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Professor Philip Wood's Inaugural Lecture

From Ruskin to The Waste Land (And Beyond?): A Personal Genealogy of Change in Education

Philip Wood
Networking | Public lectures | Seminars

In this inaugural lecture, Professor Phil Wood, Professor of Education in the Nottingham Institute of Education in the School of Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent University, reflects on his near 50 year experience of education. He will explore a personal genealogy of education at both macro and micro scales, reflecting on the processes and impacts of change.

  • From: Tuesday 6 May 2025, 6 pm
  • To: Tuesday 6 May 2025, 7.30 pm
  • Registration: 5.30 pm
  • Location: Lecture Theatre 5, Newton building, City Campus, Nottingham, NG1 4BU
  • Booking deadline: Tuesday 6 May 2025, 5.00 pm
  • Download this event to your calendar
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Event details

In this inaugural lecture, Professor Phil Wood reflects on his near 50 year experience of education. He entered his local community primary school at the age of 5 and has not left education since(!) eventually working in both schools and universities. He explores a personal genealogy of education at both macro and micro scales, reflecting on the processes and impacts of change. Subsequent to early engagements in his degree and doctoral research in geography, Phil began to understand change as being multifaceted and complex. Whilst teaching in Lincolnshire schools in the 1990s and early 2000s he experienced first hand the impacts of neoliberal policy under the guise of New Public Management. At the same time he was involved in a progressive, small-scale national pilot project focusing on curriculum change. These experiences have become twin foci for Phil’s work, understanding and critiquing the negative impacts of New Public Managerialism, whilst also exploring and developing small-scale change projects intended to create alternative approaches to a sector increasingly experiencing ruination through often damaging and simplistic policy implementation. He finishes by characterising a model of the dissociative organisation, possibly the apex of the neoliberal journey, and briefly outlines a hopeful alternative, the promotive organisation.

Biography

Phil is Professor of Education in the Nottingham Institute of Education in the School of Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent University. He is a member of both the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society and the British Educational Research Association. His expertise is in educational change, in particular approaches to pedagogic change through action research and lesson study, and critiques of New Public Managerialism and its impact on educational professionals, organisations and initial teacher education. Phil began his academic career by completing a doctorate in Quaternary Sciences at Royal Holloway University, London exploring high energy coastal deposits in the Mediterranean, developing the use of geochronological tools to estimate their age. He then followed a career in school teaching, working in schools in Lincolnshire becoming a head of department and an Advanced Skills Teacher. During this period he also sat on the national Assessment and Examination Working Group of the Geographical Association and was involved in the QCA Pilot GCSE in Geography Project. Phil then entered academic life once more at University of Leicester as a PGCE tutor and Programme Leader before leading international masters programmes. More recently he has led researcher development at Bishop Grosseteste University whilst working on several international research projects focused on pedagogic innovation and student teacher well-being. He currently sits on grant and thesis award review panels for BELMAS, is on the editorial board of Management in Education, and recently began to develop an Initial Teacher Educator Research Network alongside Dr Aimee Quickfall of Leeds Trinity University.

Programme

5.30 pm

Registration and welcome refreshments

6 pm

Welcome talk

6.05 pm

Lecture begins

6.50 pm

Close and thanks by Executive Dean

7 pm

Drinks reception

7.30 pm

Close

Location details

Address:

Newton building
City Campus
 Nottingham
 NG1 4BU

Parking:

Take a look at our maps and directions page to find the best parking for you to our City campus.

Travel Info:

Take a look at our maps and directions page to find the best parking for you to our City campus.

Past event

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