Professor Lizzie Rushton

Professor of Education

Education Stirling

Professor Lizzie Rushton

About me

Elizabeth Rushton is Professor of Education in the School of Education and Social Work and Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Health, Sport and Society, University of Stirling. Previously she was Head of Education (2023-2026).

She currently serves as Deputy Chair of the Scottish Council of Deans of Education, Editor of the BERA Blog and is Scotland's Representative on the British Educational Research Association's Advisory Council. In 2026, she was awarded Principal Fellowship of Advance HE.

Her research expertise is interdisciplinary, drawing on the disciplines of education and geography. This includes teacher education, teacher agency and curriculum making and the interactions of humans and the environment over time. These areas of expertise intersect with a range of fields including geography and science education, climate change and sustainability education, and decolonisation and anti-racism in education.

Recent work has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the British Educational Research Association, Leverhulme and the Royal Society of Arts. Consultancy projects include working with the British Council to develop school-based climate change education in Iraq.

Previously, she was Head of Department of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment, Institute of Education, University College London where she also held roles as Research Director of UCL’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education and was a co-founding co-convenor of BERA's Education for Environmental Sustainability Special Interest Group (2022-2026).

Prior to joining UCL she was the inaugural Programme Director of the secondary geography postgraduate certificate in education programme at King’s College London having worked as a secondary school geography teacher in south-east England. Her doctoral research focused on the Environmental History of Belize, Central America, funded by the AHRC and was completed in 2014.

•Climate Change and Sustainability Education •Teacher Agency and Curriculum Making •Teacher education and teachers' professional identities • Geography and Science Education

Award

Principal Fellowship of Advance HE


Community Contribution

Deputy Chair of the Scottish Council of Deans of Education
https://www.scde.ac.uk/


University Contribution

Honorary Professor, University College London


Research projects (1)

Decolonising STEM and geography education in secondary schools: exploring educators’ agency and curriculum-making across England and Scotland
PI: Professor Lizzie Rushton
Funded by: Economic and Social Research Council
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Outputs (104)

Showing 100 of 104 — See all 104 outputs

Book Chapter

Dunlop L & Rushton E (2026) Chapter 11: Environmental sustainability in education research ethics. In: Fox A, Baker S, Brown N, Cortney M, Quickfail A, Tegama N & Chong S (eds.) Ethical dilemmas in education research. London: Bloomsbury. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ethical-dilemmas-in-educational-research-9781350450813/


Book Chapter

Dunlop L & Rushton E (2024) Changing the Climate of School-based Climate Change Education in England. In: Pink WT, Beasy K, Maguire M, te Riele K & Towers E (eds.) Innovative School Reforms: International Perspectives on Reimagining Theory, Policy, and Practice for the Future. Education, Equity, Economy, 11. Cham: Springer, pp. 169-183. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-64900-4_10


Research Report

Dunlop L & Rushton E (2024) Research Ethics Case Studies 2024: Frontlines of climate change education. British Educational Research Association. Research Ethics Case Studies 2024. London. https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/research-ethics-case-studies-2024-frontlines-of-climate-change-education


Book Chapter

Jones J & Rushton E (2023) The pastoral role of a teacher. In: Gibbons S, Glackin M, Rushton E, Towers E & Brock R (eds.) New York: McGraw Hill. https://www.mheducation.co.uk/becoming-a-teacher-issues-in-secondary-education-6e-9780335251667-emea-group#configurable-product-options-title


Book Chapter

Rushton E & Towers E (2023) Teacher identity: developing a positive professional identity in your teaching career.. In: Gibbons S, Glackin M, Rushton E, Towers E & Brock R (eds.) Becoming a Teacher. 6 ed. New York: McGraw Hill. https://www.mheducation.co.uk/becoming-a-teacher-issues-in-secondary-education-6e-9780335251667-emea-group#configurable-product-options-title


Edited Book

Gibbons S, Glackin M, Rushton E, Towers E & Brock R (eds.) (2023) Becoming a Teacher 6th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill. https://www.mheducation.co.uk/becoming-a-teacher-issues-in-secondary-education-6e-9780335251667-emea-group


Website Content

Rushton E, Towers E, Rawlings Smith E & Steadman S (2023) Understanding teacher identity in teachers’ professional lives.. BERA Blog [ Blog post] 12.09.2023. https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/understanding-teacher-identity-in-teachers-professional-lives-findings-from-a-systematic-review-of-the-literature


