Personal statement

Agnieszka Bates is Head of the School of Education at Bath Spa University and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Agnieszka places the excellence of the student experience at the heart of her strategic vision. Her key role is to lead the School, ensuring that its strategic goals are underpinned by high-quality provision and operational effectiveness. She is a strong believer in openness and collegiality as crucial aspects of effective professional teamwork and success.

Agnieszka’s career in education spans 28 years, beginning as a primary school teacher in London and going on to work at four universities, teaching across a wide range of Undergraduate, Master’s and Doctoral programmes. In all of these contexts, Agnieszka has successfully undertaken a variety of leadership roles, contributing to the effective performance of the wider organisation. As Postgraduate Research Director at the University of East Anglia (UEA) she was responsible for leading a team of 26 doctoral supervisors to deliver a sustained, high-quality experience for a large cohort of doctoral students.

Agnieszka also has extensive experience in the areas of curriculum innovation, partnership development and education research in both the UK and international contexts. Her consultancy portfolio extends across a diverse range of activities including: the delivery of short courses to Senior Management Teams in local schools; working with a range of partners on educational projects, and guidance on ‘Systems Thinking’ in programme development for the School of Engineering and Innovation at the Open University. Agnieszka is committed to developing strong links with international universities and organisations and is currently working closely with colleagues across Bath Spa University to enhance BSU’s links with Universities in China, Ukraine, Zambia and Poland.

Though Agnieszka’s leadership and management responsibilities have taken priority in recent years, she has maintained a strong involvement in UK and international research activities. These activities include: collaboration with BSU teams on successful research funding applications; doctoral examination at the University of Winchester, Tampere University (Finland), University of Hertfordshire, King’s College London, University of East Anglia (UEA); writing for publication, and work as an editorial board member of the Education, Citizenship and Social Justice journal.

Academic qualifications

  • Doctor of Education (EdD), Froebel College, University of Roehampton, with a focus on strategic leadership and school improvement
  • MA in English Language and Literature, King’s College London
  • BA and MA in English and Linguistics, University of Warsaw, Poland.

Professional memberships

  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)
  • British Educational Research Association (BERA)
  • Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB)

Other external roles

  • Editorial board member: Education, Citizenship and Social Justice journal
  • Doctoral examiner (PhD, EdD, Doctor of Management): University of Winchester, Tampere University (Finland), King’s College London, University of Hertfordshire, University of East Anglia (UEA)

Areas of expertise

  • Education policy, leadership and management
  • Social and Emotional Learning
  • Wellbeing and character education
  • Sociology of education
  • Complexity theory
  • Discourse analysis.

Research supervision

Agnieszka welcomes applications from doctoral candidates interested in researching education policy and leadership and management for organisational improvement.

Conference presentations and wider engagement

  • ‘Innovative Research and Prospects’ Third International Scientific Conference, International University of Economics and Humanities, Rivne, Ukraine (2023): The challenge of learning to step ‘outside myself’: Merleau-Ponty’s Lectures on Child Psychology and Pedagogy and the ontology of existence.
  • Teacher Education Conference, New City College London (2023): The challenges of growing up, student well-being and inclusive education, a keynote lecture.
  • International Council on Education for Teaching (ICET), 64th World Assembly (2022): The canvas underneath the picture: developing open-minded, creative approaches to emotions in the classroom.
  • British Educational Research Association (BERA) 2021: Lessons from the pandemic: Wellbeing, character and a phenomenology of hope.
  • European Educational Research Association (ECER) 2021: When political expediency and social control take precedence over education: Merleau-Ponty, psychoanalysis and the complexities of the adolescent experience.
  • Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) 2021: ‘Neither first nor second’: Merleau-Ponty’s perspective on adolescence and its implications for Relationships and Sex Education. 
  • Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) 2018: Character education and the priority of recognition.
  • 'Complexity and Education' symposium (Institute of Physics, Philosophy of Education SIG, BERA and Institute of Education, University College London) 2017: Assessment policy, 'readiness for school' and a complexity view of time.
  • European Educational Research Association (ECER) 2017: Lessons in happiness and ‘grit’: character education in policy and practice.
  • European Educational Research Association (ECER) 2016: Education policy and leadership research: a view from the ‘third window’.
  • British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society (BELMAS) 2016: The self-improving system: a complexity approach to unlocking improvement in the local primary school.
  • Inaugural Meeting of the British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society (BELMAS) Research Student Community 2015: A complexity perspective on ‘evidence-based’ approaches to school improvement in England, keynote, University of Leicester.
  • European Educational Research Association (ECER) 2015: Complex knowledge and the politics of complexity reduction in ‘evidence-based’ school improvement in England.
  • British Educational Research Association (BERA) 2015: Beyond educational excellence: leadership ‘styles’, the child and the priority of recognition.
  • International Sociology of Education Conference 2014: The management of ‘emotional labour’ and the spread of corporate imagination in English schools.
  • British Educational Research Association (BERA) 2014: Articulating the reflexive self: reflexivity in postgraduate curriculum.
  • Centre for Educational Research in Equalities, Policy and Pedagogy: 2014: When improvement becomes a ‘cult value’: the emergence of manipulative relations in the primary classroom and staffroom, University of Roehampton, London.
  • Faculty of Pedagogy, University of Warsaw, Poland, 2013: On reflection and epistemology.

Research and academic outputs

Go to ResearchSPAce