This account of practice tells the story of how engaging in a critical action learning set helped us address problems with student engagement in a postgraduate module. On the surface, this seems fairly straightforward following Revans' model (1971). However, what we actually have are multiple layers of self-reflection, a visual metaphor and its…

This paper offers guidance on employing open and creative methods for co- designing critical data and artificial intelligence (AI) literacy spaces and learning activities, rooted in the principles of Data Justice. Through innovative approaches, we aim to enhance participation in learning, research and policymaking, fostering a comprehensive…

This article contributes to the emerging literature about ungrading within Higher Education across disciplines in the anglosphere. The piece offers a critical take on the apparent originality of ungrading practices. Such practices appear on a spectrum, from minor adjustments to summative grades by alternating the numerical with the alphabetized…

This UK-based study examines how people learned to identify digital misinformation. This included what experiences enabled this development, and the skills that were acquired in the process. This is a small-scale qualitative study of participants who self-reported as being confident in spotting digital misinformation and the data was analysed…

This paper explores the roles and relationships of emotions in the promotion of critical development geographies, as engendered through a student field trip from a university in the so-called Global North to a country in the so-called Global South. Through a case-study involving a field trip led by the authors taking Masters students from the UK…

The utilisation of non-formal educational methods has long been advocated as a means of supporting marginalised young people. For many in this cohort, the adverse social circumstances that confront them can limit their sense of hope and leave them susceptible to educational under-achievement and/or engagement in anti-social behaviour. Research…

Critical reflective practice is a foundation of socially just pedagogy. This paper focuses on the informal STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) learning sector, where there is an acute shortage of support for critical reflective practice despite long-standing, entrenched issues of inequity. We analyse how practitioners used a new…

This paper revisits and reassesses the influence of the context of production on the origin, development and use of the term 'policy sociology' in research in the sociology of education in the UK from the 1980s to the contemporary period. Starting with the first use of the term 'policy sociology,' and its definition as 'rooted in social science…

UK Higher Education is characterised by structural and institutional forms of whiteness. As scholars and activists are increasingly speaking out to testify, whiteness has wide-ranging implications that affect curricula, pedagogy, knowledge production, university policies, campus climate, and the experiences of students and faculty of colour.…

This paper engages with a dominant model of Islamophobia which gives race and racism primacy. It argues that such an approach is parochial, conceptually narrow and practically ineffective. I take as my case the UK's Muslim student awarding gap -- Muslims are currently the worst performing religious group at UK universities. Existing work explains…

In many ways the school music curriculum has become increasingly diverse since the 1970s. For example, 'pop' and 'world' musics have been listed in UK curricula and syllabuses with an aim of becoming more inclusive. However, this article argues that such approaches to curriculum as content have confounded social justice in school music, and in…

This article considers how neoliberalism has created a reductionist view of lifelong learning in the UK focused on upskilling workers for the labour market. This critical policy analysis uses Marx's theory of labour-power, as conceptualised by Glenn Rikowski, to examine the Skills and Post-16 Education Act, 2022 and to identify its ideological…

This paper postulates how connected learning in Palestine is characterised by the metaphor of "Sumud" as a steadfast resistance to disruption. We propose that the metaphor of "Sumud" symbolises connectedness for displaced people, whose need for connected learning encompasses a cultural and critical pedagogy, heritage, and…

In recent years there has been growing interest over the role of major sport events and the sports industry. The aftermath of 2008 global crisis exposed the myth of 'end of history' and raised several questions over the role of management and organisational practices and theories in all aspects of human activity, including sport. This article…

This paper interrogates how school toilets and 'school readiness' are used to assess children against developmental milestones. Such developmental norms both inform school toilet design and practice, and perpetuate normative discourses of childhood as middle-class, white, 'able', heteronormative, cissexist and inferior to adulthood. Critical…