Welcome to the Education Observatory
The Education Observatory undertakes research in all areas of education and allied areas of social policy to secure social justice and regional transformation in the West Midlands. Its aims to undertake high quality research and consultancy, which informs debate and has impact on practice and policy. We encourage collaborations among researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and other local, regional and national stakeholders.
Visit our website at the University of Wolverhampton to find out more about our research, publications and to see our news and events.
Micro-sites
Institute of Leadership for Education
Find out more about our leadership events, working papers and more.
Pupil Premium Primer
Discover our Pupil Premium research and resources and evaluate your school.
Academic Unbelonging and the Neoliberal University
A comparative case study of postgraduate students’ experiences at two universities.
Latest News

Event: Beyond Covid-19 – Lessons for advancing digital inclusion in the region
April 7, 2021
The second regional event: Beyond Covid-19 – Lessons for advancing digital inclusion in the region was held on 10 March 2021.

Book Seminar – Innovative research methods in the early years: beyond the conventional
April 6, 2021
New publication available now via Routledge

Leading Schools in the West Midlands: Social Justice and Inclusion Conference 2021
March 4, 2021
Hosted in partnership with the West Midlands Violence Reduction Unit
Latest Blogs

The Right Way Up
June 23, 2022
In this blog post, current first year EdD student Nigel Hooson outlines his journey into lifelong learning that has seen him make some decisive and interesting choices to arrive at the doctorate in education programme at the university… Following a meeting with my Director of Studies (DoS), Doctor Stuart Connor, I feel that I have

Diverse Leadership – a force for good, to address social injustices
March 13, 2022
Day 4 of the leadership conference started off with Vivienne Porritt, co-founder of WomenEd. Vivienne reflected on the importance of developing women as leaders within the education community. She highlighted that even though women make up 75% of the workforce in teaching, this percentage is not reflected in the leadership structures of school. Vivienne advocated
Continue Reading “Diverse Leadership – a force for good, to address social injustices”

Inclusive leadership is to draw on the talents of others, and develop them in diverse environments to flourish
March 10, 2022
Allana Gay, Headteacher and Co-Founder of BAMEed, shared her leadership journey on day three of our leadership conference. She reflected on how she started her journey in the Caribbean and how she had to work through the various challenges and opportunities that came her way as a BAME educator. Allana shared how BAME educators are

Leading with Purpose, Vision and Values
March 9, 2022
Fullan (2019) and Sinek (2010) remind us of the importance of purposeful leadership, the importance of making our ‘why’ clear, and to lead with clarity and vision. Dr Matt Silver, in his keynote at our Inclusion and Diversity in Leadership conference, discussed the importance of purpose and vision and how it needs to align with

Leading with Kindness: Inclusive Leadership is putting the child at the heart of what we do
March 8, 2022
We have a rare opportunity as teachers, educators and leaders to make a difference to every child’s life everyday. Leadership is viewed as one of the most important aspects that can make a profound difference to a child’s outcomes in education contexts (Bush, 2020). Francke (2019) discuses how diverse leadership can make a significant impact

Reflections in the Rear-View Mirror
December 6, 2021
“There have been some good things: the concern to respond to learners’ voice is evident in most institutions; some colleges still maintain their role in community education; universities are still populated by some colleagues who support each other; teacher education can still be inspirational.”