Dr Alis Oancea[back]

Alis is Research Fellow at the Department of Education.  She is Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Associate Research Fellow of the ESRC Research Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE), and Research Fellow of the Oxford Institute of Ageing. She has two PhDs, one from the University of Oxford, in the field of policy and governance for research, and one from the University of Bucharest, in epistemology and research evaluation.

In 2009 Alis was elected to the Executive Council of the British Educational Research Association, for a three-year term. As part of her portfolio, she is responsible for monitoring current policy initiatives and consultations affecting education and education research, and for co-ordinating BERA's responses to them. She also shares editorial responsibility for "Research Intelligence", BERA's newsletter.

Alis serves as expert reviewer to the FP7 and FP6 of the European Commission, to the European Science Foundation (since 2006), the Wellcome Trust, the British Educational Research Association, and several other bodies. She is part of the referee/ reviewer pools of a number of national and international journals, including: British Educational Research Journal, Oxford Review of Education, Journal of Curriculum Studies, Teaching and Teacher Education, Evidence & Policy, Scottish Educational Review, Journal of Intergenerational Relationships,etc.

Since September 2009, Alis has taken over the role of researcher on the Strategic Forum for Research in Education. In the past, she had been invited to act as Commentating Rapporteur on research quality at the first meeting of the Forum (Harrogate, October 2008 - see her report on “Key Issues in Research Quality”), and also contributed to its second meeting (Reading, 2009). The Forum is led by the British Educational Research Association (BERA) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) with funding being provided by BERA, ESRC, DCSF and CfBT. It intends “to provide a framework for systematically exploring issues and also to consider the ongoing challenges which continue to face educational research”.

Alis is Associate of the Evidence Network at the School of Social Science and Public Policy, King's College London, and member of British Educational Research Association, European Educational Research Association, Society of Educational Studies, and Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain.

Alis is a contributor to the 2009/2010 World Social Science Report (UNESCO). She participated to the 2008 Global Research Seminar on Knowledge Systems organised by the UNESCO Forum of Research and Higher Education (Paris). Her presentation on “Current discourses and practices of research assessment in the United Kingdom and beyond: assumptions and problems” is available from the Forum’s website.

Alis chairs the Research Staff Forum of the Oxford University Department of Education. On May 13th, 2009, she organised, with colleagues from the RSF, a conference on Fixed-term employment in social science research: new directions in the research economy. In August 2009 she edited a special issue of "Research Intelligence" drawing on contributions to the conference.

Prior to joining the Department in 2001, she was a tenured university assistant lecturer in philosophy of education, educational theory and pedagogy. She had also qualified successively as a primary, nursery, and secondary teacher. After teaching in a primary school for a short while, she had obtained her first degree (BHons in Sociology, Psychology and Pedagogy), her MSc (in Educational Management and Administration), and a postgraduate certificate (in Philosophy of Education). More recently, she completed the Diploma for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education at the Oxford Institute of Learning, and was awarded the Professional Training for Social Scientists certificate by Oxford University's Saïd Business School. 

Research Topics
Alis’s research interests are in the fields of education and research policy and governance, policy futures, theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of research methodology, philosophy of social research, research assessment, pedagogy, lifelong learning policies, and textual analysis.

Current Research Project(s)
Alis’s current projects include:

• a review of the impact of the 2008 RAE on education departments (BERA/UCET);
• an audit of quality criteria for the assessment of education research in the UK (ESRC/TLRP);
• a cross-disciplinary study of research impact (HEIF);
• comparative work on research assessment in several countries (OUDE/OIA);
• an exploration of public discourses about education research in England;
• work on fixed-term employment in research (CETL/FELL).

At the Oxford Institute of Ageing, Alis has had a central role in the development of the Technology, Education and Lifelong Learning programme of the institute, and has been, since 2004, Senior Assistant Editor of Ageing Horizons, a thematic policy futures review.

