Liam is a Departmental Lecturer in Science Education. He teaches on the PGCE Science programme, the MSc in Learning and Teaching, MSc in Medical Education, and leads the Advanced Qualitative Research course for doctoral students across the Social Sciences Division.
He is also a current Co-Chair of the Oxford Research Society, the Research Representative on the University Personnel Committee, and a member of the Research Staff Consultation Group.
His research interests generally centre around (1) teachers’ engagement with and in research, and (2) epistemic beliefs, cognition, and practices within and across disciplines.
Liam is currently leading the FoSTER Project, which seeks to understand the range of ways that school’s support teachers to engage with and in research across the UK and Ireland. He is currently engaged in the H2020-funded ‘FEDORA’ project, focusing on future-orientated science education. Prior to his appointment as a Departmental Lecturer, he was a postdoctoral researcher for three years on the Oxford Argumentation in Religion and Science (OARS) project, funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
He has also worked as a researcher on a range of other projects such as an FP7-funded in-service teacher education project on Inquiry Based Science Education (Chain Reaction), a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded project focused on developing the teaching of argumentation on socio-scientific issues in second-level classrooms (STeP into Science), an evaluation of SFI’s national Celebrate Science Week, and a National Forum for Teaching and Learning commissioned exploration of non-accredited CPD for those who teach in Higher Education.
Liam serves as a member of the Teaching Council’s Research Engagement Group (REG) in Ireland, which works to promote teachers’ engagement with and in research. He has also been appointed as the Education Specialist on the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council’s Education and Training Standards Committee. He is also a member of the Research Committee of NARST: A Worldwide Organization for Improving Science Teaching and Learning through Research, and he is an active member of the European Science Education Research Association. Liam reviews for a range of academic journals in science education and teacher education including the International Journal of Science Education, Science and Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, Research in Science & Technological Education, and Psychology Learning and Teaching.
David Mills is Associate Professor (Pedagogy and the Social Sciences) at the Department of Education at Oxford. He is Deputy Director of the Oxford Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE) and a Co-Investigator on CGHE’s Research Programme on Supranational Higher Education. He is also Governing Body Fellow at Kellogg College.
Trained in Anthropology, David uses ethnographic methods to study higher education, and his current research interests include the impact of the global research economy on institutional research and publishing cultures in African universities. This work seeks to question the concept of ‘predatory publishing’, and the way the term occludes the reputational inequalities of global knowledge ecosystems.
He is also interested in contrasting conceptions of ‘capacity building’, the changing place of scholarly journals within knowledge cultures and academic mobility.
Alis Oancea is Professor of Philosophy of Education and Research Policy.
She specialises in studies of research practice, policy and governance and in philosophy of research – including research ecosystems, research assessment, impact and knowledge exchange, research funding, research quality, evaluation, open knowledge practices, research ethics, capacity, publication practices, research careers and the cultural value of research in the arts and the humanities.
This strand of work is complemented with a strong interest in teacher education research, innovation in teacher education policy and practice, knowledge and values in the teaching profession, and the role of research in teacher education.
Alis has two PhDs, one in policy and governance for research (from the University of Oxford), and one in epistemology and research; as well as an honorary doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa Socialium Scientiarium) from the University of the West, Timisoara. Leadership roles have included Director of Research and REF 2021 coordinator in the department (2016-20 and Deputy Director for Research before that) and Senior Academic Advisor on Impact, University of Oxford.
She was also Executive Council member and trustee of the British Educational Research Association in the early 2010s. She currently leads a three-year ESRC/ CGHE research-on-research project of international scale, and is joint editor of Oxford Review of Education and Chief Editorial Advisor, Routledge Open Research (Education).
Recent professional activity includes:
- Director of Research, Department of Education, University of Oxford
- REF 2021 Coordinator, Department of Education, University of Oxford
- Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of the West, Timisoara
- Senior Academic Advisor on Research Impact for REF2014, University of Oxford
- Joint Editor, Oxford Review of Education
- Chief Editorial Advisor, Routledge Open Research (Education)
- Research Coordinator, Kellogg College, Oxford
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Member of the EC Expert Group on “Indicator frameworks for fostering open knowledge practices in science and scholarship”
- Member of the International Advisory Panel for the reform of teacher education in Norway, 2017-20 – see “Transforming Norwegian Teacher Education” report
- Member of the Peer Review College of the Economic and Social Research Council and of the Arts and Humanities Research Council
- Vice-chair, Horizon Europe funding calls
- Chair of grant panels, Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education
- Grant panel, Academy of Finland
- Member of the UCET working group on the Intellectual Base of Teacher Education (2019-20)
- Secretary, Oxford Branch of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain
- Member of Research Management Committee, ESRC Centre for Global Higher Education
- Co-convenor of Philosophy, Religion and Education research group, Oxford
- Lead of the BERA Observatory of Educational Research, 2015; co-lead of the report on ‘The capacity and impact of education research in the UK’ for the Royal Society and British Academy 2018 joint enquiry on educational research; and lead of the evidence review on “The landscape of educational research in the UK (2010-20)”, also for the two Academies.
Selected past engagements
- Joint Editor, Review of Education (2012-16)
- Lead Editor of ‘Research Intelligence’ (2010-12)
- Deputy Director for Research, Department of Education, University of Oxford (2012-16)
- Pro-Proctor, University of Oxford (2017-18)
- Research theme coordinator, Policy, Economy and Society (2014-16), Department of Education, University of Oxford
- Elected Executive Council member and trustee of the British Educational Research Association (2009-12)
- Council member of the European Educational Research Association (2011-12)
- Editorial board member: Review of Education; Educational Theory (review board)
- Member of grant panel, research centres, ESRC
- Vice-chair, Horizon 2020 calls
- Member of the Horizons2020 and Periscope Working Groups, EERA
- Member of BERA’s Academic Publications Committee
- Organising Committee Member, ECER 2014 (London) (2011-12)
- Member of the Research and International Forum of UCET and of the UCET/BERA Working Group on the future of educational research (2011-12)
- Member of the Planning Group of the UK Strategic Forum for Research in Education (2009-10)
- External Examiner
From 2018-2022 Iram was convener of the Child Development and Learning (CDL) Group and the co-ordinator for the Language, Cognition and Development (LCD) Theme in the department.
