Dr Lucy Wenham
Expertise
I research problems of educational marginalisation and exclusion and solutions involving critical pedagogy, critical eco-pedagogy and critical hope. I explore educations key role in tackling climate and social injustice together.
Current positions
Senior Lecturer
School of Education
Contact
Press and media
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Biography
I completed a PhD in Sociology of Education at the IoE, UCL, in London. As a Secondary School teacher in schools in challenging circumstances for over 15 years, much of my research is ethnographic and I prefer a grounded theory approach to analysis in order to allow the voices of the marginalised to shine through.
I am drawn to critical pedagogies, and critical eco-pedagogies, their limitations and possibilities, within and outside the classroom, including how unplanned critical pedagogies arise through collective action, as well as how a critical pedagogical approach can support inclusive climate change education.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Learning from Lived Experiences of Exclusion from School
Principal Investigator
Description
School exclusion, whether permeant or fixed-term, is argued to be an essential behaviour management tool for schools, necessary to establish and maintain high standards of behaviour for learning as well…Managing organisational unit
School of EducationDates
17/03/2025 to 16/12/2025
Thriving at Alternative Provision: Learning from Community Models of Research-Informed Practice
Principal Investigator
Description
Disengagement from education and school refusal, remain contentious issues, heightened since Covid, with school attendance figures indicating that students not-in-schools, or persistently absent are a stubbornly intractable concern. Moreover, this…Managing organisational unit
School of EducationDates
23/09/2024 to 22/03/2025
From the Ground Up: Outdoor Learning with Adolescents
Principal Investigator
Description
Tackling climate and social justice together is a cornerstone of eco-pedagogy. How this can be achieved in practice within mainstream school setting is contested. Moreover, work within mainstream secondary school…Managing organisational unit
School of EducationDates
12/06/2024 to 31/07/2025
City Farms: Possibilities for making kin and climate change education
Role
Co-Principal Investigator
Description
City farms are a rich site for the exploration of education, community and connection with ‘nature’ yet there is extremely limited research into them. We are drawing on ideas of…Managing organisational unit
School of EducationDates
22/05/2023 to 10/03/2025
Innovative practice in Climate Change Education: Exploring one Primary School’s Approach
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Dates
01/11/2021 to 31/10/2022
Thesis supervisions
Emerging mathematics - shifting awareness in a Steiner school community
Supervisors
Quality Assurance Policy Enactment in Education
Supervisors
Shedding Light on the Role of the Industry Mentor
Supervisors
Exploring the role and possibilities for a professional learning community in Higher Education
Supervisors
A study of the elements affecting within-class grouping in catering for learner diversity in Hong Kong secondary economics lessons
Supervisors
Skilling the gap
Supervisors
Primary teacher professional learning in the Maldives
Supervisors
Publications
Recent publications
18/03/2024Places to Rethink Connectedness
Anonymity as Freedom:
Curriculum Studies Collaborative Journal
Student Rent-Strikes
Critical Education
Support or Surveillance? – Mapping the Experiences of Beginning Teachers Working Within the Early Career Framework
British Educational Research Journal
Film 2023: Exploring the potential of a Film Club to promote critical reflection on race and religion in teacher education
Teaching
I teach, tutor and supervise across UG, Masters, EdD and PhD portfolios.
Recently at UG I taught on 'Learning Lives', 'Educational Statistics' and 'Pedagogies for Social Justice', as well as overseeing the Dissertation Unit. At Masters, I taught an open unit 'Big Ideas in Education'. At Doctoral, I taught 'Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods in the Social Sciences'.
Related people
Dr Lorna Smith
Associate Professor in Education
School of Education
Dr Janet Orchard
Associate Professor in Philosophy and Religion in Teacher Education
School of Education
Professor Sabine Hauert
Professor of Swarm Engineering
School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology
Dr Nicola Warren-Lee
Senior Lecturer
School of Education