University of Stirling

School of Education

Staff

 

Alison Fox

 

Senior Teaching Fellow

  Dr. Alison Fox
address

Room A27
Pathfoot Building
School of Education
University of Stirling
Stirling
Scotland

FK9 4LA

telephone

Tel: + 44 (0) 1786 467623
email Email:alison.fox@stir.ac.uk
web Web: www.ioe.stir.ac.uk

Background:

Alison Fox is a Senior Teaching Fellow and has worked within the Professional Education Team since 2002.

As course director of MSc Professional Enquiry: Educational Leadership (with Scottish Qualification for Headship), Alison works with seven local authorities from Dumfries and Galloway to Angus. She is also course director of the two Postgraduate Certificates: Professional Enquiry: Educational Leadership and Professional Enquiry: Supporting Professional Growth.

Research Interests:

Alison is a member of ProPEL Professional Practice, Education and Learning, an International Network for Research. She is interested  in leadership practices in schools. In her recent doctoral thesis she explored the practice of collaborative professional enquiry. Using a Foucauldian framework to analyse the ways that relations of power positioned the teachers and their managers, this study highlighted some of the tensions inherent in distributed leadership. This has heightened her interest in issues of power, control and discipline within the school system, and the impact these have on professional practices.

Issues and Questions in Researching Professional Learning/Responsibility:

She is currently interested in the way that historical and embedded hierarchical systems position teachers and school managers, often in contrast with current stated policy intentions. Her questions centre on the possibility of democratic practices within this environment.   She is also exploring the current interest in impact of professional development across various fields of practice, with a focus on professional doctoral study.

Publications:

Reeves, J. and Fox, A (2008) (Eds) Practice-focused Learning: Developing excellence in teaching. Edinburgh: Dunedin Press

Fox, A (2009)  Leading Collaborative Professional Enquiry: Implications for Teachers, Chartered Teachers and their Managers. Unpublished doctoral thesis available at http://hdl.handle.net/1893/1756