marketisation. This development follows on two decades in which the British state has sought to raise performance levels and reduce costs through a variety of policies that are drawn…

This article is written by Heather Murdoch, research consultant for the Seashell Trust, Anne Gough, deputy headteacher at Royal School Manchester/Seashell Trust, Eileen Boothroyd, consultant for the Seashell Trust, and Kate Williams, a creative perfumer for Seven (PZ Cussons). It describes the use of food fragrances with deafblind students who are…

For many vocational students in England, mathematics is now a compulsory part of their programme, yet the inclusion of an academic subject within a vocational course presents challenges. In this paper, an analysis of a series of case studies of vocational student groups in Further Education colleges in England shows how contrasting practices in…

Despite Northern Ireland's deeply rooted religious history and the assumption that its citizens' sexual attitudes and behaviours are more reserved than their English counterparts, comprehensive school-based relationships and sexuality education (RSE) has been statutory for primary and post-primary pupils since 2007. The non-biological aspects of…

Children's Centres are widespread in England and comprise multi-professional staff teams seeking to work with families with children aged 0-5 years. Although parent-child group music sessions appear frequently in Children's Centre activity programmes, the rationale for their inclusion remains unclear. This article presents the results from phase…

As of September 2012, the undergraduate tuition fee cap at English universities was raised from £3375 to £9000 per annum. This article explores the rationales underpinning prospective students' decision whether or not to apply to higher education following the fee increase, specifically, how this decision is influenced by perceptions of…

Lesson observation has been widely debated in education circles in recent times. From politicians to practitioners, everyone seems to have a view on it. Surprisingly, however, very little empirical research has been done on this important area of practice. With this in mind, this article explores some of the findings from a national research…

Research (for example Ball, 1988; Philippou & Christou, 1998) have linked teachers' attitudes with classroom practice in teaching mathematics. Previous studies have identified and examined the relationships between different components of teachers' attitudes (Nisbet, 1991). However, a particular criticism of these studies is the lack of…

There is a strong trend in policy-making circles for strategic, systemic, and large-scale interventions. Although such trends make sense in terms of economy of scale and scope, the political will necessary for making these large-scale interventions a reality is often lacking, and the problem of the transferability of interventions from one local…

In the name of curriculum breadth and raising standards, recent government policy in England has removed a large number of non-academic qualifications from the list of those that secondary schools can count in league tables, discouraging their use. Most of these were vocational qualifications, but they also include skills-led qualifications. This…

Background: Around the globe, education policy borrowing remains pervasive and prevalent. The strategies, interventions and innovations of education systems that perform well, in international assessments, are enthusiastically borrowed and copied in the anticipation of similar educational performance and outcomes. Purpose: This purpose of the…

This article performs exploratory research using a mixed-methods approach (structural equation modelling and a thematic analysis of interview data) to analyse the ways in which socioeconomic disparities in voting patterns are reproduced through inequalities in education in different national contexts, and the role of self-efficacy in this process.…

Previous research identifies the importance of feminist knowledge for improving gender equity, economic prosperity and social justice for all. However, there are difficulties in embedding feminist knowledge in higher education curricula. Across England, undergraduate sociology is a key site for acquiring feminist knowledge. In a study of four…

While numerous studies examine perceptions of research held by university researchers, studies examining perceptions held by school pupils are rare. To address this gap and following analysis of questionnaire data (N = 2634, KS3/4/5 pupils), we conducted 11 group interviews with 100 pupils in England to investigate their experiences of research…