The Department for Education (DfE) in England seeks to determine the actions of educationists in both the public and private sectors through the use of targeted instructive documents and white papers where broader policy intention is presented. Since 2010, as we will show, there has been a shift in the nature of such papers towards justification…

In England, several developments combine in powerful ways to sustain certain ideas about literacy and research in education. These include the promotion of a specific model of 'evidence-based practice', frameworks for initial teacher education and early career professional development, and a strong accountability framework via inspection. However,…

Educational parenting programmes are an integral part of parenting policy. The use of parenting programmes in England as an element of UK government parenting policy since the late 1990s has attracted the critical attention of academics in education, social policy and other related fields. This paper puts parenting 'support' and, specifically, the…

There have been few areas in England over the last 50 years where government has drawn more heavily on research to inform policy and practice than in the area of teaching reading. The focus of this article is an analysis of the research and evidence on early reading, in particular the role of phonics, on which government policy in England and the…

In her article, Graham (2017) concludes 'that very little of the research regarding the teaching of listening has made it into the classroom in England, not least in a positive way' (p. 117). She suggests that teachers rarely delve into the process of second language (L2) listening in class; instead, listening comprehension is treated more as a…

In responding to John Raven's critique of the current situation in education and the role of evidence-based interventions, there are a number of observations that Steve Higgins makes, but he starts by supporting Raven's key argument about the damage that high stakes accountability has done to the system of teaching and assessment in schools. This…

This paper focuses on a neglected area of school policy and practice: metacognition. As education becomes increasingly evidence-informed policy makers, school leaders and teachers are becoming increasingly research literate and have ready access to an ever-growing range of evidence about 'what works' in schools. Influential sources of evidence,…

In this paper, we explore Lawrence Stenhouse's provocation that too much research has been conducted for the world and not enough for the village. This provocation has taken on additional significance in contemporary global policy contexts where neoliberal systems of governance incorporate discourses of educational effectiveness, measurement,…

This paper examines the context of evidence-informed practice (EIP) by inquiring into how educational practice is defined and organised, and how predominant understandings of educational practice are concomitant with preferences for particular forms of evidence. This leads to discussion of how certain educational research traditions speak (or are…

The Coaching Early Conversation Interaction and Language (CECIL) Project, which started in September 2020, has focused on exploring coaching-led approaches to support the effective implementation of early language interventions, especially in Private, Voluntary & Independent (PVI) settings. At the core of the CECIL approach is a way of…

Education policy in England's schools is driven by the 'what works' agenda, characterised by interventions claiming to be scientifically objective and evidence-led. In this article I show how what works interventions reproduce anti-Black linguistic racism because to be perceived as someone who is 'working', racialised children must assimilate…

In this commentary on Neil Humphrey's "Are the Kids Alright? Examining the Intersection between Education and Mental Health" (EJ1247696), Tamsin Ford agrees with Humphrey's argument that moral panic or not, a significant proportion of children experience difficulties that interfere with their education and outlines the significant…

A major concern for policymakers around the world is how to design an entire system of education that provides high quality teaching and learning outcomes. This paper aims to make a significant contribution to this debate by looking closely at the middle part of education systems -- the regional, district, and sub-district level -- as a critical…

This article critically examines how the policy of funded nursery places for 'disadvantaged' two-year-olds in England opens up economic and political spaces in readiness for increased governance. The government introduced funded nursery places in September 2013, which aimed to promote disadvantaged children's educational outcomes, narrow the…

This article offers a critical perspective on Ofsted's (2021) "Curriculum Research Review for Languages" (OCRR). Whilst the OCRR contains much that we would agree with (including its underpinning principle of drawing on research evidence to inform policy and pedagogy), we are nevertheless concerned that it could result in unintended…