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Research into the impact of neoliberalism has shown that institutional and individual pressure on staff working in Higher Education (HE), has changed over the last 30 years. Our first research study showed that the changes resulted in mostly negative experiences for White staff. In a second study we have investigated the impact of neoliberalism on Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff to investigate whether experiences matched those of their White colleagues. Drawing on narrative methodology, we undertook fourteen interviews, eight with BAME staff and six with White staff all with responsibility for equity in their institutions. We also drew on current and numerical data detailing employment patterns. While many of the negative impacts of neoliberalism were common to all staff, BAME staff offered a collective narrative focussing primarily on injustice, bullying and racism. Most striking was the pain resulting from simultaneous hypervisibility and invisibility of BAME staff, the continual questioning of their professional competence.

This article reports findings from a research project on the impact of neo-liberalism on university life in the UK. Unusually, data collection includes interviews with senior management such as heads of departments and senior professors, as well as with lecturers and union representatives. Interviewees reported that the nature of institutional and individual pressures has changed and intensified over the last 30 years, resulting generally in negative experiences for staff and students; yet grounds exist for rejecting a purely deterministic thesis on the impact of neo-liberalism on higher education. Certain aspects of university work were described in positive terms and individual senior managers seemed able at times to mediate external pressures. Creative strategies of resistance were evident which provided some relief from an otherwise gloomy scenario.

This article is based on research undertaken between 2009 and 2012 into the former Labour government's extremely ambitious "Building Schools for the Future" (BSF) Programme and its withdrawal by the Coalition government. The project, which utilises analysis of policy documents, case studies in six local authorities (LA) and semi-structured interviews with national and local policy actors, is being funded by Roehampton's Centre for Educational Research in Equalities, Policy and Pedagogy and the British Academy (SG100363). The focus of this article is the implications for social justice of BSF and its subsequent withdrawal. The structure of the article comprises an introduction to BSF and a summary of some of the main issues arising from it. We then move on to explore the social justice dimension of BSF as it is expressed in LA documents and in relation to the social policy aspirations of the former Labour government. In July 2010 the Coalition government discontinued the BSF programme and we track events and policy from that time, particularly focussing on the radical shift away from Labour's transformational and communitarian agenda in favour of criteria based on efficiency and value-for-money. We present data from our interviews with local actors on the equality and social justice impacts of this re-orientation of policy. We conclude by arguing against the view that Labour abandoned social justice suggesting that BSF was one of a number of policies through which equality was pursued, albeit by stealth.

The Labour Government launched the "Building Schools for the Future" programme (BSF) in February 2003 with the aim of refurbishing or rebuilding all secondary schools in England over a 15-year period, with an anticipated budget of 45 billion British Pounds. In this article, we locate BSF in a wider public policy context which has already had important implications in other sectors of public provision. The local improvement finance trusts (LIFTs) initiative within the National Health Service (NHS) is of particular relevance to this discussion both because it reflects contemporary developments within New Public Management and because it also reveals new ways of extending and developing the private finance initiative (PFI) approach to public provision. We shall also consider the purposes and "delivery" mechanisms of BSF and identify some of the key commentaries which have been provided by parliamentary reports and other evaluations. Although still in the early stages of its implementation, the BSF is of such significance for the future shape and form of educational provision that it is important to begin the process of considering possible directions and dimensions for a research agenda which will provide a secure empirical and analytical foundation on which to base discussion. (Contains 12 notes.)

In this paper we draw upon 14 semi-structured interviews with the participants in a teacher-researcher project on the theme of "ensuring African Caribbean attainment" with the aim of shedding light on the purposes, processes and lived experiences of teacher research in a difficult and contentious intellectual and practical domain. After briefly reviewing the history and policy background of teacher research in England, we introduce the project and the specific purposes and motivations of its various stakeholders. In the second half of the paper we analyse the challenges and the rewards of participating in the project, including the challenges of facilitating teacher research, and we review the key implications of the research for policy and practice. We conclude that, in trying to make teacher research happen in a way that is meaningful and productive for those involved (whether as facilitators or teacher researchers), three things have to be negotiated at once: new roles for academic facilitators, new dimensions of teacher roles, and a viable conception of research that is authentically teacher research. All of these things involve rethinking assumptions about what it means to be a teacher and an academic and what is meant by research. Drawing on the lessons of this project, we suggest that the central challenge of building successful teacher research is the creation of genuine partnerships, characterised by respectful and critical dialogue, between university staff and teacher researchers. (Contains 7 notes.)

This paper acknowledges and refers to the recent online release and updating of the Teacher Education Group (TEG) bibliography. It offers a brief summary of how and why it was felt necessary to create the resource, what it covers and how it can be used. Broader issues of what skills and prior understanding a naive user of its various search facilities might need are raised. It is suggested that additional pedagogically focused tools will need to be developed and suggests what these might be. Finally the paper argues that for the Bibliography to be used more widely, further development work will be needed, focused around the provision of user tools and support materials. (Contains 6 tables.)

The argument in this paper is that teachers and other education professionals could benefit from the opportunity to develop ethical understanding, in addition to other aspects of professional knowledge. Having first discussed the nature of ethics, the first main section of the paper establishes the case in favour of including ethical education in the initial or ongoing professional learning of teachers. The case focuses particularly on showing the negative effects of the fashionable claim that "values are relative or subjective" which I argue is a key source of confusion for teachers. In the final part of the paper I discuss some of the kinds of consideration about values and ethics that teachers might find useful.

