
Dr Kate Hoskins
Reader - Education
Gaskell Building 069
- Email: kate.hoskins@brunel.ac.uk
- Tel: +44 (0)1895 265146
Summary
Kate is a Reader in Education with a focus on policy. Her research interests rest on the intersections between education and social policy, identity and inequalities in relation to early years, further and higher education. Her recent funded project with Professor Alice Bradbury examined the role of nursery schools in reducing the impact of socio-economic disadvantage in the early years sector. The findings confirm these settings are working in a hostile policy context and yet to the families they support, they are a frontline service, compensating for growing gaps in social welfare in the UK. She has published on inequalities in ECEC, with a focus on the role of policy in exacerbating these.
Kate's most recent research on social mobility with Professor Bernard Barker examines the role of the family in intra and inter-generational social movement. They take a unique genealogical approach to researching social mobility, using a university chemistry department as a case study to explore participants’ motives for pursuing a STEM undergraduate degree and the influences that have shaped them.
Kate is now working on a British Academy funded research project with Professor Marie-Pierre Moreau and Dr Ellen McHugh to examine the precarious transitions undertaken by doctoral researchers negotiating the shift to an academic post.
Qualifications
PhD (ESRC fully funded scholarship) King's College London
Fellow, Higher Education Academy
MA Education Policy & Society (distinction), King's College London
BA Education Studies (1st class), London Metropolitan University
Responsibility
Director of Internationalisation, Department of Education
Research Group Leader - Education, Identities and Society (EIS)
Outline of areas of interest
The Education, Identities and Society (EIS) research group is comprised of interdisciplinary scholars working within the Department of Education. The group has a strong and sustained research profile which sits at the intersection of Education, Sociology, Human Geography, Youth Studies and Digital Presence. Our work covers all educational sectors, and includes informal and alternative education settings. We strive for theoretically driven research that also has an important applied and policy focus. Our areas of expertise include:
- Access and widening participation
- Embodiment and embodied learning
- Family and parenting
- Youth identities
- Professional formations and professional identities
- Power, resistance, and compliance
This list is not exhaustive and there is much work going on in associated areas. We have considerable success in grant capture, publication, and research impact. The group aims to collaborate and support each other with writing articles, book chapters, monographs, conference papers and research grant applications. The group also plans and hosts research seminar events which draw on the professional networks of group members within our individual areas expertise.
Newest selected publications
Hoskins, K. and Wong, B. (2022) 'Re/configuring possible selves and broadening future horizons: the experiences of working-class British Asian women navigating higher education'. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 24 (1). pp. 1 - 18. ISSN: 1466-6529 Open Access Link
Hoskins, K. (2022) 'Unleashing the ‘undergraduate monster’? The second order policy effects of the 1988 Education Reform Act for higher education in England'. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 0 (in press). pp. 1 - 16. ISSN: 0022-0620 Open Access Link
Hoskins, K. and Smedley, S. (2021) 'Book Review: Let the Children Play: How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive'. Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning, 14 (1). pp. 60 - 62. ISSN: 1944-0413 Open Access Link
Bradbury, A., Hoskins, K. and Fogarty, L. (2021) 'Policy actors in a hostile environment: the views of staff in maintained nursery schools in England'. Education 3-13: the professional journal for primary education, 0 (in press). pp. 1 - 15. ISSN: 0300-4279 Open Access Link
Hoskins, K., Bradbury, A. and Fogarty, L. (2021) 'A frontline service? Nursery Schools as local community hubs in an era of austerity'. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 19 (3). pp. 355 - 368. ISSN: 1476-718X Open Access Link