Seminar series 2025-26
The Centre for Transformative Change in Schools (CenTCS) invites you to join the 2025-26 seminar series, where we will explore bold ideas, critical questions, and collaborative possibilities for educational transformation. This inaugural series will focus on our newly developed Research Compass, a guiding metaphor for our evolving research agenda. The compass orients us toward our core values of equity, collaboration, and justice. It also helps us navigate the complex and shifting landscapes of education to respond to emerging challenges and remain attuned to the lived realities of schools, teachers, and communities.
Across the seminars, we will unpack four interrelated research themes: the conceptualisation of transformative change in schools; the preparation of teachers for transformative teaching and praxis; understanding how transformative teaching is enacted in classrooms; and exploring the relationships between transformative teaching and its impacts in diverse contexts. Together, these themes reflect our mission to support equity through transformative change, connecting philosophical inquiry with practical action.
Through this seminar series, we invite educators, researchers, policymakers, and community partners to engage in a shared journey of discovery. Guided by the Research Compass, we aim not only to deepen our collective understanding of transformative change in schools, but also to chart new directions together. This is a space to exchange insights, challenge assumptions, and imagine education futures that are just, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of all learners.
Please note the event formats and time zones for each session and that registration will be required for online seminars only.
4th September 2025: Professor Brianna L. Kennedy: Transformative Change as a Research Goal: Reflections on Who, What, When, Where, Why, How—and What Next
Transformative Change as a Research Goal: Reflections on Who, What, When, Where, Why, How—and What Next
15:30-16:30
Room 230, St Andrew's Building
What do we mean by transformative change in schools? How might it structure a research agenda? What affordances and constraints might it offer? Can research really lead to transformative change? In this talk, Brianna shares how she has grappled with these questions in her 20-year career in academia across international contexts. She explores how geography and sociohistorical influences have shaped the endeavours she has pursued, and the theory-methods packages she has engaged to do so. She draws upon autoethnographic lessons learned in her research pursuits to plot a tentative course for current and future projects that can respond to post-truth and post-human complexity that educators now navigate. She concludes by posing questions about research aims and ethics and discussing with participants how we can collaboratively engage in research for transformative change.
About the speaker
Brianna L. Kennedy is Professor of Education and Joint Director of the Centre for Transformative Change in Schools at the University of Glasgow. Her research centres on the marginalization and belonging of students from underserved communities with a particular focus on educational and school policy, classroom teaching, and the reimagining and reworking of education and schooling toward social justice. She is author of the book Frame Shifting for Teachers: Developing a Conscious Approach to Solving Persistent Teaching Dilemmas as well as numerous articles in world-leading journals such as Review of Educational Research, Qualitative Inquiry, and Teaching and Teacher Education. Brianna serves on the editorial boards of the British Educational Research Journal and Urban Education and is Lead of the Teaching-Focused Research Hub in the Scottish Government’s Centre for Teaching Excellence. She has been a research faculty member in the United States, Netherlands, and United Kingdom.
2nd October 2025: Dr Drew Miller: Transformative change in schools is possible….can we scale it?
Transformative change in schools is possible….can we scale it?
09:00-10:00 (UK time)
Online
Improving schools in disadvantaged communities is challenging, with persistent inequities difficult to overcome meaning sustained improvement is rare and often short-lived. Research highlights the importance of shifting focus from welfare to teaching and learning, fostering positive school culture, and strong leadership. But how are these tenets of improvement leveraged for change? Cessnock High School (New South Wales, Australia), once underperforming, partnered with our university to implement a change agenda spearheaded by Quality Teaching Rounds. This professional development built instructional capacity, improved morale, and supported trauma-informed practices and intensive literacy strategies. Over four years the school saw dramatic improvements in attendance, behaviour, and academic outcomes. This presentation explores how targeted, evidence-based strategies can drive meaningful change and the challenges of scaling such success.
About the speaker
Drew Miller (University of Newcastle, Australia) is Deputy Director of the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre. He leads rigorous evaluations of educational interventions using experimental methods and works to scale impact to address educational inequity through school partnership. Recent work supporting teachers in disadvantaged schools has helped produce remarkable changes for students and the community, and a $4.3M philanthropic investment to scale.
