Education Studies: Essential Issues

James Avis taught sociology in further education before moving to Oxford Brookes University where he taught educational studies. He has since moved to the University of Wolverhampton where he is Professor of Education Studies. His research interests are focused around post-compulsory education and training, its policy contex-tualization as well as its political economy. He co-authored Education Limited and Knowledge and Nationhood (Cassell, 1996). His work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Educational Policy and British Journal of Educational Studies.

Steve Bartlett was a social studies teacher and head of department in a large comprehensive school before becoming an area coordinator for the Technical Vocational Educational Initiative in the late 1980s. He has since worked as senior lecturer at Wolverhampton University where he became subject leader for education studies. He is currently Reader in Education at Chester College of Higher Education. His areas of research and publication include the professional development of teachers, action research, teacher appraisal and education studies. His work has been published in such journals as the British Journal of Educational Studies and the Journal of In-Service Education. He has conducted several small-scale evaluation projects within education Action Zones and is co-author of Introduction to Education Studies (Paul Chapman, 2001) which introduces many of the issues that are developed further in this book.

Ann-Marie Bathmaker is a lecturer at the University of Sheffield. She started her career in education as an English as a second language teacher, later becoming a local authority co-ordinator for the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative. She worked at the University of Wolverhampton for six years, becoming Principal Lecturer with responsibility for teaching and learning. Her areas of research and publication include policy and practice in post-compulsory education and training, teacher and learner identity, young people's transitions, and qualifications and training for teaching and learning professionals.

[Page viii]Diana Burton was a humanities teacher and head of year in a large comprehensive school until the late 1980s. She has since worked in teacher education at Manchester Metropolitan University where she was Head of Education Programmes. Now Dean of the Faculty of Education, Community and Leisure at Liverpool John Moores University, her areas of research and publication include differentiation and cognitive style, identity issues within teacher education and the professional development of teachers. She has published in journals such as the Journal of Education for Teaching and the British Journal of Educational Psychology. She has contributed to books on teacher education and is co-author of Introduction to Education Studies (Paul Chapman, 2001).

Peter Clough taught for many years in mainstream and special schools before moving to the School of Education at the University of Sheffield, where he is Director of Continuing Professional Development and a core member of the Inclusion and Equality Research Centre. He has authored and edited a number of books on special and inclusive education and is particularly occupied with the dissemination of research findings through biographical and fictional forms of ethnographic inquiry; some of this work appears in his recent Narratives and Fictions in Educational Research (Open University Press, 2002).

Philip Garner has taught in mainstream and special schools in Coventry, Lancashire and London for 17 years. He was formerly Reader and Director of research at Brunel University and is now Research Professor (Special Educational Needs) at Nottingham Trent University. He has published widely in the fields of SEN, inclusion, children's behaviour and teacher education. He is currently Chair of a DfES Regional Partnership task group and was awarded a British Academy Fellowship in 2002. He is a co-author of a forthcoming international handbook on children who experience emotional and behavioural difficulties (Sage, 2004).

Dean Garrett is a research fellow in the Research and Graduate School of the Institute of Education at the Manchester Metropolitan University. Since completing his doctoral thesis five years ago, he has written about issues concerning qualitative research methodology, curriculum and citizenship. He is currently a member of a team [Page ix]working on an empirical project funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), exploring issues of professional development within the context of ICT.

Helen Moylett was a junior, infant, nursery and home-school liaison teacher in primary schools in Manchester. She was then a senior advisory teacher and, more recently, a senior lecturer in education studies and early years at Manchester Metropolitan University. She was Chair of Stockport Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership from 1998 to 2000. Since 2000 she has been Head of Tamworth early Years Centre in Staffordshire. Her areas of research and publication include provision for the under-threes, leadership and management in the early years and working with parents and carers.

John Robinson taught sociology in a sixth form college in northwest England. He has worked in teacher education since the mid-1980s. He is now Head of Research Programmes, Institute of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University. His main research areas include education for sustainable futures and evaluation research. He is the co-editor (with Tony Shallcross) of Global Citizenship and Environmental Ethics: Probing the Boundaries/At the Interface (Rodopi, 2002) and editor of Diversity and Difference: Paradigms of Educational Research (Ashgate, 2003).

Tim Wright is currently Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at Chester College of Higher Education. Following an initial career as a dentist, he began primary teaching in 1975, held posts as head-teacher of two primary schools and entered teacher education in the early 1990s. He has held a variety of positions in higher education, including Associate Dean of the School of Education at Chester College of Higher Education. Tim's research is in the area of education and development.