Mr GLENN MILLINGTON

Over fifteen years experience of working within secondary schools within the north-west as a teacher of religious studies and sociology, middle leader and senior leader. 

Currently undertaking a GTA position involving teaching on the Bachelor of Education course and the BA Secondary Religious Education with QTS course. 

Academic interests include; education and social justice, education policy and disadvataged students and critical thinking within higher education.

My current thesis relates to policy enactment within my home town of Blackpool which was designated as one of six ‘opportunity areas’ in England in October 2016. The policy means that extra investment will be made available, by the government, to schools within Blackpool, to try to raise standards for disadvantaged students. The Department for Education has recognised the need for greater practical and financial support and has identified three priorities; raising attainment and progress in Blackpool schools, improving attendance and reducing exclusions and providing greater support and advice for young people in between school and college / work.

My study will investigate the conditions and events that have led to the formation of this policy and how this policy has been perceived by policy enactors within Blackpool schools. Drawing upon a theoretical framework highly influenced by Pierre Bourdieu, my aim is to gain a better understanding of the complex nature of educational policy and particularly how policy is constructed and implemented. Although Bourdieu did not write anything specifically about education policy, I will show how his theoretical concepts can be productively utilised in policy sociology within education, and his methodological approach can be helpful when researching and understanding education policy.

I will be conducting the research from a critical theoretical perspective and I will try and comprehend how issues relating to habitus, capital and field can affect policy discourse, and how a study of discourse can help me understand how solutions, but also further problems can be created with the formulation of new policies, and to identify why progressive change has been difficult to achieve.