Research projects since 1999 include:

• (2006-2009) Research Quality and Research Evaluation in Education and Gerontology. Oxford University Department of Educational Studies and Oxford Institute of Ageing. Main investigator.
• (2009) Criteria-in-use or criteria-of-choice? Operational and aspirational approaches to the quality of HEI-based education research in several contexts of assessment. TLRP/ESRC. Alis was commissioned by the ESRC/Teaching and Learning Research Programme an audit of criteria of research quality currently in use in a range of relevant contexts of research assessment (from bidding, to project evaluation, and to publication), and to analyse them against the background of aspirational criteria, as set out in the literature on research quality and knowledge exchange (see the summary of her report on the TLRP website).
• (2004-2005) Applied and Practice-Based Educational Research. Coordinator: Prof. John Furlong, University of Oxford. Funding: Economic and Social Research Council. Co-Investigator.
• (2004-2009) The Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training. Funding: Nuffield Foundation (Research Officer). The independent Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training was a £1 million review of post-compulsory secondary education and training in England and Wales, led by a directorate of Oxford University, London Institute of Education, Cardiff University, and UCAS. Alis's work on the review included: system performance in post-compulsory education and training; policies for post-compulsory education and training in England and Wales since 1976; policy discourses about youth and young people since 1996; apprenticeships and the labour market; and young people not in education, employment and training.
• (2004-2005) Processes of Transition in Educational Systems of Central and Eastern European Countries - 15 Years On. Funding: European Science Foundation.
• (2003-2004) The Distribution of Educational Research Expertise in the UK. Commissioned by the British Educational Research Association. Principal Investigator. Completed February 2004. 
• (2004-2008) Ageing Horizons. Policies for Ageing Societies. Funding: Help the Aged. Produced by: Oxford Institute of Ageing, University of Oxford. Research Officer/ Senior Assistant Editor.
• (2004) Oxford Age Discrimination Survey. With: Dr. Sarah Harper and Dr. George Leeson, Oxford Institute of Ageing.
• (2000-2002) Developing More Inclusive School Environments Within Communities. Funding: UNICEF. Organised by UNICEF, University of Manchester, University of Bucharest, Ministry of Education and Research, ACSC. Local coordinator. Research Assistant. Completed 2002.
• (2001) Rural Education Development Program. Funding: World Bank. Organised by: Romanian Ministry of Education and Research. Consultant.

She was also part of the ESRC/ TLRP review of the epistemological basis of educational research findings, led by David Bridges (2006-2007).

Recent journal articles

• Oancea, A. and Bridges, D. (2009) Philosophy of education – its contribution and status since 1988. Oxford Review of Education, 35 (5), 553-568.

• Oancea, A. et al (2009) Educational research and policy in the United Kingdom - implications for South African higher education research. In: South African Journal of Higher Education, 23(2) (invited, forthcoming).

• Oancea, A. (2009) Performative accountability and the UK Research Assessment Exercise. In: ACCESS: Critical Perspectives on Communication, Cultural & Policy Studies (NZ), special issue on “The politics and educational research: International perspectives on research accountability and audit systems” (Ed. by R. Smith and R. Lingard), vol. 27 (1 & 2).

• Oancea, A. (2009) Fixed-term employment in research: Questions and experiences. Editorial. In: Research Intelligence, 108.

• Oancea A. and Pring, R. (2008) The importance of being thorough: On systematic accumulations of "what works" in education research. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 42(s1), pp. 4-15.

• Oancea A. (2008) The promise of lifelong learning. In: Ageing Horizons, 8, pp. 1-3.

• Oancea A. (2007) From Procrustes to Proteus: Trends and practices in the assessment of education research. In: International Journal for Research Methods in Education, 30(3), pp. 243-269.

• Oancea A. and Furlong, J. (2007) Expressions of excellence and the assessment of applied and practice-based research. Research Papers in Education, 22(2), pp. 119–137.

• Oancea A.  (2007) Tailored suit or straitjacket? A framework for analysing research evaluation. Scientific Bulletin, Pitesti, July (invited).

