Practitioner Research in Education: Making a Difference

David Middlewood is currently a part-time Research Fellow at the Centre for Educational Studies in the University of Warwick, having previously worked at the University of Lincoln and the University of Leicester where he was Deputy Director of the Centre for Educational Leadership and Management. Prior to working in Higher Education, David taught in schools for many years, culminating in the principalship of a comprehensive secondary school for nine years, where awards were won for creative arts and equal opportunities. He has taught and researched extensively in the UK and also in various countries in Europe and Africa, being a visiting professor in New Zealand and in South Africa. David has written and edited more than twenty books, many on people leadership and management, strategic leadership, appraisal, practitioner research and some recent research includes work on high performing teams, support staff and student voice. He was co-editor of two professional journals for both primary and secondary school leaders for over six years. He recently co-authored a book on the leadership of groups of schools and his current work (with Ian Abbott) concerns leadership of learning for disadvantaged pupils. Marianne Coleman is Reader Emerita in Educational Leadership at University College London, Institute of Education. Before a career in higher education at the University of Leicester and the Institute of Education she was a secondary school teacher and an advisory teacher in an LEA. Now retired, she continues to research and write focusing on her interest in gender and leadership and wider issues of diversity and social justice. She has recently co-authored a book on ageing and is a trustee of the Nurture Group Network, an educational charity which supports children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.