2001 - PhD,  'The impact of GNVQ assessment policy on vocational students’ autonomy and motivation’, University of Newcastle
1992- MA (Teacher Education) (Distinction), University of Manchester
1984 -Certificate in Education (FE) Huddersfield Polytechnic
1977 - BA Honours Politics and History (2:1) University of Lancaster

Profile 

Before moving into higher education in 1992, Kathryn worked for 20 years as a practitioner, first in youth employment schemes and then in further and adult education.  She became a researcher in the National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education, then the Further Education Development Agency and moved into higher education in 1992. She spent five years leading a large further education college/university consortium for teacher training in post-compulsory education before doing her PhD on the policy and practice of assessment in advanced vocational education, at the University of Newcastle.

Between 2002-2004,  she was associate director for further and adult education in the ESRC-funded Teaching and Learning Research Programme.  Other recent projects include a three-year project on Improving Formative Assessment in vocational education and adult literacy and  numeracy programmes and an ESRC-funded seminar series on ‘Transitions through the Lifecourse’. She is currently directing an ESRC-funded seminar series on emotional well-being and social justice.

Since 2003, she has been a member of the Assessment Reform Group, and is on editorial boards for Studies in the Education of Adults, the Journal of Further and Higher Education and Assessment in Education.  She is also a judge in the annual ‘Debating Matters’ competition for sixth form and further education students.

Research Interests

Her research explores the interplay between policy, practice and attitudes to learning and assessment in post-compulsory education.  Over the past four years, this interest has focused on the rise of a ‘therapeutic ethos’ in curriculum content, teaching and assessment across the education and welfare system.  

Her most recent book, co-authored with Dennis Hayes, is ‘The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education’, a controversial critique of the ways in which concerns about emotional well-being are changing ideas about social justice, inclusion and the goals of education .

Specialist skill areas

• The policy and practice of assessment
• The impact of different assessment regimes on pedagogy, attitudes to learning, types of autonomy and motivation.
• The politics of education
• Researching education policy: methods, approaches and ethics
• Interventions in students’ emotional well-being

Other professional appointments

Honorary Fellow, City and Guilds of London Institute
Visiting Professor, University of Northumbria, Oxford Brookes University

Publications (Selection)

Eccestone, K. (2009) (edited with Gert Biesta and Martin Hughes) Transitions through the lifecourse, London, Routledge
Ecclestone, K. and Hayes, D. (2009) Changing the subject: the educational implications of emotional well-being, Oxford Review of Education 35, 3, 371-389
Eccestone, K. and Hayes, D. (2008) The dangerous rise of therapeutic education, London, Routledge (with Dennis Hayes)
Davies, J. and Ecclestone K. (2008) ‘Straitjacket’ or ‘springboard’ for sustainable learning?: the implications of formative assessment practices in vocational learning cultures, The Curriculum Journal, 19, 2, 71-86
Eccestone, K. (2007) Commitment, compliance and comfort zones: the effects of formative assessment on ‘learning careers’ in vocational education, Assessment in Education. 14, 3, 315-333
Ecclestone, K. (2007)  Resisting images of the ‘diminished self’: the implications of emotional well-being and emotional engagement in educational policy, Journal of Education Policy, 22, 4, 455-470

Publications 2001 - 2009 [complete, pdf, 314 KB, opens new window]