University of Stirling

Faculty Member, Education

Research Fellow, Laboratory for Educational Theory

About

Current active research interests are:
1) Theory and philosophy of education and especially educational alternatives (democratic schooling and elective home education in particular)
2) Silence in schools and education and also more broadly as philosophy and practice, particularly in institutional settings.
3) Interdisciplinarity in terms of the conditions of thought and its products. This interest includes disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity in educational studies.
4) Contract research 'careers' and the structures of higher education.

Working for the period 2010-2013 in the Laboratory for Educational Theory with Professors Gert Biesta, Julie Allan and other colleagues.

New book out soon: Silence in Schools, Trentham Press, Stoke-on-Trent, May 2012
To pre-order: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silence-Schools-Helen-Lees/dp/1858564751/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1319285168&sr=8-3

Website here: www.silenceinschools.org

Founding co-editor of Other Education, a journal of alternative education and educational alternatives. Now accepting submissions. Go to www.othereducation.org to see the call for papers.

Graduated in July 2011 with a PhD from University of Birmingham, School of Education. Main supervisor was Professor Clive Harber; secondary supervisor was Dr Nick Peim.

Link to thesis here: http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/1570/

TITLE: The Gateless Gate of Home Education Discovery: What happens to the self of adults upon discovery of the possibility and possibilities of an educational alternative?

ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates the moment of discovery of educational alternatives and in particular contemporary discovery of elective home education by parents and other adults in England. The discussion highlights an empirical and theoretical context for this discovery. Questions involve whether there is a moment of ontological conversion in the self of people discovering another way of educating from mainstream authoritarian schooling. The research data presented suggests that a moment of ‘gestalt switch’ conversion exists between what can be called different ‘worlds’ of education, following Thomas S. Kuhn’s framework of scientific discovery. By finding the existence of such a moment, the data indicates that education hegemonically conflated with mainstream authoritarian schooling is illegitimate: education is a paradigmatic field wherein all differing paradigms of educational theory and practice have equal legitimacy, irrespective of resources and participants. The moment of discovery investigated is characterised by surprising elements. Discovery of an alternative way of educating children seems to have a strong positive impact on both the adults and the children involved. The study shows that parents want information on various educational modalities to be widely available and provided by the government in the process of choosing education for their children.

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