Gary Thomas
Biographic Data
| ID | 3701424 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gary Thomas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gary |
| FAMILY NAME | Thomas |
| SIGNATURE | THOMAS G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Birmingham |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4937-0622 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 140 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
From Practice to Artefact
This paper examines how the designation of coracle net fishing in southwest Wales as intangible cultural heritage is reshaping the ontology of the fishery. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research with the Carmarthen Coracle and Netsmen Association, the study approaches river fishing not simply as an economic activity but as a culturally embedded practice through which relationships with river environments, kinship, ecological memory, and se…
Evidence, schmevidence
I examine the ways in which words such as “evidence” are used inappropriately to support policy that may be formulated for convenience, cost or political dogma. I interrogate the processes by which this happens, as words and terms are bestowed with symbolic power to support and promote favoured policy. I examine the ways in which such power may be acquired and deployed by exploring the use of the word “evidence” and its derivatives in education d…
The increasing use of private special schools
A bstract There have been significant increases in the number of children sent to non‐maintained special schools in recent years. To assess the extent of this trend and its probable consequences, Freedom of Information requests about spending on private special schools were sent to a stratified sample of 24 local authorities in England. The responses indicated substantial rises in spending recently, with very substantial spending on certain kinds…
Experiment’s persistent failure in education inquiry, and why it keeps failing
Natural scientists are relaxed about the multiple forms experiment takes in their various fields. Yet in education we have for many years constrained our notion of experiment. This methodological circumscription has been self‐imposed on the grounds that experiment of a particular, well‐defined form offers the clearest evidence of a link between cause and effect in assessing the impact of interventions. I challenge the legitimacy of this assertion…
What sort of ‘inclusion’ is Continuing Professional Development promoting? An investigation of a national CPD programme for inclusive physical education
Inclusion is positioned at the forefront of global educational reform. The study reported focused on a national Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme for Inclusive Physical Education (IPE) in England. The research was designed to critically explore how CPD providers (i.e. tutors) variously conceptualised and practiced inclusion in the context of running a day-long CPD course for physical education teachers. Using qualitative methodo…
Intersectionality, diversity, community and inclusion
An analysis was conducted of contemporary notions of inclusion and their provenance in developing thought about difference in education, with a particular focus on the role of community in promoting and enabling inclusion. Being informed by (i) an international group of advisers, and (ii) a national group of informants and commentators, a review was conducted of the theoretical and practical analysis of the issue. Conclusions were drawn about con…
The Anatomy of the Case Study
Introduction Chapter 1: What is case study? Chapter 2: The history of case study and its epistemological status Chapter 3: Generalisation, phronesis and the case study Chapter 4: Induction and the case study Chapter 5: A typology for case study Chapter 6: Working through the typology Chapter 7: An example in depth: Contesting Certification Chapter 8: Conclusion: drawing from the anatomy and constructing the study
Education A Very Short Introduction
From the schools of ancient times to the present day, Gary Thomas looks at how and why education evolved as it has. By exploring some of the big questions, he examines the ways in which schools work, considers the differences around the world, and concludes by considering the future of education worldwide.