6th November 2025: Dr Thomas Cowhitt: Innovation Infrastructure: how practitioners are scaling their own school improvement programmes and products
Innovation Infrastructure: how practitioners are scaling their own school improvement programmes and products by repurposing professional learning networks
15:30-16:30
Room 230, St Andrew's Building
This seminar will explore how teachers are scaling transformative approaches to learning and teaching beyond their own classrooms and schools. Specifically, the seminar will explore findings from an ongoing 9-year Research Practice Partnership with SHINE, a charity dedicated to improving quality and equity in education provision across the North of England through identifying, evaluating, and scaling promising new approaches to classroom learning. This seminar will draw on the scaling experiences of seven SHINE grantees as they developed classroom innovations from ideation to regional and national impact. Findings highlight an especially efficient scaling mechanism called Coalescence, which involves coordinating promotional activities with middle-tier organisations to access specialised professional learning networks. Implications for how education systems can better support innovation are discussed and a new type of governance – Emergent Networked Governance – is also proposed within the policy context of an ongoing push to dramatically reform education provision in England.
About the speaker
Thomas Cowhitt is a Lecturer in Educational Change and Collaborative Improvement. He specialises in Social Network Analysis and the study of Educational Systems, working to improve the quality and equity of education provision at scale.
4th December 2025: Professor Reza Gholami: What Next for Diversity? Belongingness, Interculturality, and Schooling in a Fragile Democracy
What Next for Diversity? Belongingness, Interculturality, and Schooling in a Fragile Democracy
13:00-14:00 (UK time)
Online
About the speaker
Reza Gholami is Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Birmingham, UK. He earned his PhD in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS, University of London, followed by post-doctoral research funded by the AHRC. He has since held a number of academic appointments, including visiting fellowships at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (USA), Monash University (Australia) and University College London (UK). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Senior Editor for Sociology of Education at the Journal of Cogent Education.
Professor Gholami’s research focuses on questions of belongingness, migration, inter-communal relations and community engagement in education within the context of chronic educational disparities affecting racial, ethnic and religious minorities. His current projects are funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Professor Gholami is the author of numerous books and articles in his field, including the forthcoming book "Knowledges that Destroy" (co-authored with Dr Danielle Tran, UCL), the monograph "Secularism and Identity", and the co-edited volume "Education and Extremisms: Re-Thinking Liberal Pedagogies in the Contemporary World".
8th January 2026: Professor Aileen Kennedy: Who Gets to Teach? Policy, Power and Possibility in Teacher Recruitment
Who Gets to Teach? Policy, Power and Possibility in Teacher Recruitment
15:30-16:30
Room 230, St Andrew's Building
This study draws on Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be?’ approach to analyse how teacher education entry requirements in Australia and Scotland are positioned in national policy as proxies for teacher quality. Framed by CenTCS principles, it challenges dominant discourses that equate academic attainment with professional suitability, often marginalising equity and diversity. By problematising policy representations of recruitment, the study exposes underlying assumptions and explores alternative possibilities. The resulting analytical framework offers a values-led, contextually grounded tool for interrogating teacher education policy and advancing more inclusive, future-oriented approaches to teacher workforce development.
About the speaker
Aileen Kennedy is Professor of Teacher Education and Joint Director of the Centre of Transformative Change in Schools at the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses on teacher professional learning and teacher education pedagogy and policy from a critical, transformative perspective. Aileen is Co-Managing Editor of Professional Development in Education and the Research & Evaluation Lead for the Centre for Teaching Excellence.
5th February 2026: Professor Tyrone Howard
Equity Now. Preparing Educators During Turbulent Times
16:00-17:00 (UK time)
Online
In this address, Tyrone Howard addresses the need to reimagine how teachers are prepared for today's climate. Offering evidence-based practices, strategies, and policies, Howard offers a path forward for how teacher preparation can play a role in transformation.
About the speaker
Tyrone C. Howard is the Pritzker Family Endowed Chair and professor of education in the School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). A leading expert on race, culture, and educational equity, Dr. Howard's research focuses on issues of access and opportunity for minoritized student populations. He has published over 100 scholarly works, including peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports. Among his best-selling books are Why Race & Culture Matter in Schools, All Students Must Thrive, and his latest work, Equity Now: Justice, Repair & Belonging in Schools, which was recognized by Greater Good Magazine as one of the top 10 favorite books for educators in 2024.