• Furlong, J. and Oancea A.  (2006) Assessing quality in applied and practice-based research in education: A framework for discussion. In: Review of Australian Research in Education, April 2006, pp. pp. 89-104.

• Oancea A.  (2005) Criticisms of educational research: Key topics and levels of analysis. In: British Educational Research Journal, 31 (2), pp. 157-183.

• Oancea A.  (2005) Authorship patterns of research articles in three UK-based academic journals. In: Research Intelligence, 91.

• Oancea A.  (2004) The distribution of educational research expertise – findings from the analysis of RAE 2001 submissions (I, II). In: Research Intelligence, 87, 88.

Books, major reports and book chapters:

• Furlong, J. and Oancea A. (2007) Assessing Quality in Applied and Practice-Based Research in Education. London: Routledge.

• Hayward, G., Hodgson, A. , Johnson, J.,  Keep, E. , Oancea, A., Pring,R. , Rees, G., Spours, K., and  Wilde, S. (2009) Education for All: The future of education and training for 14-19 year olds. London: Routledge.

• Oancea, A. (2010) Research assessment in the United Kingdom: Issues of concern. In: International Social Science Council (2010) World Social Science Report. Paris: UNESCO (in print).

• Oancea, A. and Pring, R. (2009) The importance of being thorough: On systematic accumulations of "what works" in education research (with R. Pring). In: D. Bridges, P. Smeyers, R. Smith (Eds.) Evidence-Based Education Policy: What Evidence? What Basis? Whose Policy? Oxford: Blackwells.

• Oancea, A. (2009) Does the concept of knowledge translation capture the complexity of the relationship between research and practice? In: R. Lyons (Ed.) Using Evidence: Advances and debates in bridging health research and action. Ottawa: Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

• Oancea, A. (2008) Standardisation and versatility in research assessment. In: A. Besley (Ed) Assessing the Quality of Research in Higher Education. Rotterdam: Sense.

• Oancea, A. (2008) Key Issues in Research Quality. Report to the UK Strategic Forum for Research in Education.

• Hayward, G., Hodgson, A. , Johnson, J.,  Keep, E. , Oancea, A., Pring,R. , Rees, G., Spours, K., and  Wilde, S. (2006) Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training Report 2005-2006.

• Furlong, J. and Oancea, A. (2005) Assessing Quality in Applied and Practice-based Educational Research. A Framework for Discussion. Report to the Economic and Social Research Council (with J. Furlong).

• Hayward, G., Hodgson, A. , Johnson, J.,  Keep, E. , Oancea, A., Pring,R. , Spours, K., Wilde, S. , and Wright, S. (2005) Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training Report 2004-2005.

• Oancea, A. (2005) 15 Years On: Educational Transitions in Central and Eastern Europe. Directions for Educational Research and Policy in the Post-Communist EU Accession and Candidate Countries. Scientific Report to the European Science Foundation.

• Wright, S. and Oancea, A. (2004) Policies for 14-19 Education and Training in England, 1976 to the Present Day: A chronology. Briefing paper for the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training, May 2004.

• Oancea, A. (2004) Evidence of the Distribution of Educational Research Expertise in the UK. Report to the British Educational Research Association, February 2004.  Published by Education-line: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00003573.htm

• Hayward, G., Hodgson, A. , Johnson, J.,  Keep, E. , Oancea, A., Pring,R. , Spours, K., and Wright, S.  (2004) Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training Report 2003-2004.

• Oancea, A.  (2003) Causal and teleological explanations in educational research. In: Theory and Metatheory of Education (M.C. Calin). Bucharest: Aramis.

• Oancea, A.  (2003) Scientificity criteria for educational research. In: Theory and Metatheory of Education (M.C. Calin). Bucharest: Aramis.

• Oancea, A.  (2002) Integrating support materials in classroom activities. In: World Bank (2002) Developing Rural Education in Romania. Bucharest: Ministry for Education and Science.

