Becky Francis

Last updated
Becky Francis
Born (1969-11-07) 7 November 1969 (age 54)
Keynsham, Somerset, England
Academic background
Alma mater University of Wales, Swansea
University of North London
Institutions

Rebecca Jane Francis, CBE , FAcSS , FBA (born 7 November 1969) is a British educationalist and academic, who specialises in educational inequalities. Since January 2020, she has been Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).

Contents

Early life and education

Francis was born on 7 November 1969 in Keynsham, Somerset, England. She was educated at the Ralph Allen School, a comprehensive school outside of Bath, Somerset. She studied English at the University of Wales, Swansea, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1992. She then undertook a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in women's studies and education at the University of North London. [1]

Career

She taught and researched at the University of Greenwich, London Metropolitan University, and Roehampton University. From 2012 to 2016, she was Professor of Education and Social Justice at King's College London. [2] She was then director of the UCL Institute of Education at University College London. [3] [4] [5] [6] Since January 2020, she has been Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). [7]

She has also been Director of Education at the Royal Society of Arts (2010–12) and an advisor to the Education Select Committee of the House of Commons since 2015. [3]

In July 2024, it was announced that she would be chairing a Curriculum and Assessment Review for the English Department for Education. [8]

Honours

In 2021, Francis was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA). [9] She is also an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS). [10] [1]

Francis was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to education. [11]

Selected works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Hall</span> British academic (born 1946)

Catherine Hall is a British academic. She is Emerita Professor of Modern British Social and Cultural History at University College London and chair of its digital scholarship project, the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery. Her work as a feminist historian focuses on the 18th and 19th centuries, and the themes of gender, class, race, and empire.

Stephen Shennan, FBA is a British archaeologist and academic. Since 1996, he has been Professor of Theoretical Archaeology. He was Director of the Institute of Archaeology at the University College London from 2005 to 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henrietta Moore</span> British social anthropologist

Dame Henrietta Louise Moore, is a British social anthropologist. She is the director of the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity at University College, London, part of the Bartlett, UCL's Faculty of the Built Environment.

Dame Sarah Jane Whatmore is a British geographer. She is a professor of environment and public policy at Oxford University. She is a professorial fellow at Keble College, moving from Linacre College in 2012. She was associate head (research) of the Social Sciences Division of the university from 2014 to 2016, and became pro-vice chancellor (education) of Oxford in January 2017. From 2018 she has been head of the Social Sciences Division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sara Arber</span> British sociologist and Professor

Sara Lynne Arber is a British sociologist and Professor at University of Surrey. Arber has previously held the position of President of the British Sociological Association (1999–2001) and Vice-President of the European Sociological Association (2005–2007). She is well known for her work on gender and ageing, inequalities in health and has pioneered research in the new field of sociology of sleep.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education Endowment Foundation</span> British charitable organization

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is a charity established in 2011 to improve the educational attainment of the poorest pupils in English schools. It aims to support teachers and senior leaders by providing evidence-based resources designed to improve practice and boost learning.

Charles Hulme, is a British psychologist. He holds the Chair of Psychology and Education in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford, and is a William Golding Senior Research Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford. He is a Senior Editor of Psychological Science, the flagship journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Ann Phoenix, is a British psychologist and academic, whose research focuses on psychosocial issues related to identity. She is Professor of Psychosocial Studies at the Institute of Education, University College London. She was previously ESRC Professorial Fellow for the Transforming Experiences research programme. She was previously Co-Director of the Thomas Coram Research Unit, and Reader in Psychology at the Open University.

Jonathan Richard Bradshaw, is a British academic, specialising in social policy, poverty and child welfare. He is Professor Emeritus of Social Policy at the University of York and a part-time Professor of Social Policy at Durham University. Since 2013, he has served as chairman of the policy committee of Child Poverty Action Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda McDowell</span> British geographer

Linda Margaret McDowell is a British geographer and academic, specialising in the ethnography of work and employment. She was Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford from 2004 to 2016.

Ruth Mace FBA is a British anthropologist, biologist, and academic. She specialises in the evolutionary ecology of human demography and life history, and phylogenetic approaches to culture and language evolution. Since 2004, she has been Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at University College London.