The traditions unfold
A review of thinking and research about inclusive education policy, with suggestions for a new kind of inclusive thinking
A range of changes, in politics and economics internationally as well as in thought about learning and society, now make the time right for a re‐think of inclusive education, a re‐think that ceases to employ the constructs and clichés of the past in explaining students' difficulties at school. There exists new discourse on difference, which throws fresh light on the ways that students at school are disadvantaged—there is a new psychology of diffe…
Doing Research
A Typology for the Case Study in Social Science Following a Review of Definition, Discourse, and Structure
The author proposes a typology for the case study following a definition wherein various layers of classificatory principle are disaggregated. First, a clear distinction is drawn between two parts: (1) the subject of the study, which is the case itself, and (2) the object, which is the analytical frame or theory through which the subject is viewed and which the subject explicates. Beyond this distinction the case study is presented as classifiabl…
Doing Case Study
Distinctions between abduction and induction, and between phronesis and theory, are often elided in methodological discussion about case study. Making these distinctions clear offers a pathway for the better conduct of case study and for a less apologetic stance in its use. Owing its legitimacy to the experiential knowledge of phronesis rather than the generalizing power of induction and theory in explanation and prediction, case study can more u…
Berj
Reinventing grounded theory
Grounded theory's popularity persists after three decades of broad‐ranging critique. In this article three problematic notions are discussed—‘theory,’ ‘ground’ and ‘discovery’—which linger in the continuing use and development of grounded theory procedures. It is argued that far from providing the epistemic security promised by grounded theory, these notions—embodied in continuing reinventions of grounded theory—constrain and distort qualitative …
Working with teaching assistants
Questions about how best to deploy teaching assistants (TAs) are particularly apposite given the greatly increasing numbers of TAs in British schools and given findings about the difficulty effecting adult teamwork in classrooms. In six classrooms, three models of team organisation and planning for the work of teaching assistants — ‘room management’, ‘zoning’ and ‘reflective teamwork’ — were evaluated using a repeated measures design for their ef…
Maintaining Underclasses via Contrastive Judgement
Borrowing from epidemiological and economic analysis, we argue that the central constructs by which children are judged educationally rest in contrastive judgements and that such judgements are based on ‘everyday’ constructs – not objective descriptors. But because these everyday constructs become seemingly objectified by the procedures and discourses of education, they appear reliable and objective. The insistent process of contrastive judgement…
Thinking about inclusion. Whose reason? What evidence
We suggest that most inquiry in special education is misconceived. We examine the consequences of an allegiance to the erstwhile knowledge of special education in professional assumptions about learning difficulty and the research and practice of special education. We assert that obeisance to that knowledge has proven unfruitful for the children and young people it is intended to serve. Suggesting that the preferred inquiry methods of special edu…
Theory's Spell—on qualitative inquiry and educational research
Theory's secure place in qualitative inquiry is challenged on three counts. First, it is argued that the search for theory in such inquiry originates in a kind of crypto—functionalism, and makes any inquiry dependent on its discovery inconsistent with the starting points of qualitative inquiry. Second, theory's supposed importance for policy formulation cannot in itself justify it, even if theory had the right credentials for that purpose (which …
Failing’ special schools - action planning and recovery from special measures assessments
Special schools are four times more likely than mainstream schools to receive special measures inspection assessments. Via documentary analysis and case studies in special schools, which are, or had been subject to special measures, this research examined the ways in which these schools made progress out of special measures. Their progress was found to be related to the conduct of certain planning-related activities which followed inspection. The…
Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties
(2000). Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties: Bogus needs in a false category. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education: Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 283-298
The Myth of Rational Research
In its flight from ‘positivism’ educational inquiry still cleaves to a faith in the ordered and the rational. Educationists continue to believe in an order, accessible via rational inquiry and ordered reflection, governing human affairs and thought. This belief has three unwelcome consequences. First, it promotes the notion that certain rationalistic ingredients are obligatory in research: a technology of inquiry is thus constructed and maintaine…
From Inclusive Policy to the Exclusive Real World
The characteristics of policy in special education are examined in a number of international settings via an analysis of policy documents and commentaries on policy implementation. Through a constant comparative method a number of 'ideal types' are identified which characterise policy and exemplify the problems involved in the realisation of policy, particularly when that policy is progressive and especially when it promotes inclusive principles.…
Doing Case Study
Distinctions between abduction and induction, and between phronesis and theory, are often elided in methodological discussion about case study. Making these distinctions clear offers a pathway for the better conduct of case study and for a less apologetic stance in its use. Owing its legitimacy to the experiential knowledge of phronesis rather than the generalizing power of induction and theory in explanation and prediction, case study can more u…
