Gillian Allcroft is the Deputy Chief Executive of the National Governors’ Association (NGA). After graduating from Leeds University she joined the Department for Education in 1989 and over the following fifteen years worked in a variety of posts and locations. She joined the National Governors’ Association in 2004 and is responsible for policy development, the advice team and is author of NGA’s new induction guide for trustees’ of multi-academy trusts.
Pamela Angelle is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, US. Dr. Angelle’s research interests include teacher leadership, organizational conditions and contexts which contribute to a collegial school community, and leadership preparation. As a member of the UCEA-BELMAS ISLDN, she is also involved in research on international perspectives of social justice leadership in schools. Dr. Angelle has presented at numerous national and international conference meetings including AERA, BELMAS, AACTE, UCEA, and NSDC and her work can be found in journals such as Journal of School Leadership, Journal of Educational Administration, Research in Middle Level Education, and Management in Education
Nadim Dimechkie is is a teacher, teacher trainer, editor and freelance writer who has worked extensively in advertising, journalism and education. He is currently on a sabbatical year from his teaching post at Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, East London.
Alan Floyd is currently Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Management at the Open University, having previously held academic posts at Leeds Metropolitan University, Oxford Brookes University, and the University of Reading. His research interests focus on various aspects of educational leadership and management, including how people perceive and experience being in a leadership role, leaders’ career trajectories, and leadership development.
Ron Hill has published a large number of research studies into F.E. governance and he is currently Visiting Research Fellow in Education at the University of Stirling. His most recent published paper (with Ian James) concerns the conditions and processes for self-assessment by governing bodies of schools and colleges. His current research interests include payment of college governors, values and leadership in colleges, strategic planning and governing bodies, professional development for clerks (including the use of a professional journal/diary). Ron is currently working with Touch Consulting providing College Governor and Clerk development and support through an Education and Training Foundation–funded project for 2016/17.
Chris James is the Professor of Educational Leadership and Management in the Department of Education at the University of Bath. He researches and teaches educational leadership, management and governance. Chris has published over 100 journal articles/book chapters and written 15 books/major reports. He directs the Governing and Governance in Education Research Programme at the University of Bath, which in the last seven years, has completed nine projects on the governance of educational institutions. He also research organisational dynamics in educational institutions. Chris is married to Jane and he is the Vice Chair of the Governing Body of Ralph Allen School in Bath, which their four children attended.
Michael Jopling is Professor in Education at Northumbria University in Newcastle. He has experience of conducting and writing about research in all areas of education from early years to higher education, particularly in relation to educational leadership and school and inter-agency collaboration.
Carmen Mohamed has worked in education for over 30 years, first as a classroom teacher, currently as Assistant Professor in the School of Education at the University of Nottingham and as a Senior Fellow of the HEA. She has been Course Leader for two primary ITE routes in two HEIs and previously held strategic leadership responsibilities in schools and within Leicestershire Local Authority. Across the School of Education Carmen teaches on and supervises Masters Level studies and carries out joint supervision for Doctoral students as well as teaching International cohorts of students, many of whom have either teaching or management roles across the world. In addition to leading a team of tutors, her work involves liaising with local head teachers and Alliance Trust coordinators to provide appropriate development during the teaching experiences for the ITE students whilst in school. Some of this work inevitably supports school based CPD as mentors are engaged in articulating their practice. Working with leaders and middle leaders in school to analyse effective pedagogies is part of the role in ITE, although Carmen also carries out school based CPD at the request of head teachers in local schools. Carmen’s PhD research investigated effective ways of reducing the myth of a meritocracy to increase awareness of the impact of disadvantage and discrimination on young learners. She has published articles and presented this work at national and international conferences. Carmen’s ambition is for education journals to include intersectional principles to engage more practitioners with research across themes.
Dorothy Moir is retired from Secondary Headship. Her current interests lie in the relationship of schools to their communities and the ways in which leadership and management development in the NHS, statutory services and the Third Sector compare and contrast with those in education.
Chris Oates’ career has spanned many facets of the field of education. She started her working life as a secondary school Science Teacher; then worked in industry, recruiting the long term unemployed to FE training programmes. She progressed to FE management roles, finally becoming Director of Higher Education at a land-based college.Having taken early retirement, Chris entered the world of educational consultancy. In addition she has acted as Chair of Governors at her local Primary School and as the Papers Organiser for the annual BELMAS Conference. She has also worked part-time for the Open and Newcastle Universities. In retirement Chris maintains her interest in all aspects of education by reading and contact with former colleagues. In addition to this, she acts as a mentor to autistic adults.
Jane Owens is the Chair of Governors at two local Primary Schools and the Chair of Governors at a Secondary School that is an academy and a teaching school appointed National Leader of Governance in 2012, she helped to support the National College of Teaching and Leadership to develop the External Reviews of Governance (ERG), in response to the drive towards more effective governance. She also chairs the local Governors’ Forum and writes a monthly Newsflash for all Wirral governors to keep them updated on local and national issues. Representing all Wirral governor colleagues on a variety of statutory committees ie The Children’s Trust Board, she was recently awarded an MBE in The Queen’s Birthday Honours List June 2016 for services to education in Wirral.
