BSc (Hons); PGCE (distinction);  Dip Res; MA; PhD

Profile

I entered academic life in 1997, having been a secondary school teacher and leader, adult educator, computer analyst, and briefly a civil servant and furniture salesperson. I moved to Birmingham from the University of York in August 2007.

Responsibilities held within the School

Director of Postgraduate Research Students

Research Interests

In a sense my research interests are simple. They involve the improvement of education in terms of effectiveness and equity, but my research is ‘society-wide’ and lifelong in scope.. I have conducted studies of primary education, early childhood, secondary education, FE, HE, adult and continuing education, and informal learning in the home. These have been concerned with attainment, pedagogy, assessment, participation, leadership, school organisation, and national policy, as well as wider issues such as crime prevention, health promotion and family life.

Methodologically, the work encompasses a full cycle of research from systematic review, to engineering results into practice, and then monitoring the results, and embraces a design or D&R approach to educational improvement. My research approach is multi-method, and I have successfully conducted fieldwork and analysis using a wide variety of techniques, in combination, including:

• Large-scale surveys
• Unstructured (to heavily structured) interviews
• Focus group work
• Observation and participant observation
• Secondary analysis
• Documentary (content) analysis
• Trial design
• Complex statistical modelling
• Historical archive analysis, and
• Research synthesis

Recent research and evaluation grants include (selection):

• 2007-2009     Network of experts in Education Social Science (€590k, EU)
• 2007-2008     Roots to Success 11-18 (£3k, ESF/UNICEF)
• 2007-2008     Welsh Assembly Government’s National Pedagogy Initiative (£3k, NAfW)
• 2007-2008     SES factors in science and maths attainment (£12k, Royal Society)
• 2007-2008     Baseline evaluation of 14-19 reform (£430k, QCA)
• 2007-2008     Systematic review of post-16 participation interventions (£25k, DfES)
• 2007-2008     Systematic review of post-16 participation determinants (£39k, DfES)
• 2007-2008     Trends in participation in science (£93k, ESRC)
• 2007-2008     Valorisation of inequality indicators (€70k, Socrates 6.1.2)

Research end evaluation grants [complete, pdf]

Media coverage (selection)

My work has generated considerable media interest. I have discussed research findings on BBC TV National News, BBC2, BBC4, BBC Wales TV News, BBC Wales TV 'Week in Week out', Teachers’ TV, BBC Radio Four 'Today Programme', 'The Learning Curve', and ‘Womans Hours’, BBC Radio Five Live, BBC Radio Wales 'Wales Today', BBC Radio Wales 'Sarah Dickinson Programme', BBC Radio Wales News, Valleys Radio News, and Swansea Sound News. Recent coverage includes:

• The performance of boys and girls at GCSE, BBC Radio Wales, 23/8/07
• School Matters: Estelle Morris on the Attainment Gap, Teachers TV, www.teachers.tv
• League tables, parental choice, and peer effects, Teachers TV, 28/3/07, http://www.teacherstv/video/19213/resources
• Why is everyone giving up on grammar schools?, Richard Bacon, BBC Radio Five Live, 22/5/07
• Phantom students fraud, BBC Radio Five Live, 6/5/07
• Decade of Britain: Are we having fun yet?, BBC4, 15/3/07

Recent coverage in the press includes:

• A grossly unjustified use of the F-word, Times Educational Supplement, 28/3/08, p.27
• Meet the headteacher who is at war with Whitehall, The Independent, 27/3/08
• Curse of value-added ‘superstition’, Times Educational Supplement, 14/3/08, p.30
• Lottery is best, Sunday Telegraph, 9/3/08, p.27
• Long school day reaps rewards, Times Educational Supplement, 29/2/08, p.8
• Specialist school no better than others, Times Educational Supplement, 7/9/07, p.18

Media coverage [complete, pdf]

Research-related activities

I am the associate editor of Evaluation and Research in Education, and editor of Continuum Publishers’ Empirical Studies in Education, and Trials in Public Policy. I am on the editorial boards of a number of journals, regularly referee for about 50 education and social science journals, and am consultant or reviewer for around 40 academic, governmental and grant-awarding bodies.

My work is featured in:

• Who’s Who in the World
• The Dictionary of International Biography
• Madison Who’s Who
• The Cambridge Blue Book
• Who’s Who in America
• Continental Who’s Who

Research-related experience and current activities [pdf]

Teaching Interests

My teaching in HE is largely based on my research interests of educational justice and improvement and on my expertise in social science research methods. I have taught mathematics, statistics, logic, psychology, computing, design, tennis and how to play contract bridge to both young people and adults. I have supervised a large number of research students working on topics as diverse as violence against women in schools, a randomised controlled trial of primary literacy learning, the deployment of a virtual learning environment, the educability of creativity, equity in the IELTS test, the underachievement of boys, nurse education, and teacher development. My preferred areas of supervision include school improvement and social justice. I am the author of a number of teaching-related books on research methods and in information technology.

Publications (selection)

Gorard, S. (2008) Which students are missing from HE?, Cambridge Journal of Education, 38 (3)

Gorard, S. and Selwyn, N. (2005) What makes a lifelong learner?, Teachers College Record, 107 (6): 1193-1216

Gorard, S. (2008) Research impact is not always a good thing: a re-consideration of rates of ‘social mobility’ in Britain, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29 (3): 317-324

Gorard, S. (2007) What does an index of school segregation measure? A commentary on Allen and Vignoles, Oxford Review of Education, 33 (5): 669-677

Gorard, S. (2007) Justice et equite a l’ecole: ce qu’en dissent les eleves dans les etudes internationales, Revue Internationale d’Education Sevres, 44: 79-84

Gorard, S. (2006) Value-added is of little value, Journal of Educational Policy, 21 (2): 233-241

Gorard, S., See, BH., Smith, E. and White, P. (2006) Teacher supply: the key issues, London: Continuum

Gorard, S., with Taylor, C. (2004) Combining methods in educational and social research, London: Open University Press

Publications 2001 - 2008 [complete, pdf]

Publications pre-2001 [pdf]