Reinventing grounded theory
Grounded theory's popularity persists after three decades of broad‐ranging critique. In this article three problematic notions are discussed—‘theory,’ ‘ground’ and ‘discovery’—which linger in the continuing use and development of grounded theory procedures. It is argued that far from providing the epistemic security promised by grounded theory, these notions—embodied in continuing reinventions of grounded theory—constrain and distort qualitative …
The Anatomy of the Case Study
Introduction Chapter 1: What is case study? Chapter 2: The history of case study and its epistemological status Chapter 3: Generalisation, phronesis and the case study Chapter 4: Induction and the case study Chapter 5: A typology for case study Chapter 6: Working through the typology Chapter 7: An example in depth: Contesting Certification Chapter 8: Conclusion: drawing from the anatomy and constructing the study
From Inclusive Policy to the Exclusive Real World
The characteristics of policy in special education are examined in a number of international settings via an analysis of policy documents and commentaries on policy implementation. Through a constant comparative method a number of 'ideal types' are identified which characterise policy and exemplify the problems involved in the realisation of policy, particularly when that policy is progressive and especially when it promotes inclusive principles.…
The Myth of Rational Research
In its flight from ‘positivism’ educational inquiry still cleaves to a faith in the ordered and the rational. Educationists continue to believe in an order, accessible via rational inquiry and ordered reflection, governing human affairs and thought. This belief has three unwelcome consequences. First, it promotes the notion that certain rationalistic ingredients are obligatory in research: a technology of inquiry is thus constructed and maintaine…
Experiment’s persistent failure in education inquiry, and why it keeps failing
Natural scientists are relaxed about the multiple forms experiment takes in their various fields. Yet in education we have for many years constrained our notion of experiment. This methodological circumscription has been self‐imposed on the grounds that experiment of a particular, well‐defined form offers the clearest evidence of a link between cause and effect in assessing the impact of interventions. I challenge the legitimacy of this assertion…
Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties
(2000). Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties: Bogus needs in a false category. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education: Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 283-298
Intersectionality, diversity, community and inclusion
An analysis was conducted of contemporary notions of inclusion and their provenance in developing thought about difference in education, with a particular focus on the role of community in promoting and enabling inclusion. Being informed by (i) an international group of advisers, and (ii) a national group of informants and commentators, a review was conducted of the theoretical and practical analysis of the issue. Conclusions were drawn about con…
Theory's Spell—on qualitative inquiry and educational research
Theory's secure place in qualitative inquiry is challenged on three counts. First, it is argued that the search for theory in such inquiry originates in a kind of crypto—functionalism, and makes any inquiry dependent on its discovery inconsistent with the starting points of qualitative inquiry. Second, theory's supposed importance for policy formulation cannot in itself justify it, even if theory had the right credentials for that purpose (which …
What sort of ‘inclusion’ is Continuing Professional Development promoting? An investigation of a national CPD programme for inclusive physical education
Inclusion is positioned at the forefront of global educational reform. The study reported focused on a national Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme for Inclusive Physical Education (IPE) in England. The research was designed to critically explore how CPD providers (i.e. tutors) variously conceptualised and practiced inclusion in the context of running a day-long CPD course for physical education teachers. Using qualitative methodo…
Thinking about inclusion. Whose reason? What evidence
We suggest that most inquiry in special education is misconceived. We examine the consequences of an allegiance to the erstwhile knowledge of special education in professional assumptions about learning difficulty and the research and practice of special education. We assert that obeisance to that knowledge has proven unfruitful for the children and young people it is intended to serve. Suggesting that the preferred inquiry methods of special edu…
Failing’ special schools - action planning and recovery from special measures assessments
Special schools are four times more likely than mainstream schools to receive special measures inspection assessments. Via documentary analysis and case studies in special schools, which are, or had been subject to special measures, this research examined the ways in which these schools made progress out of special measures. Their progress was found to be related to the conduct of certain planning-related activities which followed inspection. The…
The increasing use of private special schools
A bstract There have been significant increases in the number of children sent to non‐maintained special schools in recent years. To assess the extent of this trend and its probable consequences, Freedom of Information requests about spending on private special schools were sent to a stratified sample of 24 local authorities in England. The responses indicated substantial rises in spending recently, with very substantial spending on certain kinds…
Working with teaching assistants
Questions about how best to deploy teaching assistants (TAs) are particularly apposite given the greatly increasing numbers of TAs in British schools and given findings about the difficulty effecting adult teamwork in classrooms. In six classrooms, three models of team organisation and planning for the work of teaching assistants — ‘room management’, ‘zoning’ and ‘reflective teamwork’ — were evaluated using a repeated measures design for their ef…
