Andy Furlong was Professor of Social Inclusion and Education and Dean for Research in the College of Social Science at the University of Glasgow, as well as Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Andy was a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Youth Studies, and worked with a range of governments and NGOs on youth employment and training-related issues.
John Goodwin is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Leicester. As a sociologist, his principal research interests include the broad areas of youth, community and research methods well as the history of sociology. John is a recognised expert on the life and sociology of Pearl Jephcott. He also has a significant interest in the works of Norbert Elias and C. Wright Mills. He has expertise in qualitative secondary analysis, restudies, biographical methods and the use of unconventional data sources in sociological research.
Henrietta O’Connor is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Leicester. Her research interests focus on the sociology of work and employment, in particular transitions to and from the labour market. She has published widely on aspects of the transition process, for example, young people’s experiences of leaving education and entering work, older people making the transition to retirement and mothers returning to employment. She also has an active interest in research methods with a focus on online methods, the secondary analysis of qualitative data and qualitative longitudinal research.
Sarah Hadfield is a Researcher at the Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham. Sarah’s research interests fall within Public Policy and Sociology. She has worked on multiple research projects on subjects including the organisation of work, youth (un)employment and transitions. Her current research is on employment insecurity, gender and finances. Sarah is currently conducting both evaluation and academic research and has much experience in qualitative methods, research evaluation, archive research and historical data analysis.
Stuart Hall is a Senior Researcher in the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change at the University of Glasgow. Prior to this he was a Research Officer at the Scottish Council for Educational Research. He has been involved in more than 70 policy-related research or evaluation projects and has undertaken work for organisations including the Scottish government, the European Union and a number of charities. He has a wide range of experience in the use of both quantitative and qualitative research methods and has a particular interest in the use of evaluation for organisational development and improvement.
Kevin Lowden is a Senior Researcher in the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change at the University of Glasgow, with a background in sociology and education. He has almost 30 years’ experience as a researcher and principal investigator on national and international research and evaluation projects. Much of his research has focused on assessing the impact of innovative education programmes, with the findings directly informing policy and practice. Over the past decade, his work has had an emphasis on researching and supporting partnership working and collaborative action research to inform educational change.
Rékar Plugor works as a Researcher at the University of Leicester. Her background is in sociology and policy studies, and she has a broad range of research interests located mainly within sociology of education, youth and work. She conducts research on these topics from both theoretical and applied perspectives using qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods. Her recent work explores the relationship between higher education and the world of work through the experiences and perceptions of university students in England and Romania.