This paper presents the findings of a self-study exploring the experiences of women leaders, and the intersections of leadership work with roles as mothers. Drawing on narratives of women from across experiences of leading to support women in the workplace, to women who juggle leadership work and mothering, and women whose mothering involves…

Studies on gender differences in work-life conflict have shown that women often report higher levels of work-life conflict due to social mores of undertaking a larger proportion of childcare and household work. Similarly, emergent research on the impact of the Covid pandemic on work-life conflict have shown that women experienced more work-life…

Mothers working as teachers in a post-16 environment face various challenges with balancing work and motherhood from the beginning of pregnancy. Colleges have in place a variety of policies, such as maternity leave and flexible working that are designed to mitigate some of these challenges. This paper investigates the experiences of eight mothers…

This article explores male and female academics' perceptions of what it means to be both a parent and an academic and the relations between them. Based on an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of interviews with 35 academics from a university in England, findings suggest that the way in which academics experience being both a parent and an…

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…

Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate how the Nordic model, featuring highly regulated trade union-employer collaboration, has enabled the building of learning organizations through a co-generative learning model involving both practitioners and action researchers. Design/methodology/approach: A literature search on the Nordic sociotechnical…

In this article, the author describes her early fascination with the natural world, and how this directed her through school and university into a scientific career. She talks about how she combined her previous experiences into one fabulous job, running the educational outreach for a pharmaceutical company, before the teaching itch led her to…

Student satisfaction is both an important and yet controversial issue within the higher education sector, which is typically measured through policy-driven metrics such as the National Student Survey. However, less is understood about the qualities of a satisfying student experience 'as lived' from the perspective of the student, thus questioning…

The working lives of teachers and leaders study is an annual survey of teachers and leaders in state schools in England. The survey explores teachers and leaders': (1) workload, wellbeing and flexible working arrangements; (2) attitudes to pay; (3) experiences of professional development; (4) views on pupil behaviour; (5) career reflections; and…

Through a textual analysis of four episodes comprising the ITV 1 psychological thriller "Cheat," this paper explores depictions of the English Higher Education [HE] landscape and of the lived experiences of being an academic in the television drama. We achieve this through a focus on the fictional HE institution where the drama is set --…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity to examine the initial policies developed by Australian, Canadian, English, German, Greek and Irish governments to limit the spread of the virus. This has revealed governments' conceptualisation of the early childhood sector and its workforce. This paper argues that neoliberal ideology and…

This article draws primarily on a dataset of 60 semi-structured interviews conducted with teachers working in English and French state-funded secondary schools. Informed by feminist sociological theories of work and education and a cross-national comparative perspective, it explores the mechanisms leading to the production of gender inequalities…

Student-mothers who study vocationally related higher education programmes are a relatively under-researched group. Specifically, there is a paucity of research into the emotions that these learners experience. This article discusses a qualitative investigation that examined the emotional narratives that a group of vocational student-mothers…

Adult providers as well as further and adult education colleges are a major part of an economically driven society improving skills for developing careers as well as for new interests and jobs. Further education (FE) colleges deliver courses that not only meet the demands of school leavers but also serve the wider community in terms of delivering…

This article explores factors inhibiting or encouraging women and men from Black and Minority ethnic (BME) and also white backgrounds to pursue leadership positions in English schools. Data are drawn from a commissioned evaluation of three National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL)-funded courses which investigated the extent to which the…