The School of Education’s research revolves around ten clusters. These clusters are based on analysis and bringing together of the research outputs (papers, books, chapters and reports) produced by staff and students. It therefore represents the core areas of research interest in our school. The clusters are not fixed or static, and researchers in the school often move across and between them.
Our research explores topics in relation to the lives of children and young people of all ages and from all backgrounds, and in a variety of contexts. We investigate education in relation to those who work and study in a range of professional contexts, including early years practitioners, teachers, policymakers, those from educational professional bodies and community educators.
Some of our work also involves researching the adults with whom children and young people live. These enable us to contribute two Strategic Research Themes within the University (Society & policy, and Health & wellbeing) and the University’s Strategic Plan, Vision 2025.
The research clusters are listed below with links to the web pages of colleagues who have published research in these areas.
Our areas of research

Social justice & social justice pedagogies
This research cluster includes a focus on:
- poverty, class and its relationship to wellbeing, inequality, access and educational attainment
- inclusion and inclusive practice in relation to: artificial intelligence, STEM, parental attitudes, transitions, social exclusion and trauma of vulnerable groups, marginalisation and marginalised communities, babies’ and toddlers’ voices, young asylum seekers and refugees, children with disabilities
- children’s rights and human rights education
- critical pedagogy, radical/creative pedagogy in intercultural education, English language teaching, precarity and pedagogies of affect in physical education, and practical philosophy for citizenship and human rights
- social justice public policy
- leadership for social justice

Sexualities & gender in educational contexts
This research cluster includes a focus on:
- sexualities
- religion and faith
- homophobic bullying and LGBT young people and suicidality
- the risks and benefits of LGBTQI+ inclusive classrooms and curricula
- adolescent girls in physical education and women’s sport
- Muslim South Asian young women in science
- gender identity of student teachers of English in South Africa and Argentina

Education & policy
This research cluster includes a focus on:
- theorising educational policy
- analyses of policies on educational and social inclusion
- critical analyses of policies on widening access to higher education
- Scottish policies relating to changing forms of governance and leadership in the school system and in early learning services
- analyses of educational policy changes in the Middle East and North Africa
- policies on integrated working and transition across EU countries
- policy development in the specific context of physical education

Higher education
This research cluster includes a focus on:
- social justice perspectives in higher education
- student experience, including student transitions into HE student estrangement intergenerational mentoring, supporting school pupils into university, and social origins and career destinations
- imposter syndrome, and the negotiation of queer and religious identities
- academic feminist collaborations at various career stages
- the postcolonial critique of higher education leadership, and women’s leadership in Middle Eastern universities

Philosophy of education
This research cluster includes a focus on:
- practical philosophy with marginalised young people in secure accommodation and mainstream settings, to promote rights and citizenship, to develop self-regulation, and as an approach to living well and well-being
- philosophy of child and childhood
- cultural resistance, and transformation, including transformations in scientific identity among adults and children
- religious education, and religion and post-secular society
- comparisons between educational theories and practices in Germany and Japan

Autism & other socio-emotional & behavioural developments
This research cluster includes a focus on:
- brain and motor development among children with autism, considering uses of digital technology and artificial intelligence as a means of assessing autism; the use of motor activity as a possible predictor of autism
- attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in childhood, and self-regulation and participation of children and young people with autism and socio-emotional behavioural needs in practical philosophy
- learning disabilities, supporting pupils with social, emotional and behavioural needs, trajectories of conduct problems and interpersonal rupture and relational repair skills of autistic adolescents
- experiences of educational transition for young women with autism
- inclusion in nursery, primary, and secondary schools across the EU to problematize medical models of disability
- humanistic methods to heal painful experiences through emotion-focused therapy

Early years & primary education
This research cluster includes a focus on:
- arts-based methods and digital technologies in the early years
- scientific literacy using children’s stories
- international comparisons of inclusive, creative and outdoor pedagogy and language development through playroom experiences
- fundamental motor skills and perceived and actual motor competence of young children in relation to developmental health and learning
- maternal factors in children’s language and reasoning skills
- children’s voice with a specific focus on children under seven years-old

Education & digital technology
This research cluster includes a focus on:
- the role of digital technology in childhood and early years
- identification and assessment of autism
- mental health, and accessing and working through trauma
- mobile technologies and their uses in learning and assessment of pupils and student teachers

Research methods
This research cluster includes a focus on:
- the development and psychometric validation of research instruments in assessing motor skills in early childhood, empathy for autism, and critical thinking and emotional and behavioural changes in childhood
- the development of innovative research methods such as visual methods, in practitioner inquiry, arts-based methods, students as researchers, and philosophical dialogue as a rights-based research method
- ethical issues in the use of visual methods

Teacher education & professional learning
This research cluster includes a focus on:
- quality in initial teacher education (ITE), including student teachers’ uses of democratic forms of assessment
- uses of action research in learning to teach English
- the teacher in teacher-practitioner research
- teachers as metacognitive role models
- teacher professional learning
- teacher effectiveness
- online teacher education in the context of forced immobility
- study-abroad programmes
- majority and minority language education
- student teachers’ uses of educational research
Staff
Contact us
School of Education
Level 5 Lord Hope Building
141 St James Road
Glasgow
G4 0LT