Maintaining Underclasses via Contrastive Judgement
Borrowing from epidemiological and economic analysis, we argue that the central constructs by which children are judged educationally rest in contrastive judgements and that such judgements are based on ‘everyday’ constructs – not objective descriptors. But because these everyday constructs become seemingly objectified by the procedures and discourses of education, they appear reliable and objective. The insistent process of contrastive judgement…
From Inclusive Policy to the Exclusive Real World
The characteristics of policy in special education are examined in a number of international settings via an analysis of policy documents and commentaries on policy implementation. Through a constant comparative method a number of 'ideal types' are identified which characterise policy and exemplify the problems involved in the realisation of policy, particularly when that policy is progressive and especially when it promotes inclusive principles.…
The Myth of Rational Research
In its flight from ‘positivism’ educational inquiry still cleaves to a faith in the ordered and the rational. Educationists continue to believe in an order, accessible via rational inquiry and ordered reflection, governing human affairs and thought. This belief has three unwelcome consequences. First, it promotes the notion that certain rationalistic ingredients are obligatory in research: a technology of inquiry is thus constructed and maintaine…
Failing’ special schools - action planning and recovery from special measures assessments
Special schools are four times more likely than mainstream schools to receive special measures inspection assessments. Via documentary analysis and case studies in special schools, which are, or had been subject to special measures, this research examined the ways in which these schools made progress out of special measures. Their progress was found to be related to the conduct of certain planning-related activities which followed inspection. The…
Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties
(2000). Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties: Bogus needs in a false category. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education: Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 283-298
Thinking about inclusion. Whose reason? What evidence
We suggest that most inquiry in special education is misconceived. We examine the consequences of an allegiance to the erstwhile knowledge of special education in professional assumptions about learning difficulty and the research and practice of special education. We assert that obeisance to that knowledge has proven unfruitful for the children and young people it is intended to serve. Suggesting that the preferred inquiry methods of special edu…
Theory's Spell—on qualitative inquiry and educational research
Theory's secure place in qualitative inquiry is challenged on three counts. First, it is argued that the search for theory in such inquiry originates in a kind of crypto—functionalism, and makes any inquiry dependent on its discovery inconsistent with the starting points of qualitative inquiry. Second, theory's supposed importance for policy formulation cannot in itself justify it, even if theory had the right credentials for that purpose (which …
Working with teaching assistants
Questions about how best to deploy teaching assistants (TAs) are particularly apposite given the greatly increasing numbers of TAs in British schools and given findings about the difficulty effecting adult teamwork in classrooms. In six classrooms, three models of team organisation and planning for the work of teaching assistants — ‘room management’, ‘zoning’ and ‘reflective teamwork’ — were evaluated using a repeated measures design for their ef…
Maintaining Underclasses via Contrastive Judgement
Borrowing from epidemiological and economic analysis, we argue that the central constructs by which children are judged educationally rest in contrastive judgements and that such judgements are based on ‘everyday’ constructs – not objective descriptors. But because these everyday constructs become seemingly objectified by the procedures and discourses of education, they appear reliable and objective. The insistent process of contrastive judgement…
Reinventing grounded theory
Grounded theory's popularity persists after three decades of broad‐ranging critique. In this article three problematic notions are discussed—‘theory,’ ‘ground’ and ‘discovery’—which linger in the continuing use and development of grounded theory procedures. It is argued that far from providing the epistemic security promised by grounded theory, these notions—embodied in continuing reinventions of grounded theory—constrain and distort qualitative …
Berj
Doing Case Study
Distinctions between abduction and induction, and between phronesis and theory, are often elided in methodological discussion about case study. Making these distinctions clear offers a pathway for the better conduct of case study and for a less apologetic stance in its use. Owing its legitimacy to the experiential knowledge of phronesis rather than the generalizing power of induction and theory in explanation and prediction, case study can more u…
Doing Research
A Typology for the Case Study in Social Science Following a Review of Definition, Discourse, and Structure
The author proposes a typology for the case study following a definition wherein various layers of classificatory principle are disaggregated. First, a clear distinction is drawn between two parts: (1) the subject of the study, which is the case itself, and (2) the object, which is the analytical frame or theory through which the subject is viewed and which the subject explicates. Beyond this distinction the case study is presented as classifiabl…
Education A Very Short Introduction
From the schools of ancient times to the present day, Gary Thomas looks at how and why education evolved as it has. By exploring some of the big questions, he examines the ways in which schools work, considers the differences around the world, and concludes by considering the future of education worldwide.
