A Dis-United Kingdom? A Comparative Analysis of the United Kingdom’s Four Nations Positions on Education Policy and Practice in 2024

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

This Symposium outlines the current position of both education policy and practice in each of the four nations that make up the UK in 2024. It will analyze how their education policies are both different to and from each other, but also the practices and current directions that they are moving in - it will discuss how and why they are rapidly seen as diverging from each other. The sessions will each cover any recent changes to school organization; changes to the middle tier; exam result progress; directions of major policies; and the current trajectories. Some countries now have very different priorities to others, and the antecedents of this will also be explored and contextualized.

Sub Unit

• International Aligned Associations / British Educational Leadership, Management, and Administration Society - BELMAS

Chair

• Deborah Emily Outhwaite, BELMAS

Papers

• An Analysis of Education Policy and Practice in Wales - Ken Jones, Professional Development in Education

• An Analysis of Education Policy and Practice in Northern Ireland - Tony M. Gallagher, Queen's University - Belfast

• An Analysis of Education Policy and Practice in Scotland - Christopher James Chapman, University of Glasgow

• An Analysis of Education Policy and Practice in England - Toby M. Greany, University of Nottingham; Lizana Oberholzer, University of Wolverhampton

Discussant

• Qing Gu, University College London