• Calin, M.C.  (2002)  Philosophy of Education. An Anthology. Bucharest: Aramis –contribution to selection and translation of texts.

• Calin, M.C.and Oancea, A. (2002) The scientificity of educational knowledge. In: E. Paun &  D. Potolea (Eds) Pedagogie. Fundamentari teoretice si demersuri aplicative (Pedagogy. Theoretical fundaments and applications). Iassy: Polirom. 

• Oancea, A. (2002) Scientific explanation in pedagogy. In: E. Paun &  D. Potolea (Eds) Pedagogy. Theoretical fundaments and applications. Iassy: Polirom.

• Oancea, A.  (2001) Causal Explanation and Teleological Explanation in Educational Research. Bucharest: The University of Bucharest Publishing House.

Other publications

Over 30 papers, including keynote, at major UK, European and international conferences. Over 20 working papers, editorials, review articles.

Recent invited talks:

• Oancea, A. (2009) Philosophy and Education Research. The voice(s) of philosophy in the conversations of the educational reseach communities. Contribution to invited plenary symposium, British Educational Research Association annual conference, Manchester, September 2009.
• Oancea, A. (2009) On Evidence, Use, and Deliberation: Implications of the relevance and usefulness agenda for practice-related research. Invited talk to international symposium, Utrecht Hogenschool, The Netherlands, October 2009. 
• Oancea, A. (2009) Lifelong Learning in Ageing Societies. Invited lecture to "Ensuring Income Security and Welfare in old Age" Summer School for Research Fellows, ERSTE Stiftung. Split, Croatia, June 2009.
• Oancea, A. (2009) Can we get a grip on the ‘research quality’ debate? Invited presenttaion to the TLRP conference, London, March 2009.
• Oancea, A. (2008) Praxis or Poiesis?  On the Assessment of Applied and Practice-Based  Research. Invited lecture to the "Researching Praxis" Pedagogy Culture and Society seminar, Gothenburg University, Sweden, 13th September.
• Oancea, A. (2006) Making evidence useful: the whole point of publicly-funded education research? British Educational Research Association invited workshop, lead presenter (with S. Gorard), University of York, 5 Oct 2006.
• Oancea, A. (2005) Recent considerations of quality in social research. Assessing applied and practice-based research. Keynote talk to Quality in Educational Research seminar, ESRC TLRP Seminar Series (convened by Gary Thomas, University of Birmingham), 1 December 2005.

 Other recent conference papers include:

• Oancea, A. (2009) Quality Criteria in Different Contexts of Assessment. Paper to the European Educational Research Association conference, Vienna, Spetember 2009.
• Oancea, A. (2009) Philosophical reflections on the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training in England and Wales. Paper to the British Educational Reserach Association annual conference, Manchester, September 2009.
• Oancea, A. (2009) Philosophy and education research. Contribution to a workshop convened by David Bridges at the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain conference, Oxford, April 2009.
• Oancea, A. (2008) Before and After:  Performative accountability and the UK Research Assessment Exercise. European Conference on Educational Research, Goteborg, Sweden, September.
• Oancea, A. (2008) Current discourses and practices of research assessment in the United Kingdom and beyond: assumptions and problems. Poster presentation to the Global Research Seminar: Sharing Research Agendas on Knowledge Systems organised by the UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge, Paris, 28-29 November 2008.
• Oancea, A. and Pring, R. (2007) On systematic accumulations of ‘what works' in education research. Paper to the European Educational Research Association Conference, Ghent, September.

• Hayward, G., Wilde, S. and Oancea, A. (2007) The future of apprenticeships in England. Paper to the British Educational Research Association Conference, London, 5-11 September.

• Oancea, A. and Pring, R. (2007) The importance of being thorough: on systematic accumulations of "what works" in education research. Paper presented to the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain conference, New College, Oxford, 30 March- 1 April 2007.

• Oancea, A. and Pring, R. (2006) The importance of being thorough: on systematic accumulations of "what works" in education research. ESRC/TLRP review workshop on The Epistemological Basis of Educational Research Findings, London, 17-18 November 2006.