Howard is the founder and director of the UCLA Black Male Institute and co-director of the UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children & Families. He also serves as faculty director of the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. In 2024, Dr. Howard served as president of American Education Research Association, the world's largest organization devoted to educational research and policy.
A native of Compton, California, Dr. Howard began his career as a classroom teacher in the Compton Unified School District. He is a member of both the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been recognized by Education Week as one of the 200 most influential scholars shaping educational practice, policy, and reform.
5th March 2026: Alison Mitchell: Disrupting Deficit Thinking and Dominant Logics: Preparing the Profession for Critical Leadership Praxis
Disrupting Deficit Thinking and Dominant Logics: Preparing the Profession for Critical Leadership Praxis
15:30-16:30
Room 432, St Andrew's Building
In this seminar, I draw on intersections between feminist and Marxist theories to examine how systemic structures of power and oppression, linked to race, class, and patriarchy, limit access to, and flourishing through education. I then present findings from two research projects exploring participants’ experiences in Scotland’s Enhanced Political Awareness (EPA) and Leading Anti-Racism (LAR) programmes, investigating how headteachers (principals) are supported to nurture Critical Leadership Praxis (CLP) within their school communities. Framed by a model of headship as social activism, the findings highlight the importance of political acuity, authenticity, and critical moral courage in politically charged contexts, and identify key enablers and barriers to enacting these attributes in practice. Grounded in the CenTCS Research Compass, this work aims to deepen understanding of how school leaders align moral purpose with courageous action to disrupt systemic oppressions that privilege neoliberal hegemony and undermine justice and equity. For teacher educators, I argue for embedding political literacy and critical consciousness in teacher education programme, equipping the profession and future leaders to act ethically, boldly, and with a sustained commitment to equity and justice.
About the speaker
Alison Mitchell is a former Headteacher with 33 years' experience in secondary education. A CenTCS Fellow, she leads professional learning at the University of Glasgow School of Education in partnership with Glasgow City Council Education Services. Key research interests are social justice through education and ethical leadership, and she is currently pursuing her PhD by publication.
7th May 2026: Professor Caroline Daly: Young People, Possible Teachers
Young People, Possible Teachers
15:30-16:30 (UK time)
Online
In a time when more teachers are desperately needed, this talk explores how ‘being a teacher’ is constructed by 17-18 year-old school leavers, who have spent 13 years in compulsory schooling. This current Leverhulme-funded research uses narrative interviews with young people, to explore what they believe it is to be a teacher. It investigates the ‘figured worlds’ of teaching they have developed through being immersed in schools, based on how they perceive teachers’ lives and work. Trajectories towards teaching futures are discussed in terms of inequities regarding who is perceived to belong in schools and in teaching.
About the speaker
Caroline Daly (University College London) is Director of the UCL Institute of Education Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research. Her research focuses on teacher learning, with a major interest in pre-application to teaching, Initial Teacher Education design, Early Career Teachers, mentoring and the ecology of schools as learning environments for new teachers.
4th June 2026: Dr Francisco Valdera-Gil: Transformative learning and teaching in the Languages classrooms in Scotland
Transformative learning and teaching in the Languages classrooms in Scotland
15:30-16:30
Room 230, St Andrew's Building
This seminar will present a few examples of ways in which we prepare initial teachers for transformative change and praxis in the context of languages learning in Scotland, and ways in which teachers enact transformative teaching in classrooms in the context of the 1+2 Language Learning Policy in Scotland.
Scotland is a multilingual country with over 168 languages spoken by school-aged children, and the city of Glasgow is particularly diverse. In contrast to this rich and exciting linguistic and ethnic diversity, 56.4% of pupils live in areas that fall into Quintile 1 of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), meaning they are in the 10% of the most socially deprived households in Scotland.
When this ‘linguistic and cultural richness’ is conceptualised from a critical wealth lens and underpinned by transformative and culturally responsive pedagogical approaches, learners and their learning experiences are not thwarted by a deficit approach.
About the speaker
Francisco Valdera-Gil is a Senior Lecturer in Languages Education at The University of Glasgow. He is a former high school languages teacher in Scotland. His teaching and research focus on communicative language teaching pedagogy and interaction in the classroom and the ways in which assessment practices can enhance learning.