Before joining the department on the 1st June 2018 Iram held positions at the University of Warwick, University College London and the University of Wollongong. She is currently an ajunct professor at the University of Stavanger and a visiting professor at the universities of Wollongong and UCL. She has held visiting professorships in other universities in Ireland, England, Wales, Australia, China, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
Iram has an international reputation for her longitudinal research and policy expertise. She has co-directed a number of influential studies, including the Effective Provision of Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE, DfE, 1997-2014) study, the transformative Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY, DfE, 2002) study, and the associated Effective Leadership in the Early Years Sector (ELEYS) Study. She has also studied Effective Early Educational Experiences in Australia (E4Kids, Australian Research Council and Victoria and Queensland Governments. 2009-2015).
Her current studies include cluster randomised controlled trials of interventions looking at the impact of evidence-based professional development in 90 centres in New South Wales Fostering Effective Early Learning; Researching Effective Environments for Learning in 70 centres in Victoria; and Using Research tools to Promote Language in the Early Years in 120 schools in England.
Iram conducted reviews of the Welsh Foundation Phase (2014) and of the Scottish early years workforce (2015). She led two C4EO reviews of what families and integrated working contribute to child outcomes for under-fives. Amongst her many published works she has authored award-winning books including: Social Class and Educational Inequality the Role of Parents and Schools (2015) and Effective and Caring Leadership in the Early Years (2014). She has over 250 publications including three widely-used rating scales which measure the quality of environments and pedagogy in ECEC and promote child outcomes in the cognitive (ECERS-E 4th Ed. 2010), social-emotional (SSTEW, 2015) and physical (MOVERS, 2017) domains.
Iram’s policy work has included being on the Ministerial Advisory Group for the Welsh Government (2006-2016) advising four consecutive ministers; on the Victorian Government Early Education Advisory Group; the South Australian Education Advisory Board; the Nuffield Council for Bio-ethics and acting as specialist advisor to the House of Commons Select Committee inquiry on Children’s Centres. She has provided advice to UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, OECD, Bernard van Leer and Aga Khan Foundations and given one-off support to governments in many other regions including Chile, Federal Government of Australia, New Zealand and Portugal.
She is on a number of editorial boards including the American Educational Research Journal. Iram was awarded an OBE for her services to ECEC in 2015.
Jason currently works on the History PGCE programme and the MSc Teaching and Learning course.
He obtained his first degree in Cultural Studies from University of East London, followed by a MA in History Education from the Institute of Education. He completed a PGCE in Social Studies at Goldsmiths in 1992. He has worked in a variety of London Schools, including middle management and senior management roles. In 1999 he was awarded AST status with specialism in History Education and Inclusion, he combined this role with part time teaching at Kingston University. He joined the Department of Education in 2010 as a Teacher Education Research Fellow (TERF).
Jenni Ingram is Professor of Mathematics Education at the Department and Fellow of Linacre College.
Jenni is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and the Royal Statistical Society. She is a member of the Mathematics Expert Group for the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and is Chair of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (ERME) Language and Mathematics working group.
Her research focuses on mathematics education with a particular interest in classroom interaction and language, and mathematics assessment both internationally and within classrooms. Her current research projects focus on language- responsive mathematics teaching in secondary schools including an intervention study in classrooms in England and an international study of mathematics teacher expertise in teaching linguistically disadvantaged students in seven countries. Jenni is also the research lead for PISA 2022 in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Jenni is Editor for the international journal Research in Mathematics Education and is also on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Mathematical Behaviour and the Journal for Mathematics Teacher Education.
Funded Research Projects:
PISA National Centre for England (Department for Education)
Developing Language-Responsive Mathematics Classrooms (Nuffield Foundation)
Global Teaching InSights TALIS Video Study (Department for Education)
Velda Elliott is Associate Professor of English and Literacy Education. She is a curriculum tutor for the English PGCE and MSc in Learning and Teaching.
She is also Director of Doctoral Research, in which role she leads doctoral training in the department. She is co-convenor of the Qualitative Methods Hub.
Velda was an English teacher in state schools in Yorkshire before undertaking doctoral research in OUCEA, gaining her doctorate in 2011. She has previously led the PGCE in English with Drama at the University of Warwick and been a Lecturer in English in Education at the University of York.
Velda researches in the fields of English in Education and Educational Assessment. Within the field of English, her work considers both what it means to be ‘good’ at English and what English, media and drama education are ‘good for’. Some of her work considers the ways in which English education relates to political priorities and desires. She is particularly interested in what knowledge looks like in the subject of English.
She contributes regularly to professional publications such as NATE’s Teaching English magazine. Velda also researches at the intersection of English literature and education, looking in particular at Shakespeare and ways in which his work is refigured in educational contexts. She works on the ways in which literary criticism is available to and used by teachers and students in secondary schools; she created the Twitter hashtag #LitCritForTeachers and regularly blogs about research articles on A level texts, making critical material available to schools who do not have access to academic journals. In assessment Velda is particularly interested in the way in which markers, especially examiners, make decisions, and the values and identities they espouse in doing so. She led the EEF review of the literature on written marking A Marked Improvement?
Velda was awarded the National Association for the Teaching of English Research Award in 2017 for her contribution to the field of English in Education.