Our Chief Executive, David Weston, writes:

I am absolutely delighted to welcome Laura McInerney (@miss_mcinerney) to the Teacher Development Trust Advisory Board. Laura is a leading thinker in the education world and is an extremely influential voice. She joins a panel of top names on the Trust’s Advisory Board who help shape our work and constantly challenge us to be at the forefront of innovation and practice. The panel consists of:

  • Juliet Brookes, Senior Manager, Research & Development Networks at the National College.
  • Professor Rob Coe, Professor in the School of Education and Director of the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM).
  • Philippa Cordingley, Chief Executive, Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education (CUREE).
  • Professor Pete Dudley, Associate Director of Children’s Services in the London Borough of Camden and Professor of Education, University of Leicester. Formerly Director of the National Primary Strategy.
  • Liz Francis, Deputy Director, Performance Unit, Department for Education. Formerly director of workforce strategy, standards and qualifications at TDA.
  • Dr. Jonathan Sharples, Manager of Partnerships at the Institute of Effective Education, currently seconded to the Education Endowment Foundation.

Laura in her own words (from http://lauramcinerney.com/about-laura-mcinerney-cv/):

laura mcinerneyContact: Email laura@lkmco.org or tweet @miss_mcinerney

I taught in East London for six years and am now completing a Fulbright sponsored Phd in Education Policy at the University of Missouri. I write regularly for The Guardian and LKMCo, and occasionally for the Times Education Supplement, the New Statesman, and EdaptUK.

My specialist topic is free schools & academies. Via LKMCo I published a booklet “The Six Predictable Failures of Free Schools…And How To Avoid Them“. My PhD research involves learning from the sometimes successful & sometimes disastrous implementation of ‘Charter’ Schools in various US states. (Charters roughly equate to academies/free schools).

My secondary interest is the influence of politics on education. Throughout Summer 2012 (and beyond) I am reading all available biographies of past UK’s Education Secretaries which I am blogging and tweeting about via www.greatedusecs.com. Pun entirely intended.

If you want to know about my personal background and own schooling, I’ve written about it here: http://lauramcinerney.com/schooling-biography/

My Main Philosophical/Political Position:

While I am accused of being many things, mostly I am a pragmatist.  My favourite questions (and the basis of many of my blogs are) are: What problem are you trying to solve? Is this really the best way to solve it?, and Why aren’t we doing this already?