Dr Anna Olsson Rost

Anna Olsson-Rost

Dr Anna Olsson Rost

Senior Lecturer and PGCE Secondary Programme Lead

My profile

Biography

I used to be a history teacher, and now I am a keen historian of education, and a teacher educator. In my different roles at Man Met I get to combine my interests in history, education, policy, and pedagogy.

Community, charity and NGO links

I am a governor at Whalley Range High School.

Membership of professional associations

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Representative of the UCET ITE Secondary Forum and the UCET Research and International Forum.

Member of The Chartered College of Teachers

Member of the British Education Research Association (BERA)

Member of the History Techer Education Network (HTEN)

Member of the Network of Teacher Educators (NoTE)

Interests and expertise

My research interests are firmly rooted in the history of education as well as the teaching of history. My history research is predominantly focused on education and policy, with my PhD thesis focusing on the pioneering of comprehensive schooling, and the politics and policy linked to comprehensivisation.

I am also interested in supporting, and finding out more about, teachers’ and teacher educators’ experiences of decolonising curricula and practices (particularly history teachers, but also more broadly).

My teaching responsibilities are mainly on the PGCE History course, and I am the Programme Lead for PGCE Secondary.

Get in touch

0161 247 2359
Brooks Building

Projects

‘Back to the future: using archival research and historic narratives to construct speculative futures about Ofsted and school inspections.’ (MMU Accelerator grant)

‘Strengthening Teacher Networks, decolonising secondary school history curricula’ (funded by the British Education Research Association). (BERA small grant)

‘Decolonial Praxis: Teacher educators’ perspectives on tensions, barriers and possibilities of anti-racist practice-based Initial Teacher Education in England’

‘Curriculum Innovation in Teacher Education: The Flexible Placement Model’

Teaching

Postgraduate teaching

I teach on the PGCE Secondary History course.

History

Education and teacher education

Teaching and schooling

Decolonising

Supervision

I have supervised MA Dissertations.

I am currently supervising two PhD projects. One with a focus on gender and science in school teaching, and another project looking at LGBTQA+ teachers and teacher identity.

Subject areas

History

Education and teacher education

Policy

Teaching and schooling

Decolonising

Research outputs

Research expertise

My PhD thesis focused on early pioneers of comprehensive schooling (particularly Anglesey as the first fully comprehensivised LEA in 1953). My research interests and expertise include the history and politics of comprehensive schooling, policy-making in education and the roles of local and central government, and the Labour Party and comprehesive schooling.

I have also conducted research on representations of women and gender in history textboooks, and Cold War narratives in school magazines during the 1950s and 1960s. 

I have undertaken research and collaborative work relating to the decolonising of curricula and practices, both in secondary education (mostly history) as well as in teacher education.

Academic collaborations

Co-Authored with Josie Gabi, Diane Warner and Uzma Asif

https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/radical-imagination-enacting-anti-racist-practice-and-decolonial-praxis-in-initial-teacher-education-in-england 

Co-Authored with Diane Warner and Yvonne Sinclair

‘The uncomfortable and destabilising realities for Black, Asian and minority ethnic students on an initial teacher education course’

https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/we-need-to-call-race-by-its-name-in-teacher-education 

Publications

Journal articles

Gabi, J., Olsson Rost, A., Warner D. and Asif, U. (2023) ‘Decolonial praxis: Teacher educators’ perspectives on tensions, barriers, and possibilities of anti-racist practice-based Initial Teacher Education in England’, BERA The Curriculum Journal, https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.174

Olsson Rost, A. and Collinson, M. (2022) ‘DEVELOPING THE LABOUR PARTY’S COMPREHENSIVE SECONDARY EDUCATION POLICY, 1950-1965: PARTY ACTIVISTS AS PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS AND POLICY ENTREPRENEURS’, British Journal of Educational Studies, https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/8W4US2SPGIVV5QHIKWVU/full?target=10.1080/00071005.2022.2131731

Olsson Rost, A. (2022). Strengthening teacher networks, decolonising secondary school history curricula: Challenges & opportunities in a (post-) pandemic context. In M. L. Moncrieffe, U. Markowska-Manista, J. Mwangi, & C. Gower (Eds.), Pandemic, protests, recovery, opportunities: Repositioning of educational research, teaching & learning. Research Intelligence, 151, 26–27. British Education Research Association. https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/summer-2022 

Olsson Rost, A. (2020). UNINTENDED BUT ALWAYS SIGNIFICANT? A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF NATIONAL EDUCATION REFORM ON LOCAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE PIONEERING OF COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOLING C.1918–1950. British Journal of Educational Studies. 68(5), pp.629-648.