The need for capacity-building in teacher education in the UK has been raised as a serious issue by a number of commentators. Tensions about the place of research in teacher education have persisted for many decades, but following changes to the core funding mechanisms in the UK, the maintenance of education research bases within many universities has become increasingly tenuous. This paper provides an analytical account of an initiative conducted by the Teacher Education Group (TEG) to build research capacity in teacher education. With reference to a review of the national contexts for research in the UK and research on teacher educators, the article argues that, in order to build research capacity initiatives we need to provide motivation and new types of networking opportunities for researchers, as well as developing their expertise. In developing this argument, the article also explores the relationships between national policy changes, institutional research cultures and individual habitus and agency in research capacity-building. The paper also describes a new initiative in England, the Teacher Education Research Network (TERN).

This article discusses the first stages of the work of the Teacher Education Group (TEG) in building research capacity in teacher education research and identifies the potential of the model adopted for future European initiatives in the field. The TEG work is part of the second phase of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP), based on an embedded social practices model of research capacity building. The article opens by outlining the broad context of research capacity building initiatives and identifying general factors which create concerns about the sustainability of teacher education research in the United Kingdom. It then describes the initial impetus, within the TEG, for the creation of an up-to-date annotated mapping of current research in teacher education and outlines the practices used to generate the model used for the mapping. In conclusion, the article discusses some of the methodological, ethical and epistemological issues raised by the mapping exercise and the challenges ahead in disseminating and embedding the initiative. (Contains 3 notes.)

This paper describes, in the context of one highly circumscribed element of English educational policy, namely, "Threshold assessment," the ways in which the boundaries between the public and the private have become increasingly porous and blurred. In this context, some consequences and implications of private sector involvement in public education are explored. Points of articulation between the specific issues we have encountered in our recent research project "The impact of performance threshold assessment on teachers' work" (ESRC R000239286), and more general debates about public/private policy relationships, are discussed. The paper concludes with some general observations about the nature of those debates and the issues we have encountered. (Contains 3 notes.)

The paper reports on aspects of an ESRC project, "The impact of Performance 'Threshold Assessment' on teachers' work" (ESRC R000239286). The paper begins by explaining the nature and technology of "Threshold Assessment," and its location nationally within the performance management system recently introduced into schools in England. We review the monitoring procedures adopted for Round 1 of "Threshold" and draw attention to the limitations of such statistical data as are available. We locate "Threshold" within recent international developments characterised by managerialism and the culture of performativity that have increasingly come to dominate both the nature of policy-making and definitions of 'professionalism'. Drawing on interview material gained from thirteen case studies carried out in primary and secondary schools and in Local Education Authorities, we analyse the ways in which "Threshold Assessment" carries different significance for women and men teachers, heads and threshold assessors. We conclude that the new policies represent a further step towards the masculinization of education.

This paper considers two examples of recent policies affecting teachers' work, Performance Threshold Assessment in England and Chartered Teacher status in Scotland. Through tracing their origins and motivations, a comparative analysis is offered, which seeks to explore the extent of the influence of national contexts on developments in the restructuring process. Both policies purport to meet the professional needs of teachers who are a few years into their careers, yet the Scottish example is strongly oriented towards professional development, while the English example is oriented towards performativity and teacher assessment.

This article draws on data from the authors' recent research project "The Impact of Performance Threshold Assessment on Teachers' Work", funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC R000239286) for two years from May 2001. Within its wider context of performance management the authors focused on "Threshold Assessment", employing a range of methods to identify policy sources, track the processes of development and implementation and analyse the impact and significance of "Threshold" in relation to: individual and particular cohorts of teachers; their cultures; their work; and the institutional consequences for schools. This article considers some of the impacts on teachers, drawing mainly on the 70 interviews with staff in nine case-study schools. (Contains 1 table and 2 notes.)

Following the 1998 Green Paper on teachers' work, the UK government introduced Threshold Assessment of teachers in England and Wales in 2000. Teachers who met the Threshold standards were rewarded with a pay rise and access to an upper pay spine. At the time ministers gave assurances that equal opportunities would be taken very seriously in the implementation of the policy. Drawing on a study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC R000239286), this article examines the extent to which these assurances were carried through, with particular regard to the monitoring of applications and success rates by the ethnicity of the candidates. Major deficiencies are identified in the manner in which Threshold Assessment has been managed. These deficiencies are thrown into stark relief by the subsequent enacting of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, which requires all public bodies to carry out systematic ethnic monitoring. (Contains 12 notes.)

Evaluated the literacy and numeracy skills tests currently required for entry into teaching in England. Interviews with students, teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders indicated that teachers and student teachers were frustrated and stressed by the requirement. Institutions varied in their approaches to testing. Testing imposed a huge strain on institutional resources. Many respondents expressed concern about test reliability and validity. (SM)

The effect of teacher education reforms, in particular the National Professional Qualifications and Standards for teachers, is examined. The influence of male-oriented standards and their implications for feminists is explored.

The Gender Action Project (GAP) at London aims to include the question of gender equality alongside effectiveness, economy and efficiency into all sections of public management. Three schools and nine women teachers participated in the GAP in 1990, which tried to bring about equality of girl students and to engage teachers directly in the process. The success of the project shows that concern about equality in Britain occur if given the opportunity.

A feminist critique of educational reform in Britain is presented. Educational reform cannot be discussed realistically if it is not related to discrimination against and violence towards women which are prevalent in British society. Abusive social attitudes towards women are manifested in how schools discriminate against girls. The ideas of masculinity and femininity should be overhauled in order to correct the power relations between the sexes.