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Nigel Kettley

Position/Status

University Lecturer in Social Science, Institute of Continuing Education, Cambridge
Graduate Admissions Tutor, Tutor and Fellow, Wolfson College

E-mail Address:

nck20@cam.ac.uk

Phone:

01954 280291 or 01223 335925

Qualifications
  • BA Sociology (Hons)
  • Certificate in Education (FE)
  • MPhil Sociology and Politics of Modern Society (Cantab)
  • PhD Sociology of Education (Cantab)
Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations
  • Social Science Research Group, University of Cambridge
  • Fellow of the Institute for Learning, Learning and Skills Sector

Profile

Nigel has had a wide ranging teaching and research career in the fields of sociology, educational studies, research methods and teacher training. Before joining the Institute of Continuing Education in 2007, he was a Research Associate in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, and earlier still a PhD student at Wolfson College. He is an active researcher in the areas of widening participation, educational attainment and lifelong learning more generally with a particular focus on issues of gender, social stratification and educational practice.

Nigel teaches on a variety of courses for the Institute, supervises MPhil and PhD students for the Faculty of Education, and works with undergraduates in his capacity as Director of Studies for Social and Political Sciences for Wolfson College. Much of his time is devote to initial teacher training in the lifelong learning sector and he is Academic Director of Studies on the Certificate of Higher Education (Combined Education Studies). He is also joint Principal Investigator of the Cambridge Bursary Scheme Evaluation Project, with Joan Whitehead, in the Faculty of Education.

Research Topics

  • Gender, ethnic and socio-economic variations in educational attainment at GCSE and A/AS level combining numerical and narrative accounts
  • Student recruitment, socio-economic experience and progression in further and higher education
  • Initial teacher training in the lifelong learning sector
  • The history of widening participation, educational attainment and lifelong learning research
  • Gender and 'social class' theory with particular reference to the new sociology of masculinity, gender and power relations, and continuous measures and models of social stratification
  • Mixed methods research design and theorising in educational research.

Current Research Projects

Evaluation of the Cambridge Bursary Scheme (CBS) Project. Isaac Newton Trust Bursary Scheme Evaluation Project.

Publications

Kettley, N. (forthcoming 2009). Theory building in educational research. London: Continuum.

Kettley, N., Whitehead, J. M. and Raffan, J. (2007/8). "Worried women, complacent men? Gendered responses to differential student funding in higher education". Oxford Review of Education. Online August 2007 (Taylor and Francis), Journal February 2008.

Kettley, N. (2007). Educational attainment and society. London: Continuum.

Kettley, N. (2007). "The past, present and future of widening participation research". British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 333-347.

Kettley, N. C. (2006). "It's pretty cool to be clever": The marginal relevance of gender to educational practices and attainment at A/AS level? Evaluation and Research in Education, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 126-144.

Kettley, N. C. (2005). Patterns of GCE A/AS level attainment in further education. Cambridge Studies in Social Research No. 9. Cambridge: Social Science Research Group Publications.