Thinking bigger: The importance of an ambitious doctoral research project

This chapter sets the scene for this book. We present the case for doing ambitious doctoral projects, and provide advice for prospective researchers on making their doctoral journey a worthwhile experience. The chapter includes some fresh perspectives on the role and responsibilities of supervisors, emphasising the importance of having research active supervisors who can play a key role in defining the success of a project and a successful academic or related career

A report on the impact of RAAC closure on the exam cohorts of St Leonard’s Catholic School, County Durham

St Leonard’s School, Durham has been seriously affected by the RAAC crisis. It was one of only two secondary schools in England that was required to close completely in September 2023, and is reportedly the school most affected by RAAC. This report explains what has happened. It is important that the current exam cohorts in KS4 and KS5 are protected from the implications of the RAAC crisis, which is not their responsibility, and which has affected so few schools in England. The government, Ofqual, and exam boards need to devise a plan to relieve the anxiety of the students in this schools and any others like it, and offer them qualification outcomes equivalent to what would have happened in the absence of the crisis

A survey of children’s learning and non-cognitive attitudes in England and Pakistan

Children’s learning attitudes and social emotional skills can be shaped by their family background and school experiences. This study compares 832 children aged 10-11 years old attending primary and middle schools in England and Pakistan, who completed a survey of non-cognitive skills and learning attitudes. Any comparison is cross-sectional and does not necessarily imply a causal relationship. The findings suggest that children in the sample from England were more developed than their counterpart sample in Pakistan in teamwork, social engagement, adaptability, problem solving and empathy. However, the children from Pakistan showed higher resilience and reported more happiness with general life than their counterparts in England. Policy level changes are suggested for Pakistan to give schools more mixed intakes of children and environments where they feel safe, cared for, and are fairly treated by teachers. Improving children’s resilience in academic activities can be useful for schools in England

Special issue: Gender equality and education

This special issue presents a compilation of scholarly articles on gender equality in education. This issue is particularly timely, aligning with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 5, which emphasises the importance of achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. As the United Nation asserts, ‘Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world’ (United Nations, 2023)

Equilibrar los derechos de las poblaciones desplazadas, las que regresan y las que se quedan: lecciones de Irak

El regreso de alrededor de 3,1 millones de desplazados internos de Irak a sus lugares de origen se considera un indicador de éxito tras la reciente guerra civil. Sin embargo, la situación es compleja y se dan cuestiones críticas que tienen que ver con atenuar la competición entre derechos y necesidades de protección

What is the evidence on the best way to get evidence into use in education?

For decades there have been calls by concerned stakeholders to improve the quality of education research, and some progress has been made towards creating a more secure evidence base in some areas. More programmes and approaches that have a reasonable evidence base are now also being used in schools (but not in policy, and not necessarily because they have a reasonable evidence base). However, there has been no equivalent improvement in secure knowledge about how best to get that evidence into use, or even what difference it makes when such evidence is used. This paper looks at what little is already known about the different ways to get research evidence into use in education by summarising the results of a large‐scale review of the literature. A total of 323 of the most relevant studies were looked at across all areas of public policy, and judged for quality and contribution. Very few (33) were of the appropriate design and quality needed to make robust causal claims about evidence‐into‐use, and even fewer of these concerned education. This means that despite over 20 years of modest improvement in research on what works in education policy and practice, the evidence on how best to deploy these findings is still very weak. We consider studies in terms of several issues, including whether they look at changes in user knowledge and behaviour, or student outcomes, and how evidence is best modified before use. Providing access to raw research evidence or even slightly simplified evidence is not generally an effective way of getting it used, even if that evidence is presented to users by knowledge‐brokers, in short courses or similar. What is more likely to work for both policy and practice is the engineering of high quality evidence into a more usable format and presenting it actively or iteratively via a respected and trusted conduit, or through population measures such as legislation. Having the users actually do the research is another promising approach. Expecting each individual study they fund to have an impact is not the way forward, as this may encourage widespread use of ineffective or even harmful interventions. Publicly‐funded users, including policy‐makers, should be required to use evidence‐led programmes from those libraries providing them and which are appropriate and relevant to their aims. Research funders should support these approaches, and help to build up libraries of successfully tested programmes. Researchers need to be scrupulous, looking at their new evidence in the context of what is already known and not looking to obtain ‘impact’ from single studies. More and better research is needed on the best routes for evidence‐into‐use. However, the improvements required of all parties are as much ethical in nature as they are technical or scientific