Can you tell us about your research and any other research you’re contributing to?
Leading educational change from the ground up: What impact does the systematic empowerment of teacher agency have on professional development and the improvement of educational practice in Further Education?
This thesis starts by exploring the concept of gamification and to what extent this may influence the meaningfulness of professional development, in terms of practitioner motivation, individual training needs, and meeting organisational priorities. Then, influenced by the concept of teacher agency (Priestley, Biesta and Robinson, 2015), this thesis offers a deeper critique of the modern education system and an ‘age of measurement’ (Biesta, 2009) where an obsession with data-driven, prescriptive learning perpetuates a risk-averse culture. Finally, this thesis investigates whether a model of professional development can be developed, which puts practitioners in control of deciding what meets their individual needs, rather than following direction from others.