Research output per year
Research output per year
Professor
Professor Steve Courtney is Professor of Sociology of Education Leadership, researching and writing in areas including system leadership, charisma, depoliticisation and education privatisation, particularly in relation to the identities and practices of those constructed as educational leaders. He is currently Research Director in the Manchester Institute of Education (MIE), Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Critical Studies in Education and co-convenor of the MIE research group, Critical Education Leadership and Policy (CELP).
Prof Courtney spent the first part of his professional career teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) in Paris before moving into the secondary state sector as a French and Spanish teacher in inner-London comprehensives. Following almost a decade in leadership positions, first as Head of MFL and then Assistant Headteacher, he moved to Manchester to complete an MA in Educational Leadership and School Improvement.
Prof Courtney won ESRC funding for his doctoral work on school leadership in neoliberal times, for which he won best-thesis awards from the American Educational Research Association (Division A), the British Educational Research Association (BERA) and the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS).
Prof Courtney took up his first academic post in the Manchester Institute of Education (MIE) as Lecturer in Management and Leadership in 2014, becoming Senior Lecturer in 2018 and Professor in 2022. Between 2016–20, he was Programme Director of the MA Educational Leadership.
Professor Steve Courtney's research uses critical approaches to make contributions to the fields of the sociology of educational leadership and policy studies. He carries out research which seeks to explain, illuminate and theorise education policy, and educational leaders' identity and practice in interplay with diverse structural features. These have included heteronormativity, the school-inspection regime, and education privatisation—this latter particularly through the lens of school-type diversification in England. He has researched privatisation in education internationally from a range of perspectives.
In addition to his role as convenor of the research group CELP at the University, Prof Courtney co-convenes the CEPaLs group (Critical Education Policy and Leadership Studies) in the British Educational, Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS).
2017: British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award-Holder
2016: American Educational Research Association Division A Outstanding Dissertation Award
2016: British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Thesis Award
2016: British Educational Research Association Doctoral Thesis Award
2015: Faculty of Humanities Award for Outstanding Achievement (PGR), University of Manchester
2011: Platt Prize for Outstanding Achievement in a Master’s Degree in the School of Education, University of Manchester
Doctoral research supervisions
Prof Courtney is available to supervise suitably qualified doctoral candidates with an interest in the critical sociology of educational leadership and/or education policy.
Current PhD/EdD supervision
2026
Hannah Ruth McCarthy: "An exploration of the relationship between ‘T-Levels’ and professional identities within Further Education", PhD (PT).
Supervisors: Prof Steven Courtney and Dr Miri Firth.
Weiyuan Wu: "Investigating the lived experiences of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) schoolteachers in mainland China", PhD (FT).
Supervisors: Prof Steven Courtney and Dr Catherine Atkinson
2024
Zeya Li: "Identity construction in senior women leaders in higher education in a period of social change in China", PhD (FT).
Supervisors: Prof Steven Courtney and Dr Alexander Gardner-McTaggart
Karen Healey: "Deconstructing New Public Management through the lens of school governance: Policies of social transformation or methods of control?", PhD (FT).
Supervisors: Prof Steven Courtney and Dr Andy Howes
Mark Innes: "The micro-politics of enactment in a multi-academy trust", EdD (PT).
Supervisors: Dr Paul Armstrong and Prof Steven Courtney
2023
Pinyan Lin: "Investigating leadership in formal school clusters: The case of Education Collectives in China", PhD (FT).
Supervisors: Prof Steven Courtney and Dr Paul Armstrong
Maud Halstead: "An exploration of how teachers experience challenges to their values and identities when working in schools serving disadvantaged communities", PhD (FT).
Supervisors: Prof Steven Courtney and Dr Bee Hughes.
Completed PhD/EdD supervision
2021
James Twigg: "Towards an understanding of children’s perception of learning in a primary school", EdD (PT).
Supervisors: Prof Steven Courtney and Prof Helen Gunter
2020
Bee Hughes: "An investigation into a Chief Executive Officer of a Multi-Academy Trust in England", PhD (FT).
Supervisors: Prof Helen Gunter and Prof Steven Courtney
2019
Omar Kaissi: "Researching corporeality in education: An investigation of knowledge production in gender and education research on boys and masculinities", PhD (FT).
