Kathryn Ecclestone

Dr Kathryn Ecclestone is Professor of Education and Social Inclusion at the University of Birmingham. She has published and spoken widely on the effects of education policy on everyday assessment and teaching activities and attitudes to learning in further, higher and adult education.

Her most recent book, with Dennis Hayes, is ‘The Dangerous Rise of the Therapeutic Education’, a controversial critique of the ways in which education policy and practice focuses increasingly on the emotional vulnerability of children, young people and adults. She is currently directing an ESRC-funded seminar series on emotional well-being and social justice, sponsored by the RSA and a keynote session ‘Therapy Culture Re-visited’ at this year’s ‘Battle of Ideas’ conference.

Publications

2009 (with Gert Biesta and Martin Hughes, editors) Transitions and learning through the lifecourse (London, Routledge)

2009 (with Dennis Hayes) Changing the subject: the educational implications of developing emotional well-being, Oxford Review of Education, 35, 3, 37I-39I

2008 (with Dennis Hayes) The dangerous rise of therapeutic education (London, Routledge)

2007 Resisting images of the ‘diminished self’: the rise of emotional well-being in education policy, Journal of Education Policy,22, 4, 429-455

2007 Learning assessment: students’ experiences in post-school qualifications, in Boud, D. and Falichov, N. (eds) Rethinking Assessment in higher education (London, RoutledgeFalmer)

2004 (second edition) Assessment and Qualifications in Post-Compulsory Education: principles, policy and practice Leicester, National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education,

2004 Learning or therapy?: the demoralisation of education British Journal of Educational Studies, 57, 3, 127 - 141

2002 Learning Autonomy in Post-16 Education: the politics and practice of formative assessment (London, RoutledgeFalmer)