Group members

Dr Tristan Bunnell (Group Convenor)

Tristan Bunnell’s research focuses on international education, particularly trends and developments in international schooling and international curricula such as the International Baccalaureate.

Dr Rita Chawla-Duggan

Rita Chawla-Duggan’s research interests are in qualitative research methodology especially the use of visual methods, educational quality, the study of pedagogic relations and child socialisation, early childhood learning and development and the social influences on young children’s learning, especially fathering.

Sian Ephgrave

Sian Ephgrave’s research examines educator wellbeing in the context of global education trends particularly in curriculum design and the benefits of relational and experiential learning in local contexts internationally.

Michael Fertig

Michael Fertig’s research focuses on school leadership and management particularly in international schools and developing nation contexts.

Professor Mary Hayden

Mary Hayden’s research focuses particularly on international schools and international education.

Dr Brendan Higgins

Brendan Higgins’ research interests centre on leadership and management in education, social justice, international contexts in education and developing staff for institutional effectiveness.

Dr Jim Hordern

Jim Hordern’s research interests are in educational knowledge and practice, primarily in professional and vocational education.

Dr Shona McIntosh

Shona McIntosh’s research in Global Citizenship Education takes a decolonial theoretical approach to understanding enduring tensions in the field of international education.

Dr Denise Mifsud

Denise Mifsud’s research explores critical leadership theories, with a particular interest in educational leadership, especially distributed forms; school networks and educational reform; as well as initial teacher education.

Dr Pedro Pineda Rodriguez

Pedro Pineda Rodriguez’s research focuses on the influence of the global culture on policies, organizational structures, and practices in secondary schools and universities.

Dr Andrés Sandoval-Hernández

Andrés Sandoval-Hernández’s research interests include comparative analyses of educational systems using international large-scale assessment (ILSA) data with a focus on educational inequalities and civic education.

Dr Nicola Savvides

Nicola Savvides’ research lies within the fields of Comparative and International Education and Intercultural Education and has included analysing how national, European and internationalised education policies, curricula and pedagogical practices shape students’ experiences, identities, interculturality, and sense of citizenship.

Professor Jeff Thompson

Jeff Thompson’s research focuses particularly on international schools and international education.

Doctoral research students

Na Boa

Na Boa’s doctoral research interest lies in unravelling the intricacies of distributed leadership, using both public and private schools in Shanghai. This study investigates the various initiatives implemented in these schools in relation to distributed leadership.

Zhijun Chen

Zhijun Chen’s doctoral research examines how differential effectiveness contributes to education equality across different countries. This study uses international large-scale assessments for international comparative analysis and conduct qualitative research through classroom observation and teacher interviews, focusing on secondary schools.

Paul Churchill

Paul Churchill’s doctoral research is interested in how international schools, as complex and hybrid organisations, use multiple ‘projected images’ or ‘faces’ on their websites to address and legitimise themselves according to different stakeholder groups. This includes considering how international schools manage the potential ambiguity of messages, and what these ‘images’ tell us about both the context that schools are operating in, and the normative expectations of those stakeholder groups that confer legitimacy.

Adam Coates

Adam Coates’ doctoral research has a focus on using cognitive diagnostic modelling with national and international assessments to identify strengths and weaknesses of mathematics learning in England.

Yanyan Dong

Yanyan Dong’s doctoral research explores the intricate aspects of identity construction and lived reality of precarity and privilege among Chinese teachers within the context of teaching International Baccalaureate Chinese in international schools in China.

Nicholas Forde

Nicholas Forde’s research is on the growth of international schools in Hong Kong, where it considers the process of ‘becoming international’ and analyses the motivations, aspirations, and perceptions of local Hong Kong Chinese parents who have moved their children from local/national schools.

Leila Holmyard

Leila Holmyard’s doctoral research involves a comparative case study of three international schools, using student focus groups and interviews with practitioners, to understand how they are perceived to being safeguarding children. The study explores adult and student perceptions of the forms of harm occurring and the promising practices that safeguard students, whilst also identifying safeguarding challenges within the post-pandemic landscape.

Dandan Li

Dandan Li’s doctoral research investigates and compares how policy reform enactment varies within England and Chinese higher education institutions. Through two case studies (one in China, one in England) it conducts a content analysis and interviews policy actors to investigate how leadership styles adjust to policy reform.

Natalia López-Hornickel

Natalia’s doctoral research analyses attitudes toward gender equality among Latin American adolescents, considering political socialisation factors at the family, school, and system levels. It identifies adhesion profiles to these attitudes and compares them in different cultural contexts using ICCS data from 2009, 2016 and 2022.

Afzal Munna

Afzal Munna’s qualitative study is into providing a comprehensive understanding of how various intersecting factors, such as race, ethnicity, nationality, and socio-economic background, influence the educational experiences and opportunities of migrant students in higher education in the UK. It aims to shed light on both the challenges they face and the strategies that can enhance their inclusion and success.

Eleanor Prescott

Eleanor Prescott’s research investigates ow senior leaders in non-traditional international schools cope and survive. Using evidence from British Satellite Colleges in Asia this study aims to give voice to lived experiences of senior leaders currently missing in research, to better understand how despite their ‘precarious privilege’ they survive or even thrive in these leadership contexts.

Mary Beth Romo

Mary Beth’s doctoral study considers two ways of viewing an International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) education: one in terms of its contribution of global citizens who work to address social injustice and environmental crises and the other in terms of its reproduction of a privileged class of a global elite. This qualitative research methodology involves interviewing alumni about their life trajectories and perceived links to IB educational goals.

Simon Probert

Simon Probert's doctoral research is around curriculum design in the Chinese international school sector, with an emphasis on student understandings and perceptions of internationalism, and the relevance of post-colonialism to this field. The study examines the growth of British-branded overseas Satellite Colleges within the sector, and ways they represent the continuing evolution of international education.

David Suits

David Suits’ qualitative study explores the development of creative thinking in 16-year-old International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IBMYP) Design students from diverse nationalities at an international school in Northern Europe. This will provide insights that influence and enhance the programme’s approach to fostering creative thinking.

Damion Walker

Damion Walker’s doctoral study focuses on understanding the organisational needs of an Elite Traditional International School (ETIS) in Canada. Using a mixed-method approach, it explores what faculty and students perceive to be the most important elements of their institution’s expressive culture.

Ziang Wang

Ziang Wang’s doctoral study explores the lived reality of Chinese students attending an International Branch Campus in mainland China affiliated with a university in England. The study looks at the students’ experiences and reasons for choosing to attend an IBC.