Jan Hetherington

Jan Hetherington serves as a Senior Lecturer in Initial Teacher Training and Education within the College of Arts, Humanities and Education, specializing in critical analyses of educational governance structures and democratic processes.

Her research focuses on:

• Deconstructing illusions of democracy in school governance
• Neoliberal impacts on educational institutions
• Values-led leadership models
• Community and parental engagement strategies
• Cooperative alternatives to market-driven education
• Tensions between risk management and democratic participation

Hetherington's scholarship reveals systemic patterns where branding imperatives and risk mitigation strategies systematically marginalize community voices while creating performative democratic facades. Her work with the Co-operative Academies Trust demonstrates how values-centered approaches can challenge neoliberal orthodoxies through authentic stakeholder inclusion and collective decision-making processes.