Jonquil Fiona Williams, is a British retired academic of social policy whose research covers gender, race, ethnicity, and the welfare state. From 1996 to 2012, she was Professor of Social Policy at the University of Leeds. She was previously a lecturer at the Polytechnic of North London, Plymouth Polytechnic, and the Open University, before becoming Professor of Applied Social Studies at the University of Bradford.

Stella Bruzzi, FBA is an Italian-born British scholar of film and media studies and currently Executive Dean of Arts and Humanities at University College London.

Michael Savage, is a British sociologist and academic, specialising in social class. Since 2014 he has been the Martin White Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the post traditionally awarded to the most senior professor in the department. In addition to being Head of the Sociology Department between 2013 and 2016, Savage also held the position of Director of LSE's International Inequalities Institute between 2015 and 2020. He previously taught at the University of Manchester and the University of York.

Sarah Elizabeth Curtis, is a British geographer and academic, specialising in health geography. From 2006 to 2016, she was Professor of Health and Risk at Durham University; she is now professor emeritus. A graduate of St Hilda's College, Oxford, she was Director of the Institute of Hazard Risk and Resilience at Durham between 2012 and 2016. She previously researched and taught at the University of Kent and at Queen Mary, University of London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Boyle</span> British geographer (born 1964)

Paul Joseph Boyle,, FRSGS, FLSW is a British geographer, academic, and academic administrator. He was the vice-chancellor of the University of Leicester between 2014 and 2019. He had been Professor of Human Geography at the University of St Andrews from 1999 to 2014, and Chief Executive of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) from 2010 to 2014. He took over as vice-chancellor of Swansea University at the end of the 2018/2019 academic year.

Heidi Safia Mirza is a British academic, who is Professor of Race, Faith and Culture at Goldsmiths, University of London, Professor Emerita in Equalities Studies at the UCL Institute of Education, and visiting professor in Social Policy at the London School of Economics (LSE). She has done pioneering research on race, gender and identity in education, multiculturalism, Islamophobia and gendered violence, and was one of the first black women professors in Britain. Mirza is author and editor of several notable books, including Young, Female and Black (1992), Black British Feminism (1997), Tackling the Roots of Racism: Lessons for Success (2005), Race Gender and Educational Desire: Why Black Women Succeed and Fail (2009), Black and Postcolonial Feminisms in New Times (2012), and Respecting Difference: Race, Faith, and Culture for Teacher Educators (2012).

Georgina Nicola Alexandra Waylen, is a British political scientist, specialising in comparative politics, political economy, and gender and politics. Since April 2012, she has been Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester. She previously taught at the University of Sheffield, the University of Salford and the University of East Anglia. She was a visiting scholar at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University from 2016 to 2017, and has been a visiting professor in the Department of Gender Studies at the London School of Economics since 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalwant Bhopal</span>

Kalwant Bhopal is Professor of Education and Social Justice and Director of the Centre for Research in Race & Education at the University of Birmingham. Her work explores the achievements and experiences of minority ethnic groups in education with a focus on how processes of racism, exclusion and marginalisation operate in predominantly White spaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joanne Conaghan</span> British legal scholar

Joanne A. F. Conaghan, is an Irish legal scholar based in the UK, specialising in the intersection between gender and the law and in feminist legal studies.

References

  1. 1 2 "Francis, Prof. Becky, (born 7 Nov. 1969), Chief Executive Officer, Education Endowment Foundation, since 2020". Who's Who 2023 . Oxford University Press. 1 December 2022.
  2. "Francis, Prof. Becky, (born 7 Nov. 1969), Chief Executive Officer, Education Endowment Foundation, since 2020". Who's Who 2024 . Oxford University Press. 1 December 2023. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
  3. 1 2 "Francis, Prof. Becky". Who's Who 2018 . Oxford University Press. 1 December 2017. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.286711.
  4. Whittaker, Freddie (18 February 2016). "Professor Becky Francis to lead Institute of Education". Schools Week . Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  5. "UCL Institute of Education names Becky Francis new director". Times Higher Education . 18 February 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  6. "Q&A with Professor Becky Francis". Institute of Education. University College London. 26 July 2018.
  7. Whittaker, Freddie (2019-10-10). "Becky Francis appointed as new EEF chief executive". Schools Week. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  8. "Government launches Curriculum and Assessment Review". GOV.UK. Department for Education. 19 July 2024. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
  9. "Professor Becky Francis FBA". The British Academy. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  10. "Fellows: F". Academy of Social Sciences. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  11. "No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N9.