About
Gary Thomas took up the post of chair in education at Birmingham in 2005. Before university teaching, he worked as a teacher and as an educational psychologist. In higher education – at the University of Leeds, at Oxford Brookes University, UWE and University College London – his teaching and research have focused on inclusion, special education, and research methodology in education.
Gary has received awards from the AHRC, the ESRC, the Nuffield Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the DfE, Barnardos, the Cadmean Trust, local authorities and a range of other organisations. Most of his funded research has been on inclusive or special education, though his Leverhulme Research Fellowship was awarded to examine the role of theory in education.
Gary Thomas has recently led an ESRC thematic seminar competition in the Teaching and Learning Research Programme on the assessment of quality in educational research.
He is the founding co-editor of a Taylor & Francis Carfax journal, the International Journal of Research and Method in Education and he is co-editor of the British Educational Research Journal
Qualifications
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PhD
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MEd
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PGCE
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BA (Hons) Psychology
Teaching
His teaching is in his areas of interest and is principally focused in research degree supervision. Gary Thomas also teaches two modules in the UG programme (Special Educational Needs and Introduction to Psychology) and contributes to the MA in Social Research.
Thomas, G. (2009) How to do your research project: a guide for students in education and applied social sciences. London: SAGE (PDF 92KB, opens new window)
Bera Conference 2009
You can download his paper Where’s the theory? Behind you! Oh no it isn’t! Stanley Fish and the end of theory from the Bera 2009 conference here Bera Manchester September 2009 (PDF, opens new window)
Research
His recent research and scholarship have centred on inclusive education, on the work of additional personnel in schools and research methodology in education, with a particular focus on the epistemology of special education.
Gary Thomas is currently ...
i) leading an AHRC funded research project entitled The changing nature of 'connectivity' within and between communities. A link to the project blog may be found here http://connectedcomms.wordpress.com/
ii) a co-investigator on the Sense-funded project (PI Liz Hodges) on the process of diagnosis in Usher syndrome
Publications
Selected Publications
Thomas, G. (2012) , A review of thinking and research about inclusive education policy, with suggestions for a new kind of inclusive thinking. British Educational Research Journal. 38. Available on iFirst at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01411926.2011.652070
Thomas, G. (2012) Changing our landscape of inquiry for a new science of education. Harvard Educational Review, 82, 1, 26-51. http://her.hepg.org/content/6t2r089l715x3377/
Thomas, G. (2011) A typology for the case study in social science following a review of definition, discourse and structure. Qualitative Inquiry, 17, 6, 511 – 521. DOI 10.1177/1077800411409884
Thomas, G. (2011) The case: generalization, theory and phronesis in case study, Oxford Review of Education, 37, 1., 21-35 DOI: 10.1080/03054985.2010.521622
Thomas, G. (2011) How to do your case study: a guide for students and researchers. London: Sage. http://www.uk.sagepub.com/books/Book235663
Thomas, G. (2010) Doing case study: abduction not induction; phronesis not theory. Qualitative Inquiry, 16, 7, 575-582.
Thomas, G. (2007) Education and Theory: Strangers in Paradigms. Maidenhead: Open University Press. http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335211798.html
Thomas, G., & Loxley, A. (2007) Deconstructing Special Education and Constructing Inclusion. Buckingham: Open University Press. (2nd edition) http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335223710.html
Thomas, G. & James, D. (2006) Re-inventing grounded theory: some questions about theory, ground and discovery. British Educational Research Journal, 32 (6): 767–795.
Full publication list for Professor Gary Thomas from 2001 (PDF, opens new window)
Full publication list for Professor Gary Thomas pre 2001 (PDF, opens new window)