The challenge of shaping socially responsible teachers

post by CARMEN MOHAMED
Assistant Professor, Primary and Early Years’ Education, The University of Nottingham

If, as a community of social justice advocates, we recognise that all is not well in education can those of us engaged in training teachers create new ways of working together to act upon solutions? Many of us are engaged in research activity which is deconstructing how inequalities are perpetuated through policy and practice in schools in the UK, however, research can be a lonely and isolating business and it is only through reading published books and articles that we are able to build on each other’s ideas.

Gender and STEM

post by HEATHER MENDICK and LOUISE ARCHER
Brunel University and King’s College London

Increasing the representation of women in STEM education and employment has been a long-term policy goal of both the Labour and Coalition governments. They have been motivated by concerns over equity in the STEM workforce and about maintaining national economic competitiveness. Initiatives to increase women’s participation in STEM began before these policies with feminist activism in the 1980s. The approaches developed there have continued, within organisations such as WISE (Women Into Science and Engineering), alongside corporate and policy schemes.