Transformative Education

We believe that unequal access to learning through life is a huge and growing cause of inequality in the UK. It can impact in divisions in our communities, entrenching low skills and poorly paid work, and is a real barrier to the necessary growth we need to enhance people’s life choices and chances and to promote social cohesion, equity, hope and joy. 

We aim to promote effective collaborative and dialogic working as a lever to propel our engagement and to enable us to move forward in socially just ways. 

As a theme, we will seek to break out of historical and traditional silos. In doing so, we will work across intergenerational, interdisciplinary and cross disciplinary contexts to challenge the status quo of inequity in education (and beyond). We will generate research, practice and policy spaces which feed into a pipeline that enables transformative education to flourish.

Importantly, our reach will be local, national and international; the aim being to forge dynamic, responsive and socially just partnerships that bring about action, change and sustainability in the education sector and beyond.

Recent Publications

• Ollis, T & Duckworth, V. (2025 in Press). Transformative journeys beyond schooling: Storytelling and poetic inquiry as catalysts for adult learning in community spaces, Australian Journal of Adult Learning, Volume 65, Number 3, November 2025.
• Duckworth, V., & Fulford, A. (2025). Adult Literacy as a Catalyst for Empowerment. Theory and Practice in Adult Literacy, Learning and Social Change: Theoretical Insights and Case Studies from Around the World, 91.
• Duckworth, V. (2024), Education for social justice: everyone should have the right to learn, FORUM, Volume 66, Number 3, Autumn 2024, pp. 56-60(5)
• Duckworth, V & Ollis, T. (2024). Adult literacy learners and schooling: A Bourdieuian and critical pedagogical lens in storytelling as transgression, FINEPRINT journal, VALBEC publishers.
• Ade-Ojo, G. O., & Duckworth, V. (2024). A transformational approach to addressing the needs of a new generation of ‘left behinds: a preliminary exploration of the dominance of ‘it/digital literacy’ in organisational processes. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 43(4), 343–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2024.2365797
• Smith, R and Duckworth, V. (2022). Transformative Teaching and Learning in Further Education: Pedagogies of Hope and Social Justice. Justice. Bristol: Policy Press. This text is part of the key issues in social Justice series (Series Editors: Kalwant Bhopal, University of Birmingham, Martin Myers, University of Nottingham, Karl Kitching, University College Cork and Kenzo Sung, Rowan University) https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/transformative-teaching-and-learning-in-further-education
• Allan, D. (2025) Further Education and Skills: Written evidence submitted by Dr David Allan, Edge Hill University, UK (FES0167), 6 May 2025, pp. 1–6. UK Parliament.
• Allan, D (November 20, 2025) Streamlining what universities offer could backfire for disadvantaged students, The Conversation. Find out more information here.
• Allan, D. (2025) The Mature Student’s Companion for Successful Undergraduate Study. London: Routledge (Routledge Study Skills Series).
• Allan, D. & Whittle, A. (2023). Empowering the marginalized: Addressing the sociocultural inequalities perpetuated in compulsory schooling in England, in R. Baikady, S. Sajid, J. Przeperski, V. Nadesan, I. Rezaul & J. Gao (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems. Living Reference Edition. 
• Nakhla, G. & Allan, D. (2025) The Role of Fear of Failure in Shaping Academic Motivation and Engagement in Higher Education. In: Crawford, C. M. & Gee, T. (eds). Motivating Engagement, Belonging, and Success in Higher Education Student Experience. IGI Global Scientific Publishing.
• Allan, D. (2022) Casualties of education? Disengagement and the reclamation of agency for students in compulsory education in England. In O. Àkànle (Ed.) Youth Exclusion and Empowerment in the Contemporary Global Order: Contexts of Economy, Education and Governance, UK: Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 153–167. ISBN: 9781802624984
• Sandars, J. & Allan, D. (2024) Using Lesson Study to Enhance the Quality of Teaching and Learning in Health Professions Education. Acta Medica Iranica, 62 (2), pp. 58–64. Find out more information here.

Events & Seminars

• 29 January 2026 12pm. Sally Tomlinson (PhD, D. Litt) is Emeritus Professor at Goldsmiths, London University and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. She has been teaching, researching and writing for many years in the areas of education policy, race ethnicity and  education and special and inclusive education. Her recent books are ‘Ignorance’ (Agenda Publications 2022) and ‘Education and Race from Empire to Multiracial Britain’ (Policy Press 2026 )

• Wednesday 24 September 2025. Transformative education as a tool to empower adult learners in Australian Community Education, Dr Trace Ollis.

Partnerships & Sponsors

• Honorary Professor, Adult & Vocational Education, Edge Hill University, UK, Dr Trace Ollis

• Deakin University, Australia Centre for Research for Educational Impact Research for Educational Impact

• Professor Vicky Duckworth: Research Adviser to the Research Project: Skills for work, study, and life: Adult learning and in Adult Community Education in Australia.

Right to Learn

Professor Vicky Duckworth is a co-founder with Professor Graeme Atherton  and Gordon Marsden CBE of Right2Learn.  Right2Learn – Our Launch Statement – What We Do

The Right2Learn campaign takes its inspiration from the 2019 Lifelong Learning Commission which called for everyone to have a statutory right to learn whatever their age or background.  Our aim is to show how important properly funded lifelong learning is to the life chances of millions.

The Unequal access to education throughout life is a huge, growing cause of inequality in our country – with four million fewer adults participating in education now than in 2010. This sows division in our communities; entrenches low skills, low wage work and levels down the life chances of millions.

Building back better must mean breaking down these barriers. That is why, taking our inspiration from the report last year of the Lifelong Learning Commission, we are calling now for a new statutory right to learn for every UK citizen throughout their lives – enabled and backed up by strong funding, information, advice and guidance.

We believe that a right to learn is the crucial pathway to achieving this. It can bring new, decent jobs and skills, energise our society and economy, and boost our productivity. It can transform our country throughout the 2020s, knitting together across the generations the hopes, potential and aspirations of both younger and older learners.

We call upon all those who share our vision for the importance of lifelong learning to our country’s future to join our new campaign for the right to learn.

External Links & Resources

UCU Transforming Lives Research Project (Led by Professor Vicky Duckworth and Professor Rob Smith, Birmingham City University

This research aimed to understand and provide evidence of how the further education (FE) sector is vital in transforming lives and communities in 21st century Britain. To provide a frame of reference, which is underpinned and driven by excellence in the sector, the study provided learners and teachers with the opportunity to tell their stories, linking the distinctness of FE to the impact it has on individuals, society and the economy, and strongly drawing out the role of the teacher in making a difference to quality teaching and learning.

UNESCO institute of Lifelong Learning– find out more information here.

Global Alliance for Literacy Webinar: ‘Her literacy, her power: Bridging the gender gap in literacy’– find out more information here.

On 9 April 2025, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), serving as the secretariat of the Global Alliance for Literacy (GAL), will co-host a webinar titled “Her Literacy, Her Power: Bridging the Gender Gap in Literacy.”

Research Team

Honorary Professor: Dr Trace Ollis, Associate Professor in Education (Applied Learning)

Knowledge Exchange Lead: Dr David Allan, Reader in Education