• Oancea, A. (2006) Procrustes or Proteus? Towards a philosophical dimension of research assessment. British Educational Research Association Conference, symposium on Philosophy and Action Research (symposium with Wilfred Carr, John Elliott and Richard Pring), University of Warwick, 2006.

• Oancea, A. (2006) Trends and practices of research evaluation in Europe. European Conference on Educational Research, Geneva, September 2006.

• Oancea, A. (2006) Can there be a philosophical dimension of research assessment? The case of educational research conducted in, with and/or for practice. Accepted by the International Network of Philosophy of Education biennial conference, Malta, August 2006.

• Oancea, A. (2006) Portrayals of young people in English education and training policy documents. British Educational Research Association Conference, Warwick, 2006.

• Oancea, A. (2006) Challenges in Analysing Educational Change in Central and Eastern Europe's Post-socialist Countries. Symposium (with David Phillips, Sandra Romenska and Maira Mukambaeva). Comparative and International Education Society Conference, Honolulu, March 2006.

• Oancea, A. (2006) Learning from programmes of accelerated change in central and eastern Europe. Paper, Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) 50th Conference, Honolulu, Hawai'i, March 2006.

• Oancea, A. (2005) Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training. Keynote Symposium. British Educational Research Association conference, Glamorgan, 2005 (symposium with Geoff Hayward et al).

• Oancea, A. (2005) Quality Dimensions of Applied and Practice-Based Research. Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, Dublin, 2005.

• Oancea, A. (2005) Learning from Programmes of Accelerated Systemic Change in 14-19 Provision in the EU Accession and Candidate Countries. Paper presented at the BERA conference, Glamorgan, 2005.

• Oancea, A. (2005) Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training in England and Wales. Round Table. European Conference on Educational Research, Dublin. 2005 (round table with Geoff Hayward et al).

• Oancea, A. (2004) With the Benefit of Hindsight? : The debate about the quality and impact of educational research over the 1990s. Paper presented at the European Educational Research Association Conference, Crete, September 2004

• Oancea, A. (2004) Applied and Practice Based Research in Education - Developing Quality Criteria. Paper presented at the BERA conference 2004

• Oancea, A. (2004) Analysis of RAE 2001 Submissions: Patterns of Staff Selection, Income Sources and Research Interests. Paper presented at the BERA conference, 2004

• Oancea, A.  and Hayward, G. (2004) Achilles, the Tortoise, and the English Patient: Understanding Educational Expansion. Paper for the Scottish Educational Research Association Conference, 2004

• Oancea, A. (2004) Opportunities and Limitations of Datasets on 14-19 Education and Training in the UK. Paper presented at the BERA conference, 2004.

• Oancea, A. (2004) Call It 'Transition': Romanian Education after 1990. Comparative and International Education Presentation, University of Oxford Department of Educational Studies, 2001-2004

• Oancea, A.  (2003) Storming the Ivory Tower: Newspapers' coverage of the criticisms of educational research in the UK over the 1990s. Presentation to the Scottish Educational Research Conference, November 2003. Abstract online

• Oancea, A. (2003) Criticisms of Educational Research over the 1990s. Paper presented at the British Educational Research Conference, September 2003.
  

Alis 's current/recent teaching includes lectures and classes on Philosophy of Educational Research and on Current Issues in Educational Research, both for the Educational Research Methodology course for MSc and PRS students in the Oxford University Department of Education; tutorials on Education Policy and Educational Reform at the University of Oxford; a course on Contemporary Social Theory (OUDE); and occasional classes on research governance, philosophy of research, and comparative education. She also contributes to the programme for first year doctoral students in the Department.

Prior to teaching in Oxford, she taught Educational Theory, Philosophy of Education, and Pedagogy at the University of Bucharest (in the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences and in the Department for Teacher Training), and supervised the teaching practice of trainee teachers and undergraduate students.