Professor Janice Wearmouth leads the Education and Social Justice group which also benefits from the expertise of visiting professors from the education sector.

Inclusivity and equality in education

Research by the Education and Social Justice group critically challenges and supports the development of inclusive school and higher education practice.

Our far-reaching research into improving equality of opportunity in education throughout the world has directly impacted on national policy and practice.

Our research has impacted on teacher professional development in special needs education, with up to 20% of the child population of school age impacted through the improvement of teacher’s practices in SEN provision.

Through our research we have raised student achievements by including culturally appropriate pedagogical practices, impacting on teacher professional development in special needs education and informing gender equality in online media.

With funding from the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET, the Nuffield Foundation and University of Waikato/Ministry of Education NZ, we dedicated four specialist research studies to improving equality of opportunity in education.

Our research is informed by sociological and psychological paradigms, drawing largely from social constructivist theories of work, education and inequalities and socio cultural understandings of learning and behaviour.

We recognise the key influence of social structures of power (gender, social class, family circumstances, ethnicity and disability) in developed and developing societies.

Influence of online media

Our team performed the first UK study into how the unequal representation of men and women in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) online media influences young people. We developed ways of addressing this inequality through a practical toolkit that addresses social media and web page authorship.

Our research into the needs of student parents in Higher Education has highlighted the lack of support available and informed the national debate about what appropriate support would look like. Our research directly influenced the NUS (National Student Union) in their policy briefing.

Further afield and addressing the needs of underachieving Maori students in New Zealand, Professor Wearmouth’s research in support of colleagues at the University of Waikato has contributed to the development of culturally appropriate pedagogical material and practices and encouraged teachers in New Zealand secondary schools to use these. Maori students directly benefited from our research as their achievements were significantly raised.