Publications

This article explores issues of headteacher recruitment, retention and professional development in Wales, within the context of the wider educational policy reforms which, since 2011, have introduced greater external accountability into schools. The paper argues that these reforms have resulted in changes to headteachers’ professional roles and identities and that some aspects have militated against…

This article considers the professional work, identity and recruitment of head teachers (HTs) in Wales. Drawing on the sociology of professions, the article illustrates how intensive educational policy reform post‐2011 has restricted HTs’ professional agency and re‐orientated the head teacher role towards organisational professionalism. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews (n=30) with both head and deputy head…

Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh Assembly Government has developed an increasingly ambitious agenda for education in Wales. Local authorities in Wales, perhaps more so than elsewhere in the UK, are seen as playing a crucial role in interpreting, delivering and evaluating this programme. However, they face combined difficulties of resource constraint and diseconomies of…

This research project set out to examine the research activities, capacity and needs oflocal authorities in Wales. It arose from a more general concern about the level ofeducational research currently being undertaken in Wales with a view to exploringwhether it would be beneficial to bring local government and the higher education (HE)sector into a closer…