Current research

From 2006 onwards, I have been exploring the nature of teacher, student and pupil identity and how they reflect education policy and society. It shows how teachers attempt to construct professional frameworks for practice whilst being required to mediate Government policy within the knowledge economy. I have explored Conservative education policy, in the paper Conservative education policy and educational reform: the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end? (2010); changing models of professionalism and teacher habitus under New Labour in the paper Social trajectories or disrupted identities? Changing and competing models of teacher professionalism under New Labour (with Geoff Whitty, 2010); the impact of school choice and comprehensive education on educational structures and social inclusion in the book chapter Comprehensive schooling and social inequality in London: past, present and possible future (with Geoff Whitty, 2007), and the role of assessment processes in determining pupil identity in early years education in the paper Teacher as technician: semi-professionalism after the 1988 Education Reform Act and its effect on conceptions of pupil identity (2006). I also considered the nature of teacher professionalism in What does it mean to be a teacher? Three tensions within contemporary teacher professionalism examined in terms of Government policy and the knowledge economy (2006).

At present I am also further developing my system of sociolinguistic analysis in the context of healthcare and educational settings; researching the social identity of students in higher education (particularly on semi-vocational courses); and working on a project that examines head teachers’ understanding of information policy and compliance in contemporary British schooling, with special reference to the use of surveillance systems, biometrics and national databases of children.

You can download copies of most of my publications from my personal website at:

http://www.sandraleatongray.com

Research 2004-2006

During this period, my academic work focused on the relationship between classroom practices and teacher engagement, and how this was influenced by education policy. I carried out work in the area of Higher Education research that identified different engagement patterns in small group teaching contexts, resulting in the Cambridge University internal report Enriching engineering education through the use of small group tutorials at Cambridge University (2005) and I explored teachers’ involvement with subject-based continuing professional development, culminating in the commissioned report An Enquiry into Subject Based Continuing Professional Development for Teachers (2004), funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. I also pursued my interest in learning in the professions by carrying out evaluations of dental and medical education, sitting on the Postgraduate Medical Education Training Board and on Dental Educator recruitment panels for the Eastern Deanery, as well as providing quality assurance for examinations of the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Research 1999-2003

During this period, my academic work centred around developing an understanding of the relationship between education, time and the future. As part of my doctoral work, I developed a number of research tools to evaluate and analyse teachers’ professional conceptions of learning futures, and used them as a way of determining their attitudes towards present policy. I also developed a system of linguistic analysis related to that carried out by Bernstein which enabled me to track code-switching in teacher talk, indicating teacher anomie in terms of social policy. I developed this work on time and society in my book Teachers Under Siege (Leaton Gray, 2006) and an earlier paper Defining the Future: An Interrogation of Education and Time (Leaton Gray, 2004). The book eventually led to involvement with Lord David Puttnam and his education documentary film We Are The People We’ve Been Waiting For (2009) in which I was a key interviewee.

With colleagues I set up the BA in Educational Studies at the University of East Anglia in 2007. This is an innovative course that offers a thorough grounding in sociology, psychology, history, philosophy and social anthropology of education whilst also allowing the students to take part in placements, work on departmental research projects, and carry out their own pieces of research. The results of our first cohort were outstanding. Out of 22 students, 19 were awarded degrees at first class or 2:1 level. We now have 130 students studying across the three years of the programme. I also teach full and part-time Masters, PhD and EdD students. I am always interested in hearing from potential research students wanting to work on projects close to my area. The School of Education and Lifelong Learning is registered as an ESRC research training centre.