Research team

Dr Marina Shapira

Dr Marina Shapira is the Principal Investigator on the Nuffield Foundation funded project: Choice, attainment and positive destinations: exploring the impact of curriculum policy change on young people. Dr Shapira is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Stirling. Her research interests include: the analysis of youth transitions; the attainment gap between migrant and non-migrant children; the role of educational qualifications in socio-economic mobility; and qualification frameworks and recognition of prior learning.

Professor Mark Priestley

Mark Priestley is Professor of Education at the University of Stirling and the director of the Stirling Network for Curriculum Studies, an international network set up in 2016 to connect curriculum scholars, policymakers and practitioners, with an explicit goal of repositioning curriculum studies at the heart of educational policy and practice. His research interests lie in the school curriculum – theory, policy and practice – and especially the processes of curriculum making across different layers of education systems. His publications include ‘Teacher Agency: An Ecological Approach’. He is a Lead Editor of the Curriculum Journal and Co-Convener of the EERA network 3, Curriculum.

Dr Tracey Peace-Hughes

Tracey Peace-Hughes is a Research Fellow on the project. She obtained her PhD from the University of Stirling in 2018 with her thesis exploring schools that achieved good educational outcomes for their students despite being located in areas of socio-economic disadvantage. Her research interests include: educational inequalities; understandings of educational attainment/achievement; and research methodology, including mixed method research and methodologies to involve children and young people.

Dr Camilla Barnett

Camilla Barnett is a research assistant and PhD student at the University of Stirling. Her thesis explores how quantitative researchers can recognise the intersection of gender and occupations when measuring women’s social positions. Her main research interests are in the fields of social stratification and inequality, with a particular focus on gender-based inequalities; and quantitative research methodologies.

Michelle Ritchie

Michelle is a Research Assistant on the project. She is a GTCS registered teacher of Modern Studies. Michelle was awarded a departmental studentship to complete her MRes. Educational Research thesis on the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence in Scottish secondary schools. Her main research interests are curriculum theory and provision. 

Dr David Griffiths

Theme by the University of Stirling