Petros Pashiardis is a Professor of Educational Leadership at the Open University of Cyprus. In 2014 his book, Modeling School Leadership Across Europe: In Search of New Frontiers, was published by Springer Publications. His latest book (together with Olof Johansson) was published by Bloomsbury Publications in 2016, under the title: “Successful School Leadership: International Perspectives”. For the period 2004-2008, Professor Pashiardis has been President of the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration and Management. His research interests are in leadership effects on student achievement and school improvement and leadership development.
Maggie Preedy worked for the BBC and taught English as a foreign language in SouthAmerica, before becoming a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies at the Open University, responsible for designing, writing and teaching the Masters in Education leadership and management line of study, and academic coordinator for this area in the EdD programme. She has been Director of the Centre for Educational Policy, Leadership and Lifelong Learning. She is now tutor and research consultant for the EdD, and academic consultant for the Masters, whilst also acting as a school governor.
Stephen Rayner has worked for more than thirty years in and with schools in England, as a teacher, school leader, school governor and education adviser. He is currently in the final year of a part-time professional doctorate (EdD) at the University of Manchester. Stephen’s principal research interest is the relationship between policy, professional practice and the management of change in schools, particularly in the state-funded system in England. His thesis project is a study of academisation as a change process, drawing on ethnographic work in a secondary school. Since November 2015, Stephen has had a part-time post at the Manchester Institute of Education, teaching and supervising on MA Educational Leadership programmes.
Steve Robbins has 20 years’ experience working as a teacher and Headteacher in England, Italy and Switzerland. His publication and research interests are educational leadership and ethics, decision-making, school culture and knowledge management. As a father of four bilingual children, he is also interested in the challenges of managing and leading in bilingual schools. Steve offers an international perspective to MiE through the eyes of a practitioner researcher.
Jalpa Ruparelia has extensive experience as an educator and programme manager in the secondary and FE sectors. She is currently working within Academic Development in an HEI. She is also studying part-time for her EdD and has a keen interest in critical race theory.
Catherine A Simon was elected to the BELMAS Council in 2015 and since then has served as Publications Coordinator. She has responsibility for the journals portfolio – EMAL and MiE – and strategic overview of all other forms publication, including website articles, reports and blogs. She liaises on a regular basis with SAGE, who publish our journals, and our journal and blog editors regarding such matters as distribution and contractual arrangements and innovation. Catherine also has strategic oversight of publications policy more generally including consideration of BELMAS members’ benefits, the policy implications of potential affiliations and partnerships and policy on the use of conference papers following the annual conference event. Her research interests focus on education policy, systems leadership and structural reforms. Current projects explore the role of pupil mentoring in the light of the Conservative’s ‘Life Chances’ policy and Government commitment to a national mentoring scheme, policy changes to initial teacher training since 2010 and finally the role of academy sponsors in a rapidly changing state education landscape.
Alison Taysum has served on BELMAS Council since 2003, and on BELMAS Executive as Treasurer for twelve years. She was deputy editor for MiE for five years and has published in MiE and mentored her postgraduate research students to publication in MiE. With Prof Steve Rayner, Alison launched the first BELMAS Research Interest Group focusing on the Doctorate, and has now launched the BELMAS Student Research Network. Alison serves on the BELMAS Doctoral Thesis Award Panel and the BELMAS Doctoral Bursary Award Panel. She is a Researcher at the University of Leicester, UK and leads an international research team who focus on the philosophical inquiry into education systems’ leadership and the empowerment of young societal innovators for equity and renewal. She is programme leader for the MSc Educational Leadership and externally examines Masters courses for Maynooth University, Republic of Ireland, Ulster University, Northern Ireland, and the Open University, England. Alison supervises doctoral students, and has served as external examiner of doctoral candidates’ theses in the UK, South Africa, and Pakistan. Alison is committed to the BELMAS principles and is keen to support the BELMAS editors and editorial board to serve the MiE readership.
Jonathan Young received his Doctorate of Education from the University of Leicester, U.K. in 2016. His research project focussed on the identities and aspirations of a cohort of young people attending an international school. In particular he considered the importance of ‘international capital’ on their aspirations, self-perceptions and life experiences. He has taught secondary school students in international schools in Ukraine and Belgium over a career spanning 19 years. He is currently Head of Economics at European School IV, Brussels, Belgium.
Susan Young is a journalist who has been specialising in education for more than 20 years. She was news editor and an assistant editor on the TES, where she created and edited a section for school leaders, and has also worked for several national newspapers and magazines including the Observer and the Express.
As a freelance Susan has written for a range of educational organisations, including BELMAS, English UK and the NAHT, and news outlets including the Guardian and the Tablet. She’s interested in ideas, and how to get them across in the most effective way.
