About me
I am currently the Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education at UCL IOE (2017-) and co-chair of the Sociology Activity Group (with Jessica Ringrose). Previously I was Professor of Sociology of Education at King's College London, where I was also the Director of the Centre for Research in Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
I am currently the PI of a number of large national projects, including the ten year ESRC funded Aspires/ Aspires2 study (a mixed methods longitudinal tracking of students' science and career aspirations from age 10-18); the Enterprising Science project (a five year research and development project focusing on students from socially disadvantaged communities) and the UK PI of the Youth Equity & STEM project (a four year, UK-US project, focusing on youth equity in informal educational settings, with US PI, Angela Calabrese Barton). Previously I was the lead coordinator of the ESRC's £3m TISME research programme (Targeted Initiative on Science and Mathematics Education).
I am passionate about social justice approaches to education and to the potential for academic research to 'make a difference' to educational policy and practice.
