In England and Scotland, the History National Curriculum avoids the prescription of specific content; expecting schools instead to devise a curriculum appropriate to their pupils within broad guidance. This means in both countries, teachers apparently have responsibility for constructing a curriculum: selecting content, sequencing learning and…

This paper describes my practitioner inquiry as a newly qualified teacher, initially used as a form of teacher learning, but ultimately became the reason I remained in the physical education (PE) teaching profession. In Scotland, early-career PE teachers are encouraged to embody the role of teacher-researcher and pursue Career-Long Professional…

Set within the context of a longitudinal project that seeks to engage physical education teachers from the four countries of the UK in cross-border curriculum analysis, dialogue and learning, the current study lays the foundation by mapping and comparing curriculum discourses that currently shape how physical education is conceptualised in…

A common idea of research lies in association with virtues of open-mindedness, pursuit of truth and the liberation of humanity from burdens of prejudice. Aside from this "blue skies" picture of scientific research we have "practitioner research" designed by teachers to improve the quality of the education they provide in…

Professional networks of teachers have been well documented in education studies but there is still a need for a fine-grained analysis of teachers' ego-networks in the context of curriculum making. It is important to understand the nature and dynamics of teachers' connections and how teachers mediate their practices accordingly. This study…

Claims about teachers' potential to influence change tend to overlook that educational outcomes arise from complex, situated practices of many actors including teachers. This article introduces a tool for Teachers' Reflection on their Agency for Change (TRAC) for empirical analysis of teaching as a collective activity designed to 'track' the…

This edited book provides a critical re-reading of the concept of teacher education, in addition to a re-thinking of the sole focus on Initial Teacher Education (ITE), with implications for education policy, theory, and practice. This book presents new investigations that explore the concept of teacher education from ITE to retirement and how this…

This study explores the form of curriculum documents and its implications for the enacted curriculum. In this study, the narrative voices that appear in the Scottish Broad General Education phase and the Swedish Compulsory phase of the curriculum are scrutinized in relation to the most likely reader of these documents--the teacher. The study…

The role and activities of national advisers engaged in the translation of globally mobile ideas on effective teacher education has received little attention. Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews, this article explores how government-appointed advisers acted as intermediaries in the translation of policy ideas in national reviews of…

Higher education lecturers who have moved into teaching on professional education programmes from careers in professional practice are an under-researched group. Questions related to self-concept combined with wider social and sectoral issues relating to perceptions about the nature and purpose of higher education can affect the development of…

Conceptions of education research as independent and serving the interests of truth have come to represent freedoms that emerge from the application of intellectual inquiry. Critiques of education research and its relevance to the enhancement of education, coupled with neoliberal market-led pragmatism, have contributed to the erosion of an…

This article reports on a national survey of complementary school providers in Scotland to gain insights into their perspectives of the abrupt transition to online learning spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data gathered from a questionnaire (n=34) and in-depth interviews (n=13) covering 19 different heritage languages are analysed through the…

This article considers teacher agency in teachers of English in Ontario (Canada) and England, based on interviews with and lesson observations of teachers in three high schools in Ontario and four in England. Our research looks at the way policy impacts on their practice. We found a greater sense of agency amongst teachers in Ontario that may have…

Background: The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2020. The historical study of speech and language therapy (SLT) has been very limited. A small number of publications have traced the changes in the profession over time, but to date there has been no comprehensive work undertaken to gain an…

Leadership is central to policy ambitions for improvement in Scottish education with leadership positioned as one of the key drivers for improvement to achieve excellence and equity for all learners. To foster teacher engagement in and leadership of change and to prepare enough teachers for headship, building leadership capacity is crucial. The…