Julian White

Profile

I grew up in West Yorkshire, attending De Montfort University in the 1990s, where I studied for a BA in Performing Arts.

I trained as a teacher in 1997 at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and then spent twenty years teaching Drama and English in London, Hertfordshire and Yorkshire.

As a school leader, I became increasingly concerned about the direction of national policy and decided to make a career change, so that I might develop a wider understanding of the education system. Whilst beginning a new role as a teacher educator in Bradford, I embarked on the MA in International Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Leeds, completing this in 2021. My dissertation was a Critical Policy Analysis of the Pupil Premium.

I also run a small consultancy business, working with a variety of organisations, providing support and assessment services in the teacher education sector. I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

My experiences as a teacher, writer, teacher educator and education consultant have inspired me to embark on this PhD, in which I am seeking to understand the experiences of those new to the profession.

I am part of a blended family – my partner and I share five children and we live in West Yorkshire. 

Research interests

My research interests include: education policy; teacher education; the development of teacher knowledge and skillsets.

My thesis is a Critical Policy Analysis (CPA), employing the thinking of Michel Foucault as a heuristic device. The focus policy is the Core Content Framework (CCF): introduced in 2019, this policy outlines the minimum curriculum entitlement for those studying to attain Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).

The CPA will be in three stages: a genealogy of teacher training; identifying how the related ‘texts’ of the CCF manifest and their accompanying discourses; an analysis of the impact of the CCF on the epistemic agency of developing teachers. 

Qualifications

• MA International Education Leadership and Policy
• PGCE Secondary (QTS)
• BA (hons) Performing Arts