Professor Donald Gillies

Professor of Education Policy

Qualifications

M.A.(Hons.); M.Ed.; PhD

Donald Gillies joined the faculty in 2012 as Professor of Education Policy. Prior to that he had been Lecturer, and Senior Lecturer, in Educational Studies at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Before moving into higher education, he worked for 21 years as a secondary school teacher, latterly as Principal Teacher of English in a large comprehensive school in South Lanarkshire.

Professor Gillies has his main research interests in the governance of state education, and in the ways in which issues of educational inequality are managed politically. He has particular interests in education policy, the critical discourse analysis of policy, the philosophy of education, the impact of socio-economic and cultural factors on education, and in the educational relevance of the work of Michel Foucault and of Pierre Bourdieu. He has supervised a number of students towards M.Ed., M.Phil., MSc., EdD., and PhD degrees.

Memberships

Higher Education Academy; Scottish Educational Research Association; British Educational Research Association; European Educational Research Association; Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain; Society of Educational Studies. Editorial board member Scottish Educational Review.

Select Publications

Journal articles

Pirrie, A., & Gillies, D. (2012). Untimely meditations on the disciplines of education. British Journal of Educational Studies, 60(4).

Gillies, D. (2011). State education as high-yield investment: Human Capital Theory in European policy discourse. Journal of Pedagogy, 2(2), 224-245.

Gillies, D. (2011). Agile bodies: a new imperative in neoliberal governance. Journal of Education Policy, 26(2), 207–223.

Gillies, D. (2010). Economic goals, Quality discourse, and the narrowing of European state education. Education, Knowledge & Economy, 4(2), 103–118.

Gillies, D., Wilson, A., Soden, R., Gray, S., & McQueen, I. (2010). Capital, culture, and community: understanding school engagement in a challenging context. Improving Schools, 13(1), 21–38.

Gillies, D. (2008). Educational potential, underachievement, and cultural pluralism. Education in the North, 16, 23–32.

Gillies, D. (2008). Quality and equality: the mask of discursive conflation in education policy texts. Journal of Education Policy, 23(6), 685–699.

Gillies, D. (2008). The politics of Scottish education. In T.G.K. Bryce & W.M. Humes (Eds.), Scottish education (3^rd ed., pp. 80–89). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Gillies, D. (2008). Student perspectives on videoconferencing in teacher education at a distance. Distance Education, 29(1), 107–118.

Gillies, D. (2008). Developing governmentality: conduct³and education policy. Journal of Education Policy, 23(4), 415–427.

Gillies, D. (2007). Excellence and education: rhetoric and reality. Education, Knowledge and Economy, 1(1), 19–35.

Gillies, D. (2006). Excellence, improvement, and HMIE’s new six-point scale. Education in the North, 14, 15–22.

Gillies, D. (2006). A Curriculum for Excellence: a question of values. Scottish Educational Review, 38(1), 25–36.

Books

Bryce, T., Humes, W., Gillies, D., & Kennedy, A. (Eds.). (2013, forthcoming). Scottish education (4^th ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Gillies, D. (2013, forthcoming). Educational leadership and Michel Foucault. London: Routledge.

Gillies, D. (1999). Radical diplomat. London: I.B.Tauris.[Biography of Lord Inverchapel].

Website

http://www.dictionaryofeducation.co.uk/

Compiled in 2010, this is to be re-launched shortly, following a change of web host.