Dr Rob Smith

Professor of Education

School of Education and Social Work

Email:: Rob.smith@bcu.ac.uk
Phone:: 0121 331 5702

Rob Smith is a Professor of Education at Birmingham City University based in the Centre for the Study of Practice and Culture in Education (CSPACE). Rob supervises students researching a range of doctoral topics. Rob positions a concern with social justice at the centre of his work. He has extensive experience of writing and publishing collaboratively. His body of work explores the impact of funding and marketisation on education with a particular focus on further education provision. He has researched and written extensively in collaboration with further and higher education practitioners. Recent research with Vicky Duckworth focuses on further education as a space for transformative learning and on college leadership orientated to achieving social justice. He has also developed a strand of research relating to educational space. Recent writing includes Identity and resistance in further education written and edited with Pete Bennett and published by Routledge.

Current Activity

Areas of Expertise

Qualifications

Research

Publications

Smith, R. (2017) Area Reviews and the end of incorporation: A Machiavellian moment. In Daley, M., Orr, K. and Petrie, J. 2017. The Principal. London: UCL IoE Press.

Smith, R. (2017) Building colleges for the future: pedagogical and ideological spaces. Journal of Education Policy. 32:6, 855-870

Smith, R. (2015) College re-culturing, marketisation and knowledge: the meaning of incorporation, Journal of Educational Administration and History, 47:1, 18-39.

Co authored

Dakka, F and Smith, R. (2019) ‘An exploration of rhythms in the contemporary academy: time, space and affect’. In Huisman, J. and Tight M. (eds) 2019. Theory and Method in Higher Education Research; ISBN No: 978-1-83867-842-5.

Duckworth, V. and Smith R. (2019) Research, criticality & adult and further education: catalysing hope and dialogic caring. In Hamilton, M and Tett, L. 2019. Resisting the neo-liberal discourse in Education: local, national and transnational perspectives. London: Policy Press.

Bennett, P. and Smith R. (Eds). (2018) Identity and resistance in further education. London: Routledge.

Duckworth, V. and Smith, R. (2018) ‘Further educations: transformative teaching and learning for adults in times of austerity’. In: Boeren, E. & James, N. (2018). Being an adult learner in austere times. London: Palgrave-Macmillan.

Duckworth, V. and Smith, R. (2018) "Breaking the triple lock: further education and transformative teaching and learning", Education & Training, 60(6): 529-543

Gallagher, C. and Smith, R. (2018) The Experience of Ofsted: fear, judgement and symbolic violence. In Bennett, P. and Smith R. (Eds). 2018. Identity and resistance in further education. London: Routledge.

Gleeson, D., Hughes, J., O’Leary, M. and Smith, R. (2015) The state of professional practice and policy in the English further education system: a view from below, Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 20:1, 78-95.

Smith, R. and Wright, V. (2015) The possibilities of re-engagement: cultures of literacy education and so-called NEETs, Research in Post Compulsory Education. 20(4), 400-418. (Smith as lead writer)

Smith, R. and O’Leary, M. (2015) Partnership as cultural practice in the face of neoliberal reform, Journal of Educational Administration and History, 47:2, 174-192, (Smith as lead writer).

Wright, V. & Smith, R. (2014) Literacy education and NEETs: skills-based versus socially situated approaches to curriculum, RaPaL, Volume 83, 7-15.

Garbett, G., Orrocks, D. and Smith R. (2013) Culture Clash: Mentoring student Literacy educators in a marketised and instrumentalist FE policyscape, Research in Post Compulsory Education, Volume 18, No.3, 239-256. (Smith as lead writer)

Smith, R. & O’Leary, M. (2013) NPM in an Age of Austerity: Knowledge and Experience in Further Education, Journal of Educational Administration and History. Volume 45, No. 3, 244-266. (Smith as lead writer).