Our Team
Dr Craig Johnston
Craig has been researching APs for over 20 years - initially, when he noted patterns of marginalisation and opportunity that some pupils experienced at a college in East London. Later completing a MA and PhD in AP. Craig was himself excluded from school and attended a sports-based provision. He has over 30 years' experience working in (alternative) Education, Youth Justice, Psychology, Social Work and Health across the UK and New York - where he was a Mental Health counsellor in an adolescent behavioural clinic. His research interests lie in the study of AP, social difference and youth. His published work on AP held a rating of world leading, and he engages in research with a social justice agenda. He has taught Doctoral, Masters and Bachelor level degrees on Criminology, Education, Youth Work, Childhood, Health, Human Geography, Sociology and Social Work at various universities, and has won several research grants. Craig has been invited to speak at and (co) organised numerous international conferences on AP and social difference and is also a Director at Children in Scotland.
Dr Jodie Pennacchia
Dr Jodie Pennacchia began her career working in learning support roles in mainstream schools and alternative provision. These experiences shaped her subsequent research interests which centre on the barriers and routes to a more socially just education system. Jodie’s research focuses on the educational offer for learners excluded from/not following ‘traditional’, high-status or linear academic trajectories. This has led to a particular interest in school exclusion, alternative provision and the further education sector. Jodie has undertaken a range of academic and applied research projects funded by: The Prince’s Trust (Quality in Alternative Provision); The Department for Education (Barriers to Learning for Disadvantaged Groups); The Economic and Social Research Council (Governing in UK Colleges); and Teach First (Belonging Schools). Jodie is Fellow of the Higher Education Authority and has taught undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students across Education, Sociology and Youth Work courses in three diverse higher education institutions.
Dr Andrew Malcolm
Dr Andrew Malcolm was a senior lecturer in the Childhood and Youth Studies team at the University of Bedfordshire. Involved in teaching research methods since 2012, He has a keen interest in enabling students to access existing data, a rich but underused source of information. Andrew has experience of teaching in a variety of educational settings, in particular working with pupils marginalised and excluded from mainstream school into alternative provision (AP). This is his research specialism which includes studies of post AP transitions, sustained post-16 destinations, longer term outcomes, and reintegration back into mainstream schooling.
Cath Kitchen (BSc, MSc, FCCT, NPQEL, OBE)
Cath is an experienced leader in alternative provision for pupils with medical needs and represents the sector at the DfE, being part of the AP Stakeholder Group (looking at policy affecting APs) and AP Implementation Group (looking at how to take forward the proposals in the SEND & AP Green Paper): she also co-chairs the Hospital Education Working Party with the DfE. Cath has co-authored booklets for schools, including one published by NASEN.
Cath is currently the Chair of the National Association for Hospital Education, a school improvement advisor, a NLE and was a pathfinder for the Ethical Leadership Framework. She led a DfE project investigating the use of telepresence robots in supporting transitions and gave evidence at the All Party Parliamentary Committee investigation into Alternative Provision.
Cath was awarded an OBE for services to children and young people in 2022
Dr Stephanie King is an Early Career Academic at the University of Derby. Her PhD at Nottingham Trent University was an exploration of school exclusion with a particular focus on the ways that school exclusion both represents and perpetuates social inequalities.
Prior to the PhD, Stephanie was a teacher in a PRU / Special School for many years. Through this, she developed a specialism in supporting students with SEND, taking the SENDCo Award and an MA in SEN and Inclusion. She also has experience as a youth worker and is interested in different approaches to working with young people.
Stephanie is a proud advocate of the right to a meaningful education and continues to research and campaign in this area. She is currently teaching in an education department, with a focus on inclusion.
Dr. Claire Kinsella
Claire is a senior lecturer in Educational Psychology who has taught in a range of formal and informal educational settings with learners of all ages from various parts of the world. Trained in Community Arts Education and with a background in Sociology and Political Science, Claire has a particular interest in pedagogies for the development of learner agency and her PhD research focused on critically examining the psychosocial dimensions of learner engagement in a creative arts initiative in an Alternative Provision in the North-West of England.
Claire has taught in a range of different higher education settings on a variety of different degree programmes including Education Studies, Educational Psychology, Early Childhood Studies, Special Educational Needs and Disability and Primary Education. At present, Claire is keen to develop thinking and research around what epistemic value AP might have for young people.
Advisors
Sally Tomlinson is Emeritus Professor of Education, Goldsmiths, London and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Education, University of Oxford.
Dr Simon Bradford, Associate Reader, Brunel University, London.