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Professor Alis Oancea

Fellow, Official Fellow

Professor of Philosophy of Education and Research Policy

Department of Education

DPhil (Oxon), PhD (Buc), DipLATHE (Oxon), Dhc (UWT), FAcSS

Alis is Professor of Philosophy of Education and Research Policy and Social Sciences Division Advocate for Impact (Responsible Engagement and Innovation) at the University of Oxford. She is also Research Theme Coordinator (Policy, Economy and Society) at the Department of Education and Deputy Director and Project Lead (Research on Research) at the ESRC Centre for Global Higher Education. In recent years, she was Director of Research in the Department of Education and REF2021 coordinator for the unit. Through scholarly and professional collaborations, she hopes to champion knowledge, justice, generosity and integrity in research practices and discourses, research policy and research leadership and cultures in different types of organisation. She has led and collaborated on research projects, change and development initiatives, and administrative processes on impact and knowledge exchange, and held advisory and leadership roles in education reform and research assessment. She has conducted research on research ecosystems, values in research, open knowledge, impact, ethics and integrity, epistemic diversity, research careers, understandings of quality and excellence, research assessment, research in teacher education, philosophy of research, and responsible research and engagement. Contributions to the integration and development of the field of meta-research include the collaborative production of the Handbook of Meta-Research (2024).

Funded work includes studies of interpretations and practices of research quality and ‘excellence’  and of research impact in the full range of disciplines; responsible knowledge exchange, impact and engagement; comparative analyses of principles, strategies and mechanisms for research assessment internationally; the impacts of successive RAEs on institutional, departmental and individual academic behaviours; interpretations of cultural value from arts and humanities research (AHRC); reviews of the current state of, and future prospects for, education research (including the BERA Observatory and the BA/RS landscape review); quality and ethics in applied and practice-based research; research cultures; the roles of the social sciences within innovation ecosystems.  She is interested in research on higher education, contemporary challenges for philosophy of education and research, and science and technology studies.

Publications (Selected)

  • Oancea, A. (2014) Teachers’ professional knowledge and state-funded teacher education: a (hi)story of critiques and silences. In: Oxford Review of Education, 40(4), 497-519.
  • Punch, K. & Oancea, A. (2014) Research Methods in Education. 2nd ed. London: SAGE.
  • Oancea, A., Florez-Petour, M. and Atkinson, J. (2014) The Cultural Value of Arts and Humanities Research: A Configurative Approach. Arts and Humanities Research Council.
  • Oancea, A. (2013) Interpretations of research impact in seven disciplines, European Educational Research Journal, 12(2), 242-250.
  • Oancea, A. (2013) Buzzwords and values: The prominence of “impact” in UK research policy and governance. Research Trends, 33, 6-8
  • Ovseiko, P.V., Oancea, A., and Buchan, A.M. (2012) Assessing research impact in academic clinical medicine: a study using Research Excellence Framework pilot impact indicators. In: BMC Health Services Research 2012, 12:478 (http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/12/478/about).
  • Oancea, A. and Orchard, J. (2012) The future of teacher education Journal of Philosophy of Education, 46: 574–588. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9752.2012.00888.x
  • Oancea, A. and Bridges, D. (2009) Philosophy of education – its contribution and status since 1988. Oxford Review of Education, 35 (5), 553-568.
  • Oancea, A. et al (2009) Trends in research policy in the United Kingdom – implications for South African higher education research. In: South African Journal of Higher Education, 23(2) .
  • Oancea, A. (2009) Performative accountability and the UK Research Assessment Exercise. In: ACCESS: Critical Perspectives on Communication, Cultural & Policy Studies(NZ), special issue on “The politics and educational research: International perspectives on research accountability and audit systems” vol. 27 (1 & 2).
  • Pring, R., Hayward, G., Hodgson, A. , Johnson, J., Keep, E. , Oancea, A., Rees, G., Spours, K., and Wilde, S. (2009) Education for All: The future of education and training for 14-19 year olds. London: Routledge.
  • Oancea A. and Pring, R. (2008) The importance of being thorough: On systematic accumulations of “what works” in education research. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 42(s1), pp. 4-15.
  • Oancea A. (2007) From Procrustes to Proteus: Trends and practices in the assessment of education research. In: International Journal for Research Methods in Education, 30(3), pp. 243-269.
  • Oancea A. and Furlong, J. (2007) Expressions of excellence and the assessment of applied and practice-based research. Research Papers in Education, 22(2), pp. 119–137.
  • Furlong, J. and Oancea A. (2007) Assessing Quality in Applied and Practice-Based Research in Education. London: Routledge.