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Prof Alis Oancea

Fellow, Official Fellow

Research Co-ordinator, Professor of Philosophy of Education and Research Policy

Department of Education

DPhil (Oxon), PhD (Buc), DipLATHE (Oxon), PGCert (Oxon), MSc (Buc), BA (Buc)

alis.oancea@kellogg.ox.ac.uk

Dr Oancea specialises in philosophy of research and in studies of research policy and governance (including research evaluation, quality, and impact).  Recent funded work includes a study of notions of cultural value from arts and humanities research (AHRC), a study of interpretations and practices of research impact in the full range of disciplines, evaluations of the impacts of successive RAEs on institutional, departmental and individual academic behaviour, a review of the current state of, and future prospects for, education research, and a comparative study of principles, strategies and mechanisms for research assessment in several countries and disciplines.  She also has strong interests in higher education, contemporary challenges for philosophy of education, and science and technology studies.

Dr Oancea is member of the Peer Review College of the Economic and Social Research Council and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.  She is Editor of the Review of Education. As Secretary of the Oxford Branch of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain she works with colleagues to organise regular seminars that bridge between education and other fields of enquiry, as well as between philosophical and empirical research.  Other professional roles held by Dr Oancea have included Elected Executive Council member and trustee of the British Educational Research Association (2009-12), Council member of the European Educational Research Association, steering group member of the UK Strategic Forum for Research in Education (2008–10), member of the UCET/BERA Working Group on the future of educational research (2011–12), and Senior Advisor for Research Impact to the University of Oxford (2012-13).

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.