Website Content

Dunlop L & Rushton E (2023) Dicey Dialogue: engaging scientists with public understanding.. National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement [Blog post] 08.09.2023. https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/whats-new/blog/dicey-dialogue-engaging-scientists-with-public-understanding


Article

Murtagh L & Rushton EA (2023) The role of teacher educator virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) in mobilising policy engagement: A case study of the initial teacher training market review from England. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866x.2023.2191306


Article

Rushton EA, Gibbons S, Brock R, Cao Y, Finesilver C, Jones J, Manning A, Marshall B, Richardson C, Steadman S, Suh S & Towers E (2023) Collaborative identity development during a global pandemic: exploring teacher identity through the experiences of pre-service high school teachers in England. European Journal of Teacher Education, pp. 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2023.2175663


Article

Towers E, Rushton EA, Gibbons S, Steadman S, Brock R, Cao Y, Finesilver C, Jones J, Manning A, Marshall B & Richardson C (2023) The "problem" of teacher quality: exploring challenges and opportunities in developing teacher quality during the Covid-19 global pandemic in England. Educational Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2023.2184771


Website Content

Gandolfi H & Rushton E (2023) Decolonial and anti-racist pedagogies and curricular in teacher education: The importance of partnerships between practice and scholarship. BERA Blog [Blog post] 23.03.2023. https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/decolonial-and-anti-racist-pedagogies-and-curricular-in-teacher-education-the-importance-of-partnerships-between-practice-and-scholarship


Article

Rushton EA, Dunlop L, Atkinson L, Price L, Stubbs JE, Turkenburg-van Diepen M & Wood L (2023) The challenges and affordances of online participatory workshops in the context of young people's everyday climate crisis activism: insights from facilitators. Children's Geographies, 21 (1), pp. 137-146. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2021.2007218


Book Chapter

Rushton E & Walkington H (2022) Mentoring School Student Research as an Approach to Geography Teacher Professional Development.. In: Artvinli E, Gryl I, Lee J & Mitchell JT (eds.) Geography Education and Teacher Professionalization. International Perspectives on Geographical Education. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, pp. 277-290. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04891-3_18


Article

Rushton EA, Murtagh L, Ball-Smith C, Black B, Dunlop L, Gibbons S, Ireland K, Morse R, Reading C & Scott C (2022) Reflecting on 'classroom readiness' in initial teacher education in a time of global pandemic from the perspectives of eight university providers from across England, UK. Journal of Education for Teaching, 49 (4), pp. 551-568. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2022.2150840


Website Content

Murtagh L, Dawes L, Rushton E & Ball-Smith C (2022) The “impractical wisdom” of the Early Career Framework.. BERA Blog [Blog post] 05.10.2022. https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/the-impractical-wisdom-of-the-early-career-framework


Article

Dunlop L, Rushton E, Atkinson L, Cornelissen E, De Schrijver J, Stadnyk T, Stubbs J, Su C, Turkenburg-van Diepen M, Veneu F, Blake C, Calvert S, Dècle C, Dhassi K, Edwards R, Malaj G, Mirjanić J, Saunders W, Sinkovec Y, Vellekoop S & Yuan X (2022) Youth co-authorship as public engagement with geoengineering. International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 12 (1), pp. 60-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2022.2027043


Policy Document

Rushton E & Dunlop L (2021) BERA Manifesto for Education for Environmental Sustainability. BERA. London. https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/bera-research-commission-2019-2020-manifesto-for-education-for-environmental-sustainability-efes


Research Report

Rushton E, Gibbons S, Brock R, Cao Y, Finesilver C, Hesketh R, Jones J, Manning A, Marshall B, Richardson C, Suh S, Steadman S & Towers E (2021) Supporting Early Career Teachers to Thrive in their first Year – A Guide for Schools.. King's College London Funded by ESRC. London. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ecs/assets/guide-for-schools-august2021.pdf


Consultancy Report

Thomas L & Rushton E (2020) Language Horizons Year 2 Evaluation Report.. Language Horizons Project. Stirling. http://mflmentoring.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Final-report-LHY2-DEC2020.pdf


Book Chapter

Rushton EAC (2019) Increasing Environmental Action Through Climate Change Education Programmes that Enable School Students, Teachers and Technicians to Contribute to Genuine Scientific Research. In: Leal Filho W & Hemstock SL (eds.) Climate Change and the Role of Education. Climate Change Management. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, pp. 507-523. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32898-6_28


See all 104 outputs