Education, Work and Social Change in Britain's Former Coalfield Communities

Robin Simmons is Professor of Education at the University of Huddersfield, UK. His research interests lie in the sociology of education, education policy, and the history of education. Robin has led research funded by leading bodies including the Raymond Williams Foundation, Gatsby Charitable Foundation, and the Leverhulme Trust. He has written extensively on social class, particularly in relation to young people’s experiences of participation and non-participation in education, employment, and work-based learning. Robin is co-editor of Education and Working-Class Youth: Reshaping the Politics of Inclusion published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2018.Kat Simpson is Senior Lecturer in Education and Community Studies at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Her research interests lie in education and social class, especially pupils’ and teachers’ experiences of schooling in former coalmining communities. She has written extensively on differentaspects of deindustrialisation and social haunting. Methodologically, Kat is interested in Marxist ethnography and critical policy analysis. Her book Social Haunting, Education and the Working Class: Reimagining Schooling in a Former Mining Community was published in 2021.