Andrew Clapham

Dr Andrew Clapham is an Associate Professor of Education Policy and S3 Methods Hub Lead at the Nottingham Institute of Education (NIoE) within Nottingham Trent University's School of Social Sciences. He specializes in policy sociology, examining how macro-level education policies are enacted at micro-level stakeholder levels. His roles include Education Research lead and Higher Education Academy Senior Fellow. He collaborates with policy-makers, practitioners, and international partners such as the Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência (Lisbon) and MUSE - Museo delle Scienze (Trento, Italy). His research focuses on education governance, informal learning evaluation, mathematics education policy borrowing, and Further Education sector dynamics.

Education: BEd from the University of Greenwich, MA and PhD from the University of Nottingham.

Research Interests: Policy implementation, performativity in education, cross-national policy borrowing (e.g., mathematics 'mastery'), and evaluation frameworks for non-formal learning institutions. His work bridges policy critique with practitioner needs, emphasizing empirical evidence to inform educational reforms.

Publications & Projects: Over 20 peer-reviewed articles and leadership in projects like LearnToEngage (professional development for informal educators) and the Outstanding Teaching, Learning and Assessment initiative. His recent work explores governance maturity theory and the impact of short-notice inspections.

Awards & Activities: Higher Education Academy Senior Fellow, Editorial Board member of Pedagogy, Culture and Society, and Chair of BERA’s Audit and Risk Committee. Supervises PhD candidates and serves as external doctoral examiner.

Labs/Teams: Leads NIoE’s S3 Methods Hub, collaborating with interdisciplinary teams to advance policy-relevant research methodologies.