A professor of education with the Institute of Education, Michael Fielding is well known for his work in the fields of student voice, leadership and management, and professional learning to which he brings a perspective and values standpoint strongly influenced by his 19 years as a practitioner in state secondary schools.

Michael joined the Institute in January 2007 and is in the process of creating a Centre for Radical State Education (CRSE), which will encourage school-based research, undertake consultancy and co-working with schools and link with partner organisations with similar values.

In the field of student voice, he has been involved in major national research projects including the highly influential ESRC Teaching & Learning Research Programme which consulted pupils about teaching and learning with the universities of Cambridge, Keele, and King’s College London. Michael was also involved in a subsequent ESRC seminar series Engaging critically with pupil voice: children and young people as partners in school and community change with Manchester Metropolitan University, the National College for School Leadership, and Nottingham University.

The 2006 Innovation Unit-funded evaluation of the most radical secondary school in England – Bishops Park College (with John Elliott, Carol Robinson and John Samuels) – remains true to Michael’s values base and the direction of his future work. The development of an intergenerational research forum, which included students, staff, governors and parents, was particularly exciting.

In addition to a wealth of research papers Michael co-authored Student as Researchers: Making a Difference (Pearson, 2003) and edited Taking Education Really Seriously: Four Years Hard Labour (Routledge Falmer, 2001).