Public Policy and Professional Practice

I am an educational sociologist with interests in ethnicity, culture and religion, faith schooling and transitions from education into the labour market.  My undergraduate and master’s degrees were completed in the Sociology department at the University of Leicester.  I then completed my PhD at the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit at the University of Warwick.

My doctoral research focused on state funding and Muslim schools in England, specifically the transitional processes and implications of such schools entering into a partnership with the state.  The doctoral study draws on research findings to argue that the processes required for entering the state system have specific implications for the nature of ethos which can be nurtured within the school.  Whilst structural changes and the meeting of prerequisites visibly change the staff profile and intake of state funded Muslim schools, the ethnographic research findings demonstrate how visible structural changes necessarily result in unseen changes in the nature of ethos over time. 

Since 2005 Damian has occupied various research posts at the Institute for the Study of European Transformations at London Metropolitan University, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and the Centre for Regional Economic and Enterprise Development at the University of Sheffield. 

Publications

Breen, D. (2009b): ‘A qualitative narrative of the transition from independent to voluntary aided status: a problem for the concept of the Muslim school’, In: A. A. Veinguer, G. Dietz, D. Jozsa, and T. Knauth 2009: Islam in Education in European Countries - Pedagogical Concepts and Empirical Findings, Waxmann, pp. 95-112.

Breen, D. (2009a): ‘Religious diversity, inter-ethnic relations and the Catholic school: introducing the responsive approach to single faith schooling’, British Journal of Religious Education, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 103-115.

Breen, D. 2008: Reflections on the positionality of the white, male non-Muslim researcher in Muslim primary schools: The realities of researching Muslim women, Working Papers of the Warwick SUMINER Group 4, July 2008, pp. 19-28.

Book review:

Breen, D. 2011: ‘Faith in Education: A tribute to Terence McLaughlin’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 282-284.

I have taught across a variety of disciplines and academic departments including topics such as the sociology of work and employment, early childhood studies and research methodology at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.  My primary teaching interests include ethnicity and gender in education and employment; research in early childhood settings; education and social policy; epistemology and methodology; ethics; research design; applied quantitative and qualitative research methods and ethnography.

I am currently module leader for first year U/G modules: "Understanding Learning", "Digital Technologies: Rethinking Learning and Teaching and third year elective modules: ‘Race’, Politics and Education and Education, Work and Identity. 

I also teach on the EdD programme: units 2a & b.