Creating world-leading research focused on teachers’ work, teaching practices and teacher education.
Director: Professor Martin Mills
About us
- What are we trying to achieve?
Our research is designed to:
- enhance the status and conditions of teachers' work
- contribute to workforce recruitment and retention
- identify curricular, pedagogical and assessment practices that contribute to high quality educational experiences for all students
- address the educational needs of pre-service and practising teachers in the context of changing policy, curricular and societal expectations.
- How do we achieve our mission?
Reducing educational inequalities and enhancing student and teacher wellbeing
Our researchers are committed to social justice and work through high quality research projects that critique unjust practices in education and promote viable alternatives for reducing educational inequalities and enhancing student and teacher wellbeing.
Working across disciplinary and professional fields
We recognise that the educational experiences of young people and teachers are affected by the broad political and social context in which they live and work. We thus support research that works across disciplinary and professional fields to address educational problems.
Optimal conditions for teaching
Our centre recognises the significance of teachers' labour, intellectual and emotional, in affecting the life outcomes of young people. We thus conduct research into the optimal conditions (e.g. institutional, workplace, employment, sectoral) for allowing teachers (including Headteachers) to undertake work that makes a difference to young people in their care.
Innovation
We also conduct creative research that trials and evaluates innovative practices challenging 'conventional wisdoms'.
- Team
Centre staff
- Professor Martin Mills – Centre Director
- Dr Mark Hardman - Associate Professor
- Dr Becky Taylor – Senior Research Associate
- Dr Antonina Tereshchenko – Research Associate
- Dr Adam Wood – Research Fellow
- Claire Pillinger – Research Assistant
- Katie Pepper – Administration and Communications Officer
Visiting academics
Academics from around the world who have visited our centre to collaborate on ground-breaking research.
Monash University, Australia
- Dr Amanda Heffernan, Lecturer in Leadership in the Faculty of Education
Griffith University, Australia
- Dr Glenda McGregor, Reader in Education, School of Education and Professional Studies
The University of Sydney, Australia
- Dr Nicole Mockler, Associate Professor of Education
The University of Queensland, Australia
- Associate Professor Katie Makar, School of Education, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
- Dr Marnee Shay, Senior Lecturer, School Of Education
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
- Associate Professor Grace Sarra, Faculty of Education, School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education
- Professor Annette Woods, Faculty of Education, School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education
Activities
- Our research
Current projects
- Evaluation of Early Career Support Pilots, June 2019 - December 2020, Education Endowment Fund
- Retention of Teachers from Minority Ethnic Groups in Disadvantaged Schools, May 2019-Sept 2019, British Academy/Leverhume Small Research Grant
- Evaluation of SMART Spaces, June 2017-Dec 2020, Education Endowment Fund
- Evaluation of KEEP Teaching: Physics Teacher Retention Project, Dec 2018-Dec 2022, Education Endowment Fund
- Student Grouping Study, Jan 2019-Jan 2022, Education Endowment Fund
Collaborations
- Educating the City – new urban schools and social infrastructure, Dec 2019-Dec2020
- Young people, education, employment and ESOL, Jan 2019-Dec 2020
- Schools as Enabling Spaces to Improve Learning and Health-Related Quality of Life for Primary School Children in Rural Communities in South Africa, Jan 2020-Apr 2023
Completed projects
- Investigative Research into Alternative Education, Jan 2018-Jun 2018, Department for Education
Related projects
Our centre also collaborates on:
- Publications
For books, book chapters and journal articles from the centre:
Along with our colleagues in the UCL Centre for Educational Leadership, the Centre hosts the Taylor and Francis journal Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice.
See also:
- UCL Research Portal, IRIS to find more about our researchers, publications, activities, groups and themes.