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Research at the intersection of social science and genomics, ‘sociogenomics’, is transforming our understanding of the interplay between genomics, individual outcomes and society. It has interesting and maybe unexpected implications for education research and policy. Here we review the growing sociogenomics literature and discuss its implications for educational researchers and policymakers. We cover key concepts and methods in genomic research into educational outcomes, how genomic data can be used to investigate social or environmental effects, the methodological strengths and limitations of genomic data relative to other observational social data, the role of intergenerational transmission and potential policy implications. The increasing availability of genomic data in studies can produce a wealth of new evidence for education research. This may provide opportunities for disentangling the environmental and genomic factors that influence educational outcomes and identifying potential mechanisms for intervention.

In 1923, Conrad Hal Waddington was in his final year at Clifton College, Bristol, UK, being taught chemistry by Dr. Eric John Holmyard. During this year, Waddington and Holmyard both wrote about alchemy, the former in an extended school essay and the latter in the journal Nature. Almost twenty years later, Holmyard and Waddington were instrumental in the formation of the journal Endeavour in 1942. Using recently discovered primary source materials and unpublished manuscripts, the influence of Holmyard and alchemy on the early development of Waddington's thinking is explored, including his subsequent attraction to Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy and the impact on his epigenetic research.

The ‘pedagogic discourse’ can describe the power relations and fields of influence within schools. This article extends the approach to include ICT-mediated learning in schools by considering evidence from the InterActive project, undertaken by the University of Bristol, England, in 2000–04. The article also considers how the pedagogic discourse can complement post-Vygotskian sociocultural models of learning. ICT is presented as a ‘recontextualising field’ that exerts influence by weakening the classification and framing of the discourse. Successful uses of ICT tend to favour ‘invisible’ pedagogies: collaborative modes of active working with shared competences, in lessons containing elements of ‘discovery’. Tensions can arise if the dominant discourse is a ‘visible’ pedagogy that favours individual performance, with the teacher as the voice of authority and controller of the discourse. These tensions can lead to ICT being marginalised or discredited by teachers or lead to new modalities of pedagogy.

Evolution has grown into a big idea, which continually bursts out of whatever container it is put in. Dobzhansky’s maxim that ‘Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution’ is as imperative now as it ever was, because of the significant new impetus generated by contemporary observation and research (Dobzhansky, 1973).

The importance of secondary science education to the professional lives of six Fellows of The Royal Society is discussed in the context of Clifton College, an independent school in Bristol, UK, with a powerful tradition of science teaching. The relative importance of the effects of the curriculum, rigorous practical science classes, and classical education are considered. The effect of inspirational teaching by practising scientists is considered to be a significant factor in preparing these students for their professional lives at Cambridge University and beyond.