Publications

The purpose of this study was to better understand how teachers in Wales differ from their counterparts in England in regard to their engagement with educational research. In 2010, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) conducted a study of over 4,000 teachers in England. Many of the questions referred to their engagement in forms…

This book explores how culture and citizenship are theorised, promoted and learned throughout schools in Wales. Following a brief history of Welsh education and a discussion of how contemporary cultural identity is theorised through citizenship education curricula, it illustrates how archaic approaches to understanding cultural identity continue to undermine the development of culturally relevant curriculum in…

This paper explores the responses of nearly 1200 children and young people in Wales who were asked to identify which three famous people they most admired and which three they most disliked. Analysis of these young people’s responses reveals a number of sociological and educational issues. Their selections confirm other research which has highlighted the…

This article explores the possible affect schooling has on pupils’ orientations to cultural and national identity in Wales. The Curriculum Cymreig is a distinctive feature of the national curriculum of Wales that has important ramifications regarding the enactment of citizenship education in Welsh schools. Under this initiative, schools in Wales are required to incorporate Welsh…

This article explores children’s responses to a single question: ‘If someone gave you £1 million today, what would you do with it?’ Although such an exploration might seem trivial, we argue that their responses provide important insights into children’s values and priorities. One-third intend to spend it all, one quarter to save it. But the…

The purpose of this study is to explore curricular and young people’s orientations to, and representations of, the areas in which they live contrasted against curricular representations of place in Wales. This is accomplished through a mixed methods approach incorporating statistical and content analysis. Responses were coded with a positive, neutral or negative value and…

Through personal narrative, I describe my experiences as a technology teacher attempting to enact a critical pedagogy “under the radar” at a suburban middle-school. As part of my story, I offer vignettes that serve as windows into my classroom, detailing the successes and challenges my students and I faced in engaging in critical pedagogy at…