Public Policy and Professional Practice

My first degree was in Sociology and Psychology and my PhD in the Sociology of Education.  I worked  as a research fellow on an ESRC funded project  before taking up a lectureship at Keele.  I was promoted to senior lecturer in 2004.

My past work includes teaching sociology at A level – I taught for six years at Newcastle-under-Lyme college of FE.  I have also worked in the voluntary sector for Victim Support in Camden, London.   

My research and publications fall broadly within the areas of sociology of education and education policy.

I have conducted research  on a range of topics including  the changing cultures of further education management and leadership in the context of managerial reform in the 1990s and educational and health inequalities in Stoke-on-Trent.  More recently my research has been concerned with raced, gendered and classed inequalities and identities, especially young masculinities and femininities in a schooling context.  My current research (funded by the British Academy) focuses on children’s understandings of ‘peak oil’ and the implications for schooling, citizenship and sustainability. This builds on the work developed in my two single authored books, on children and young peoples’ social and political identifications: The New folk Devils: Muslim boys and education in England (2011) The Schooling and Identity of Asian girls (2003). I am also interested in researching and writing on the field of sociology of education.

I am on the editorial board of the British Journal of Sociology of Education , the advisory board of the Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Diversity and the editorial team of the Journal of GlobalFaultlines.  I served as a member of the  Gender and Education Editorial board from 2006-2012. I am also an active member of the British Educational Research Association Special Interest Group on ‘Race’, Ethnicity and Education, which I co-convened in its inaugural term with Professor Gill Crozier (2005-2008).

I have supervised doctoral work on:  young people and politics; youth, social policy and education; gender, sexuality and higher education, gendered and sexualised identities and primary schooling in England, Madrasa Education in Pakistan, Turkish youth, religion and identity, managerialism and higher education; gender and management in further education; primary school teachers and performance related pay; professionalism and professional work identities and men and masculinities in the nursing profession. 

I welcome applications for doctoral study and/or collaborative work in any of the above and related areas. 

Select recent keynotes/invited papers

• Shain, F  'Intersections of 'race', class and gender in the social and political identifications of young Muslims in England'. Invited paper: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Lancaster University, October  24, 2012
• Shain, F   ‘The girl effect’: exploring gendered impacts and opportunities in an age of austerity'.Keynote paper: Modern girlhoods in the 21^st Century: organized and sponsored by the Gender and Education Association,  Brunel University, the BSA youth studies group, February 8, 2012
• Shain F.   The Prevent Agenda and its unintended and intended consequences, invited panel contribution to mark the launch of the Centre for Identities and Social Justice, Goldsmiths College, October 5, 2011. link>
• Shain F. New Labour, Education and the ‘War on Terror' invited panel contribution, ‘Islamaphobia, Islam and Education’- British Educational Research Association (BERA) SIG Conference 2010, University of East London,  March, 4,2011.
• Shain F.   'New Folk Devils: Muslim boys and education in England', invited paper, Research Matters seminar series, Anglia Ruskin University, May12, 2010.
• Shain F.   It’s all a conspiracy: pupil talk on the ’war on terror’, invited paper - Identities and Social Justice Group, Goldsmiths College, November 25, 2010
• Shain F.   New Folk Devils: Muslim Youth and Education under New Labour, invited paper - Institute of Education, CeCeps Seminar Series: Social Class and Inequalities in the Policy Frame, November, 3,  2010
• Shain F.   From Macpherson to the ‘War on Terror’: analysing the educational implications of New Labour’s record on ‘race’,   Keynote Symposium on Race and Educational (in)equalities, Main British Education Research Association Conference, Manchester University, 4 September, 2009. link>
• Shain F.   'Refusing to Integrate? Asian girls, achievement and the experience of schooling, invited paper, ESRC seminar series, Girls and Education 3-16, Cardiff University, November 22 2006. full text>
• Shain F.   'Intersections of race and class in the social and political identifications of Muslim youth'   Keynote Symposium, on Theorising Race and Racisms, BERA conference, University of Glamorgan. 15 September 15, 2005

Teaching

• EDU-10029 Childhood, Policy and Education (Module Leader)
• EDU-30071 Independent Research Project (Dissertation) (Module Leader)
• EDU-40106 Introduction to theories and methods as a reflective practitioner-researcher (Module Leader)
• EDU-40104  Critical Theories and Analytical Perpsectives in Education
• EDU-40107 Preparing and Presenting a Thesis Proposal (thesis progression) (Module Leader)
• EDU-40035 Education special option (research training) (Module Leader)
• Thesis workshops

Successful Doctoral completions:

Lead supervised:

• 2012       Tom O’Connor   ‘Men in the  nursing profession: masculinities and gendered identities’
• 2010       Mary Bradshaw    'Women managers' perspectives on the further education maelstrom '
• 2010       Hazel Mackey   'The narrative construction of professional identities : the case of occupational therapy'
• 2010       Virgina Fisher  'Double, double toil and (GENDER) trouble' a feminist ethnography of the performance of gender and sexuality within a business school'
• 2006       Julie Harrower   'New managerialism, women managers in the academy, and the regulation of the gendered identities: a case study of a 'new' university' 

 Co/second supervised:

• 2012       Francis Farrell  ‘Encountering Difference’: a study of adolescent males’ masculine identity work and its relationship to secondary age phase religious education’
• 2006       Ruby Green   ‘A feminist ethnographic study of the socio-cultural factors that influence sex education in Guyana’
• 2003       Gillian Forrester  ‘Primary Teachers and Performance Related Pay’  

 Current doctoral students (as lead supervisor):

PhD

• SianBrownlie  (ESRC funded)  ‘Problematic youth?’ -  full time
• Emrah Celik    'Between Religion and secularization: an ethnographic study of Turkish University Students' –full time
• Maleeha Cheema (Faculty funded) 'Madrasa Education in Pakistan' -  full time 
• Tracey Wire  'Sex education in primary schools' – part time
• Sevgi Cifgi  'Turkish speaking parents involvement in their daughters’ education -part time

 EdD    

• Ben Ambrose   'Physiotherapy education and evidence based practice    as professional strategies and identities' 
• Joanne  Bates   'Personal  and professional identities of women on midwifery courses' 
• Mary Furey   'Managing parallel risks: pastoral care in further education' 
• Sarah Gwilliam  'Women managers in further education'  
• Andrew Middleton – Decision making on ICT  
• Alison Parr    'Becoming a History Teacher' 
• Jennifer Wells ‘Boys, literacy and learning in primary education'