Supervisors: Prof Steven Courtney and Prof Helen Gunter
2017
Stephen M. Rayner: "Academisation: a dynamic process of systemic change in England", EdD (PT).
Supervisors: Prof Helen Gunter and Prof Steven Courtney
CELP (Critical Education Leadership and Policy)
CELP is a Research Group at the Manchester Institute of Education.
We undertake policy scholarship that explores the power relations produced through education policy in relation to, and as expressed by education leadership, leaders and leading.
We also describe, explain and theorise the significance and implications of these relations for people such as education professionals and children, institutions such as schools and universities, and concepts such as public education, equity, internationalisation and leadership.
Key questions include:
We explore:
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Doctor of Philosophy, Investigating school leadership at a time of system diversity, competition and flux., The University of Manchester
1 Sep 2011 → 17 Dec 2015
Award Date: 17 Dec 2015
Master of Arts, Educational Leadership and School Improvement, The University of Manchester
20 Sep 2010 → 31 Aug 2011
Award Date: 16 Nov 2011
PGCE Secondary in French and Spanish, University of Leeds
7 Sep 1998 → 4 Jun 1999
Award Date: 12 Jul 1999
Cert. TESOL, Golders Green College School of English
23 Sep 1996 → 25 Oct 1996
Award Date: 25 Oct 1996
Bachelor of Arts, French Language and Literature Major with Spanish Minor, University of Leeds
21 Sep 1992 → 7 Jun 1996
Award Date: 14 Jun 1996
Elected Council Member, British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society (BELMAS)
18 Sep 2020 → 17 Sep 2023
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Book/Report › Commissioned report › peer-review
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Courtney, Steven (Recipient), 2016
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Courtney, Steven (Recipient), 31 Mar 2017
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Courtney, Steven (Recipient), 2016
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Courtney, Steven (Recipient), 2016
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Courtney, Steven (Recipient), 2015
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Steven Courtney (Invited speaker) & Bee Hughes (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
Amanda Heffernan (Plenary speaker), Neil Selwyn (Plenary speaker), Steven Courtney (Invited speaker), Howard Prosser (Invited speaker), Lisa Murtagh (Invited speaker), Carlo Perrotta (Invited speaker), Mark Carrigan (Invited speaker) & David Bright (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation › Oral presentation
Steven Courtney (Co-Organiser), Paul Armstrong (Co-Organiser), Bee Hughes (Co-Organiser), Stephen Rayner (Co-Organiser), Mark Innes (Participant), Amanda Heffernan (Participant), Troy Heffernan (Participant), Joanne Doherty (Participant), Craig Skerritt (Participant) & Alexander Gardner-Mctaggart (Participant)
Activity: Participating in or organising event(s) › Organising a conference, workshop, exhibition, performance, inquiry, course etc
Steven Courtney (Interviewee)
Activity: Other
Steven Courtney (Keynote speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
Gunter, H. (Creator) & Courtney, S. (Creator), University of Manchester figshare, 25 Nov 2022
DOI: 10.48420/21065956, https://figshare.manchester.ac.uk/articles/presentation/Corporatised_fabrications_Addressing_methodologically_research_participants_lies/21065956
Dataset
Lomer, S. (Creator), Mittelmeier, J. (Creator) & Courtney, S. (Creator), University of Manchester figshare, 31 Oct 2022
DOI: 10.48420/21428262, https://figshare.manchester.ac.uk/articles/dataset/Enacting_Internationalisation_Document_Analysis_xlsx/21428262
Dataset
Bee Hughes, Steven Courtney, Paul Armstrong, Helen Gunter, Alex McTaggart, Amanda Heffernan, Mark Innes & Craig Skerritt
13/03/23
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Blogs and social media
Mark Innes, Bee Hughes, Steven Courtney, Paul Armstrong, Alexander Gardner-Mctaggart, Stephen Rayner & Helen Gunter
30/06/22
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Blogs and social media
Steven Courtney & Rinnelle Lee-Piggott
9/02/22
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Blogs and social media
Steven Courtney, Helen Gunter & Steven Jones
4/10/21
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Blogs and social media
Paul Armstrong, Steven Courtney, Alexander Gardner-Mctaggart, Helen Gunter & Bee Hughes
16/03/21
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Blogs and social media
Supervisor: Gunter, H. (Supervisor) & West, M. (Supervisor)
Student thesis: Unknown