Research Interests
Paul's doctoral study was a Social Constructivist/Social Constructionist theoretcial exposition of policy discourses under the auspices of New Labour. In his publications he explored the epistemological position for contemporary policy which culminated in a new perspective on educational policy-making: policy as positioning.
From 2007 to 2009 Paul was a member of the Evaluation team for Shape-Up4 a pan-European project concerned with nutrition and movement.
Paul was a member of the Executive Council for the Association for the Study of Primary Education5 (ASPE) from 2011 to 2015 and is currently Deputy Editor for the Peer Reviewed Journal Education 3 to 13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education6.
Paul’s broad research areas are in the policy and politics of education all under the broad banner of social and educational inclusion. He favours a social constructionist approach to studying education and related issues. Paul's current research is primarily theoretical in orientation, although he does undertake empirical work as well. His current work centres on conceptual matters relating to becoming a teacher, education policy and the limits of truth, and Scottish education policy developments. Between 2017 and 2023 he was co-PI (with Professor Aileen Kennedy, University of Strathclyde) for a Scottish Government funded project Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education (MQuITE).
For the academic year 2020 to 2021, he was awarded an Academic Fellowship of the Scottish Parliament. In this work, Paul produced a briefing paper for the Scottish Parliament titled 'Scottish Initial Teacher Education (ITE): ten years on' which considered the structure of ITE 10 years after the publication of the Donaldson Report (2010). Between January and March 2023, Paul was PI for the New Northern Pedagogies Group established following a successful Scottish Government Arctic Connections Scheme and is currently PI on a Royal Society of Edinburgh funded project seeking to extend membership of the NNPG to Greenland and Canada.
Paul welcomes PhD enquiries from anyone interested in education policy, Initial and continuing teacher education and learning; professional development, post-truth thinking, care and education and related matters.
Professional Activities
Education 3-13 (Journal) Peer reviewer12/5/2023What's Arctic Pedagogy got to do with Scotland Speaker20/4/2023Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary Visiting researcher16/4/2023From health check to diagnosis: using the MQuITE Toolkit at programme level Speaker23/11/2022Positioning educational context: pedagogy as human relations Speaker25/8/2022Populism: a possible future for democratic education? Speaker17/8/2022
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Projects
New Northern Pedagogies: Conversations across The Arctic Adams, Paul (Principal Investigator) 01-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2023 Scottish Educational Research Association Pedagogy Project Adams, Paul (Co-investigator) Carse, Nicola (Co-investigator) Hamilton, Lorna (Co-investigator) Jaap, Angela (Co-investigator) This SERA sponsored project aims to collaborate on developing an understanding of pedagogy to support those engaged with teacher education and learning across Scotland. Through a series of online events, participants engage with provocations designed to stimulate thinking around the concept of pedagogy and how such views might inform teacher preparatin and CLPL. Funding is curretly being sought to augment the projet so that it might add face-to-face elements. 09-Jan-2021 Academic Fellow Scottish Parliament costs Adams, Paul (Principal Investigator) During this 12 month Fellowship, I am undertaking a project titled 'Scottish Initial Teacher Education (ITE): ten years on'. The project is a conceptual, normative analysis of ITE with associated proposals as to what Scottish ITE might be for and what it might seek to achieve. I will identify possible positions for ITE that have been articulated since 2010. The work is desk-based and utilises government publications, academic reports, research articles, print media (in English) and other sources. 01-Jan-2020 - 30-Jan-2021 Development of collaboration between The School of Education, Strathclyde University and The Education University of Hong Kong Adams, Paul (Principal Investigator) Kenklies, Karsten (Principal Investigator) Lewin, David (Principal Investigator) Faculty and School funding to develop further collaborative links with EduHK 01-Jan-2019 Global Engagements Fund Collaborative Visit to The Education Univerrsity of Hong Kong Adams, Paul (Co-investigator) Hunter, Sharon (Principal Investigator) Kenklies, Karsten (Co-investigator) Lewin, David (Co-investigator) Visit by four members of The School of Education, Strathclyde University to the Department for Policy and Leadership, The Education University of Hong Kong 05-Jan-2018 Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education (MQuITE): Kennedy, Aileen (Principal Investigator) Adams, Paul (Co-investigator) Beck, Anna (Co-investigator) 01-Jan-2017 - 31-Jan-2023
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