Alexandra Hay

Biography

Alexandra Hay is an award winning educator. In 2025, she was awarded National Teaching Fellowship by Advance HE in recognition of her leadership work transforming student outcomes and advancing and shaping inclusive academic cultures for both staff and students. Her scholarship and practice are underpinned by a commitment to widening participation and responsiveness to the material and educational needs of her diverse student cohorts. Before entering the higher education sector in 2019, she spent a decade as a secondary social science teacher and head of faculty in Staffordshire.

As a policy and educational sociologist, her research is concerned with the lived realities of policy enactment, with particular emphasis on school academisation and the complexities inherent in cross school collaboration and leadership during organisational change. She has also published and presented in the field of practitioner identity.

She joined Keele as Programme Director for the BA Education in 2026. She was previously Programme Leader for BA Education at Manchester Metropolitan University.

She has an academic background in Education, Cultural Studies and Women’s Studies.

Research and scholarship

• Hay A. and Mufti E (Eds) (forthcoming 2026) Education Policy: Introduction and Critical Issues London: Routledge
• Brooks R. and Hay A. 'Feminist Scholarship in Educational Research' in Atkins, L. And Kaur, B. (eds) (Forthcoming 2026) Elgar Encyclopaedia of Educational Research. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing
• Hay A. (2025) 'What silence may mean' in Kitchener M. A Field Guide to Working in Higher Education: Transitioning from professional practice to academia London: Routledge
• Hay A. (2025) 'What May Be: policy enactment in education, a new conceptual framework with Actor-Network Theory' Journal of Education Policy 40 (2) pp179-198 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02680939.2024.2411989
• Cochran S. Goodley C. Hay A. Olson Rost A. (2024) ‘Women as practitioner researchers: from school Teacher to Academic' NY: Berghahn Press - Including:
  Hay A (2024) 'The Pink Panther roaming the halls: Semiotic mediation for the doctoral researcher navigating the investigation of their school'
  Hay A. and Nicholas S (2024) 'Why here why now? The road to the professional doctorate – a UK and international perspective '
  Hay A. Olsson-Rost A. Goodley C. Corcoran S. (2024) 'Tugging at the Thread: Navigating the Journey from Teacher to Academic. An Introduction'.
• Menendez Alvarez-Hevia D, Hay A. (2023) 'Employability and Pedagogies for Employability in Education Studies' in Pulsford M, Purves R, Morris R (Eds) Understanding Education Studies Critical Issues and New Directions London: Routledge
• Hay A (2022) 'Policy and Educational Debate' in Lord J. (Eds) Psychology of Education: Theory, Research and Evidence-Based Practice London: Sage
• Hay A. (2021) 'The Formation of a cross-Town Multi Academy Trust: A case of policy enactment in the local organisation of education' THESIS Keele University.
• A Hay (2016) ‘Potential of Sociology’ in The Sociology Teacher: The Journal of the BSA Teaching Group Vol 5 Issue 2. Spring 2016. The British Sociological Association.

Conferences

• British Sociological Association 2026 ‘Leave your grade at the door’: The work of the ‘Education Pioneers’ inspired by bell hooks Investigating the need for, and impact of, decentring the grade in a university classroom
• The International Education Studies Association Conference 2026:
  ‘What may be: policy enactment in education, a new conceptual framework with Actor-Network Theory’
  ‘The Future of Education Studies: A roundtable discussion’ with Mark Pulsford (Warwick) Nathan Fretwell (Leeds) Steve Ward (Bath Spa)
• Keele University Creative Methods Showcase 2026 ‘The Pink Panther roaming the halls: Insider researcher liminality and the use of cartoon imagery as an analytic tool’
• Supporting Professionals into HE (SPiHE) network keynote 2026 ‘ From Practice to Academia: Navigating Identity, Positionality and the Figured World of HE’
• National Teaching Fellowship Symposium 2026 ‘Empowering Students: Tackling fear of Failure and imposterism through evidence-based practice’ with Lucinda Bromfield BPP Law School
• 2025 Keynote for International Teaching & Learning Special Interest Group (ITLSIG) The development of an inclusive learning space: The 'Future Education Pioneers'
• 2025 BSA Presidential Event: The future of the Sociology of Education
  'Undergraduate Education programmes and the Sociology of Education: exploring the challenges of defining Education as an academic discipline' with Dr Mark Pulsford Programme Lead for BA Education at the University of Warwick.
• 2025 National Teaching Fellowship Symposium: 'The development of an inclusive learning space: The 'Future Education Pioneers'
• BERA September 2024: Goodley C. Cocoran S. Hay A. Olsson-Rost A. (2024) 'From female teacher to academic – autoethnographies, professional identities and the Mutually Persuasive Discourse' (Winner of highly commended Abstract)

Further information

• National Teaching Fellowship winner 2025 - For more information please visit this page
• UK Advising and Tutoring (UKAT) Senior Recognised Advisor Senior Fellow of HEA
• The International Education Studies Association (TIESA) Executive Committee Member
• Co-convenor of the ‘Feeling Failure’ cross institutional and cross disciplinary network
• External Examiner for BA Education at Warwick University and Leeds University
• Trustee/ Director of the Talentum Learning Trust in Leek, Staffordshire.