We have an international reputation as one of the UK's leading institutional communities for research in the development of professional education and training.

The School of Education and Lifelong Learning is constantly developing its research approaches both in terms of content and methodological basis. As a result, research students receive outstanding support. Research in the School is broad in scope and outstanding in range, organised around a series of themes in applied research, pedagogy and professional 

practice, and learning and understanding. Within these themes there are active research groupings:

  • teacher development
  • curriculum issues
  • international education
  • counselling as a form of learning
  • mathematics education
  • school leadership and improvement
  • religious education
  • dimensions of disaffection
  • teaching and learning in cross professional settings.

We offer a wide variety of research opportunities and research-based programmes tailored to the needs of individuals, and work collaboratively with individuals and groups from both the public and private sector, including the police and health services, schools, colleges and universities, social and welfare services, arts and industry:

Research in the School is funded by a variety of international, governmental and charitable organisations, as well as by University sources; it extends beyond the traditional boundaries of educational research (curriculum subjects, assessment, teaching and learning) to include education and training in other professions, management, youth issues, cultural studies, communication, the sociology of knowledge production and use, and policy and programme evaluation.