This article explores how candidates discuss cultural topics that overlap with their sociocultural background during the Cambridge undergraduate admissions interviews, an academic gatekeeping encounter. On the one hand, discussion of this kind can be a source of epistemic authority for these candidates. On the other hand, such an affordance does…

We analysed the full text of all journal articles returned to the education subpanel of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF2021). Using a latent Dirichlet allocation topic model, we identified 35 topics that collectively summarise the journal articles that research units, typically schools of education, selected for submission. We found…

COVID-19 impacted all aspects of children's lives. Research showed that teachers were most concerned about Communication and Language, and Personal, Social and Emotional Development, two of the three Prime Areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage which underpin all learning. The pandemic had a significant impact on early years settings.…

This article gives voice to Catholic teachers working in secular English schools. Their experience is an under-researched area and, despite a wealth of teaching on the vocation of the teacher, the specific vocation of the Catholic teacher in a secular school receives scant attention from the Catholic Church and researchers. Through in-depth…

Law Enforcement Agencies gather intelligence in order to prevent criminal activity and "pursue" criminals. In the context of human intelligence collection, intelligence elicitation relies heavily upon the deployment of "appropriate" evidence-based interviewing techniques (a topic rarely covered in the extant research…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for social research. However, little is known about the impact of social distancing measures on research with hard-to-reach populations. This paper provides methodological reflections on the efficacy of socially distanced recruitment and interviewing methods for research with disabled…

There has been a large-scale structural reform of schooling in England during the 21st Century; new 'academy schools' have emerged, the organisation of which differs to schooling in the latter half of the 20th Century. These new schools are independent of the middle tier of local government, the Local Authority, and are often grouped within a…

Although educational researchers will acknowledge that they have a moral imperative to avoid harming their participants whilst carrying out research, it does not necessarily mean that they can describe the nature of what this harm might be or how it can be recognised and so avoided. This is particularly important for those working with vulnerable…

Tests, especially high-stakes ones, occupy a prominent role in education and impact on students' personal and professional trajectory. Therefore, it is crucial that they are well understood. Enhancing understanding of the workings of tests requires a multidisciplinary approach, one that treats tests not only as assessment instruments, but also as…

Young offenders' perceptions of their educational experiences are little researched not least because of methodological and ethical challenges. These include being difficult to access, questions on their reliability as interviewees and their 'doubly vulnerable' position, due to the secure locked context and their age. This article draws on…

How do academics make sense of university policies and strategic initiatives and act on them? Interviews were conducted with 27 mid-career academics in different disciplines, different research-intensive university environments and two countries (England and Australia). Data were analysed iteratively utilising a critical realist perspective,…

Acts of terrorism, moral panics, and negative stereotypes contribute to racialised and Islamophobic ascriptions of Muslimness in Western contexts. In educational institutions such representations occur in the curriculum, in conflict between peers, and in prejudiced and discriminatory behaviour of teachers. For adolescents identified or…

The reinvigoration of popular nationalism in the USA and UK has largely been framed as counter to the cosmopolitan globalization associated with their elite universities over the past decade. Opposing these two sets of values may be too simplistic, however, given the cultural and political ties long institutionalized between elite universities and…

With the increasing mobility of international students to UK universities, the appropriate facilitation of their transition remains a critical issue in terms of higher education practice and research. Much existing research and practice is characterised by assimilationist approaches to transition where international students are seen to 'adapt to'…

This paper explores issues of teacher professionalism. The focus is on the competition, control and standardisation that tend to be associated with 'entrepreneurial' professionalism on the one hand, and the autonomy, care and criticality that tend to be associated with 'traditional' professionalism, on the other. The paper presents a series of…