In England, there is currently heightened political interest in increasing mathematics attainment and maximizing post-16 participation. The latter is not merely an issue for upper secondary but requires a long-view of students' mathematical progress. This paper reports such a system-level overview of the mathematics education pipeline in England…

In this article, I discuss the potential of developing a kind of worldview education that has the purpose of enabling teachers and students to understand how worldviews are formed. I explore how suggestions of Ann Taves can be helpful towards such an aim and pay special attention to research into self-defined 'non-religious people. It seems their…

System leadership continues to be constructed largely as a desirable, even normative, evolution of educational leadership, with critiques often focusing on implementation rather than principles. This belies its increasingly recognised role in processes of disintermediation, in which the 'middle tier' comprising local government is dismantled. In…

This study explores and compares the experiences of international students studying through internationalisation abroad (IA) and at a distance (IaD) at a UK university through the lens of Ecological Systems Model. In doing so, we propose a revised Ecological Systems Model, integrating the co-existing but fluid and liminal virtual/physical and…

Research suggests that systems thinking is beneficial to education and it has been proposed that training students using systems thinking techniques may enhance their abilities to understand and solve some of the global grand challenges that society currently faces as outlined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, before…

This article seeks to present the perspectives of three school leaders in one rural primary school in the English East Midlands, who, when faced with closure due to a falling student numbers, decided to offer and operate a flexi-schooling model of educational provision. We aim to find out, through a theoretical model of systems school leadership,…

In England, schools are required to have a named and trained "Special Educational Needs Coordinator" or SENCo. The difficulties of operationalising the role of the SENCo are well documented, as is the inconsistent allocation of status and time for the role. Drawing on the results of data derived from 88 SENCos, we examine the…

To contribute to current debate concerning approaches to teaching and learning for researching complex work-based problems, we focus on the Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) programme. We examine the development of an integrated action learning approach as part of a part-time DBA offered by a university in the UK. In adopting the lens of…

This paper draws on recent research in Europe and England to discuss the politics of accountability. It is suggested that, as policies in education are increasingly focused on delivering technical-managerial accountability, that is accountability understood as evidenced in international, national, institutional and individual comparative measures…

Agent-based models combine data and theory during both development and use of the model. As models have become increasingly data driven, it is easy to start thinking of agent-based modelling as an empirical method, akin to statistical modelling, and reduce the role of theory. We argue that both types of information are important where the past is…

This article reports on research into headteacher performance management in England. The English school system couples organisational autonomy with close scrutiny of educational outcomes. The management of the performance of headteachers is a central aspect of such a system. The research involved a systematic literature review and the collection…

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…

Various international perspectives from selected regions where substantial work is being done on green and sustainable chemistry education emphasize a systems thinking framework. Common to most of the perspectives is the inclusion of more global paradigms involving economic, environmental, political, and social aspects as fundamental issues in the…

Increasing demand for chemicals worldwide, depleting resources, consumer pressure, stricter legislation, and the rising cost of waste disposal are placing increasing pressure on chemical and related industries. For any organization to survive in the current arena of growing climate change laws and regulations, and increasing public influence, the…

For those in 'system leader' roles in English schools, whether formally designated or informally appropriated, there has not been much systematic or long-term thinking about professional development to date. To contribute to such thinking, this paper presents a common framework for system leader development, based on consultancy research. The…