The traditions unfold
A review of thinking and research about inclusive education policy, with suggestions for a new kind of inclusive thinking
A range of changes, in politics and economics internationally as well as in thought about learning and society, now make the time right for a re‐think of inclusive education, a re‐think that ceases to employ the constructs and clichés of the past in explaining students' difficulties at school. There exists new discourse on difference, which throws fresh light on the ways that students at school are disadvantaged—there is a new psychology of diffe…
The Anatomy of the Case Study
Introduction Chapter 1: What is case study? Chapter 2: The history of case study and its epistemological status Chapter 3: Generalisation, phronesis and the case study Chapter 4: Induction and the case study Chapter 5: A typology for case study Chapter 6: Working through the typology Chapter 7: An example in depth: Contesting Certification Chapter 8: Conclusion: drawing from the anatomy and constructing the study
What sort of ‘inclusion’ is Continuing Professional Development promoting? An investigation of a national CPD programme for inclusive physical education
Inclusion is positioned at the forefront of global educational reform. The study reported focused on a national Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme for Inclusive Physical Education (IPE) in England. The research was designed to critically explore how CPD providers (i.e. tutors) variously conceptualised and practiced inclusion in the context of running a day-long CPD course for physical education teachers. Using qualitative methodo…
Intersectionality, diversity, community and inclusion
An analysis was conducted of contemporary notions of inclusion and their provenance in developing thought about difference in education, with a particular focus on the role of community in promoting and enabling inclusion. Being informed by (i) an international group of advisers, and (ii) a national group of informants and commentators, a review was conducted of the theoretical and practical analysis of the issue. Conclusions were drawn about con…
Experiment’s persistent failure in education inquiry, and why it keeps failing
Natural scientists are relaxed about the multiple forms experiment takes in their various fields. Yet in education we have for many years constrained our notion of experiment. This methodological circumscription has been self‐imposed on the grounds that experiment of a particular, well‐defined form offers the clearest evidence of a link between cause and effect in assessing the impact of interventions. I challenge the legitimacy of this assertion…
Evidence, schmevidence
I examine the ways in which words such as “evidence” are used inappropriately to support policy that may be formulated for convenience, cost or political dogma. I interrogate the processes by which this happens, as words and terms are bestowed with symbolic power to support and promote favoured policy. I examine the ways in which such power may be acquired and deployed by exploring the use of the word “evidence” and its derivatives in education d…
The increasing use of private special schools
A bstract There have been significant increases in the number of children sent to non‐maintained special schools in recent years. To assess the extent of this trend and its probable consequences, Freedom of Information requests about spending on private special schools were sent to a stratified sample of 24 local authorities in England. The responses indicated substantial rises in spending recently, with very substantial spending on certain kinds…
From Practice to Artefact
This paper examines how the designation of coracle net fishing in southwest Wales as intangible cultural heritage is reshaping the ontology of the fishery. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research with the Carmarthen Coracle and Netsmen Association, the study approaches river fishing not simply as an economic activity but as a culturally embedded practice through which relationships with river environments, kinship, ecological memory, and se…
Political science (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Pedagogy (10 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (10 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Mathematics education (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works)