Chris Rolph

Director - Nottingham Institute of Education

School of Social Sciences

Staff Group(s)

Secondary and Continuing Education

Email: chris.rolph@ntu.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)115 848 8961
Publications: Go to Dr Chris Rolph's publications

Role
Career overview
Research areas
Sponsors and collaborators
Publications
Press
UN Goals

Role

Dr Rolph is Associate Professor of Education Policy and Practice, and the Director of Nottingham Institute of Education - one of the country's foremost providers of initial teacher training, and a recognised centre for the study of education. He has taught on range of courses including: joint honours in education; secondary initial teacher education; MA education. He continues to supervise a number of doctoral students. He is keen to develop new partnerships with institutions at home and abroad, and is firmly committed to a collaborative approach to education at all levels, in which developments in teaching and learning are based on robust research.

Career overview

After completing a PhD in astrophysics and a post-doctoral post, Dr Rolph began teaching in secondary schools. Over 10 years in the classroom he achieved accreditation as an Advanced Skills Teacher before becoming a secondary headteacher, leading 3 schools over the next 13 years. During this time he carried out funded research projects for the TDA and NCSL, and published papers with SSAT. He joined NTU in 2016, becoming Director of Nottingham Institute of Education in 2019.

Research areas

Dr Rolph’s research interests include education policy, the education to employment transition, school leadership, accountability and performativity, change management, curriculum design, gender equity, and higher education.

Sponsors and collaborators

Dr Rolph works with a large number of colleagues around the world, including:

Dr Alfred Kitawi, Strathmore University
Prof Samson Ondigi, Kenyatta University
Dr Mousumi Mukherjee, OP Jindal Global University
Dr Melanie Nash, RMIT University
Dr Doris Ittner, PH Bern
Prof Lucian Ciolan, University of Bucharest

Publications

Books:

Rolph, C. (ed) (2024) Supervising Doctoral Candidates. Leeds: Emerald.

Rolph, C. (2023) Understanding Education Policy. London: Sage.

Other selected publications:

Rolph, C. and Kitawi, A. (2025) Neoliberal metrics and a curriculum for competence. BERA Blog 14 March 2025. https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/neoliberal-metrics-and-a-curriculum-for-competence

Rolph, C., Williams, S. and Varley, M. (2024) Grit Evaluation: Report on NTU’s evaluation of a Grit approach to Local Authority training for social work teams. Nottingham: NTU. https://www.ntu.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0032/2477642/NTU-Grit-Evaluation.pdf

Rolph, C. (2024) The orthodoxy of English education. BERA Research Intelligence 160, 24-25.

Rolph, C. and Wood, P. (2024) Democracy and education (editorial). BERA Research Intelligence 160, 17.

Rolph, C. D. (2023) RAAC in schools: how poor funding and missing data led to closures. The Conversation 6 September 2023. https://theconversation.com/raac-in-uk-schools-how-poor-funding-and-missing-data-led-to-closures-212812

Rolph, C.D. (2023) Exam results 2023: how to make sense of 'grade deflation' as A grades fall. The Conversation 17 August 2023. https://theconversation.com/exam-results-2023-how-to-make-sense-of-grade-deflation-as-a-grades-fall-211708

Rolph, C.D. (2022) What the autumn statement means for financially struggling schools. The Conversation 23 November 2022. https://theconversation.com/what-the-autumn-statement-means-for-financially-struggling-schools-195029

Vare, P., Oberholzer, L., Ahmad, M.S., Durham, H., James, J., Lee, H., Linse, C., Lofthouse, R., McGrath, S., Meehan, U., Ovenden-Hope, T., Price, L., Rolph, C.D., Sampson Chappell, L., Seymour, M., Smith, R., Sturrock, S., & Watson, K. (2022) Golden thread or gilded cage? An analysis of DfE support for the continuing professional development of teachers. UCET Position Paper. London: UCET.

Rolph, C.D. (2022) Schools in England are facing bankruptcy—here’s what the government could do to help. The Conversation 28 October 2022 https://theconversation.com/schools-in-england-are-facing-bankruptcy-heres-what-the-government-could-do-to-help-193142

Rolph, C.D. (2022) The cost of living crisis will hit schools hard. The Conversation 12 September 2022 https://theconversation.com/the-cost-of-living-crisis-will-hit-schools-hard-190186

Rolph, C.D. (2022) Post-pandemic: return or reset? BERA Blog 16 February 2022 https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/post-pandemic-return-or-reset

Rolph, C.D. (2021) Using school-level data to investigate the impact of a one-to-one mathematics teaching resource in English primary schools. Education Sciences, 11 (11): 740. DOI doi.org/10.3390/educsci11110740

Rolph, C.D. (2019) Conservative parliamentary majority: what it could mean for schools. The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/conservative-parliamentary-majority-what-it-could-mean-for-schools-128677

Rolph, C.D. (2019) Grammar school expansion: ideology or evidence-based? Public Sector Focus 20 68. https://flickread.com/edition/html/index.php?pdf=5c76bc1d23a89#70

See all of Dr Chris Rolph's publications...