Olsson Rost, A. (2019). The significance of the Welsh dimension: Pioneering of comprehensive education in Anglesey, circa 1930-1953. The Welsh History Review. 29(3), pp.436-460.

Olsson Rost, A. (2016). Hester Vaizey, Born in the GDR Living in the Shadow of the Wall, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. £20.00, 978-0-19-871873-4 (Hardback),pp. ixii + 217. Women’s History. 2(5), pp.37-38.

Olsson Rost, A. (2016). Britain is watching this school experiment, Anglesey leads the way’. A forgotten pioneer? Anglesey’s comprehensive system, circa 1953-1970. Transactions: Anglesey Antiquarian Society Journal. pp.27-45.

Olsson Rost, A. (2015). The Cold War Home Front, an Age of Anxiety? The Cold War narrative in school magazines from Holyhead Comprehensive School during the 1950s and 1960s. Llafur -Aberystwyth-.

Edited books

Moncrieff, M., Fakunle, O., Kustatscher, M. and Olsson Rost, A. (2024) The BERA Guide to Decolonising the Curriculum: Equity and Inclusion in Educational Research and Practice. Leeds: Emerald Publishing.

Corcoran, S., Goodley, C., Hay, A. and Olsson Rost, A. (2024) Women Becoming Practitioner Researchers: From School Teacher to Academic. New York: Berghahn Books.

Chapters in books

M. Hulme, KA. Olsson Rost, R. O’Sullivan Developing an online practicum in professional education : a case study from UK teacher education. C. Hong, W. Ma. In: Applied Degree Education and the Future of Learning. Singapore: Springer Singapore.

I co-authored two chapters in: Barber, J; Overland, E; Sackville-Ford, M (eds) (2020) Behaviour Management: An Essential Guide for Student & Newly Qualified Teachers. Routledge: Oxon:

‘The history of behaviour management, key theorists and current context’ (co-author: Chris Chambers)

‘Working with texts in English / History: Behaviour challenges and possible solutions’ (co-author: Chris Hanley)

Conferences

Corcoran, S. Goodley, C., Hay, A. and Olsson Rost, A. ‘From female teacher to academic – autoethnographies, professional identities and the Mutually Persuasive Discourse’. BERA Annual Conference, Manchester (Sep. 2024)

Olsson Rost, A. and Moncrieffe, M.‘Transforming Knowledge In Teacher Education Through Decolonial Praxis’. Karlstad Universitet (May 2023).

Olsson Rost, A. ‘What have we forgotten? Using school magazines to reveal children’s thinking about the Cold War and the future during the 1950s and 1960s’. Tapere University (Oct. 2021)

Olsson Rost, A. and Collinson, M. ‘Associational public intellectuals and party education policy: The Fabian Society and the shaping of Labour’s comprehensivisation policy, c.1960–1979’. (Sep. 2021)

Olsson Rost, A. ‘If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to destroy every f***ing grammar school…’ The grammar school debate and its unexpected consequences for the educational rhetoric of the Labour Party during the 1950s and 1960s’. Bangor University,

‘The grammar school debate and its unexpected consequences on the educational rhetoric of the Labour Party during the 1950s and 1960s.’ Paper for the Shaping the Labour Party Conference, Bangor, United Kingdom (2015)

Olsson Rost, A. ‘Efficiency and economy? The complex path to comprehensivisation on Anglesey, 1935- 1953’. Reading University, 30/5/2014.

‘Documents and Interviews: Using written and oral testimonies collaboratively’ Paper for the Histories of Education Summer School Conference for Postgraduate Students, Hamburg, Germany (2013)