Dr Sarah Gillborn

School of Education
Assistant Professor of Psychology in Education

Contact details

Email: s.gillborn@bham.ac.uk

Address: School of Education
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Sarah Gillborn is an Associate Professor in Psychology in Education in the Department of Education and Social Justice. She is a critical psychologist interested in critical feminist and qualitative research. Sarah’s research focuses on analyses of discourse and voice, particularly in relation to public policy, in order to understand how social issues are officially constructed and re/negotiated by those implicated by them. In addition, Sarah’s work takes a critical look at the role of psychology as a discipline in reproducing and challenging oppression.

Biography

After completing her BSc (Hons) Psychology at Leeds Beckett University in 2015, Sarah worked as the Vice President (Welfare) at Leeds Beckett Students' Union, where she engaged in campaigns and policy changes related to student welfare at university, particularly in relation to sexism and sexual violence.

In 2016, Sarah began her PhD in Psychology at Leeds Beckett. Sarah's PhD investigated discourses of fatness and motherhood (re)produced through UK government 'childhood obesity' policy. As part of this project, Sarah interviewed mothers and used Feminist Relational Discourse Analysis to analyse their stories and voices in order to understand how women negotiate and navigate the discourses in within this 'childhood obesity' policy. Sarah completed her PhD in 2020.

During her PhD, Sarah was also a core member of the Curriculum Decolonisation Project, working with students and staff to highlight the lack of diversity and issues of colonisation within Higher Education curriculums, particularly within psychology, and to understand staff possibilities and resistance with regards to decolonisation.

From 2019, Sarah worked at Staffordshire University as a Lecturer in Psychology, where she developed and led a module in critical psychology before joining the University of Birmingham as a Lecturer in Psychology in Education in 2021.

Teaching

Critical Approaches to Psychology in Education (Module lead)
Qualitative Research Methods in Psychology – Part 2 (Module lead)

Doctoral research

PhD title: ‘Bad mothers of fat children’: A feminist analysis of discourse and voice in relation to ‘childhood obesity’ intervention

Research

Sarah conducts qualitative research related to issues of inequality and social justice. In particular, Sarah's research focuses on analyses of discourse and voice, particularly in relation to education policy and practice, in order to understand how social issues are officially constructed and (re)negotiated by those implicated by them. In addition, Sarah's work takes a critical look at the role of psychology as a discipline in (re)producing and challenging oppression.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Castillo, W & Gillborn, S 2025, 'Leveraging QuantCrit to expose and challenge systemic racism in educational psychology', Educational Psychologist, vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 301-316. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2025.2554592

Gillborn, S & Delahunty, T 2025, 'The psychological complex in contemporary education policy', Journal of Education Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2025.2478400

Gillborn, S, Woolnough, H, Jankowski, G & Sandle, R 2023, ''Intensely white': psychology curricula and the (re)production of racism', Educational Review, vol. 75, no. 5, pp. 813-832. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2021.1978402

Gillborn, S, Rickett, B & Woolhouse, M 2022, 'A feminist relational discourse analysis of mothers’ voiced accounts of the ‘duty to protect’ children from fatness and fatphobia', Feminism and Psychology, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 224-245. https://doi.org/10.1177/09593535221074802

Gillborn, S, Rickett, B, Muskett, T & Woolhouse, M 2020, 'Apocalyptic public health: exploring discourses of fatness in childhood ‘obesity’ policy', Journal of Education Policy, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 3-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2019.1566839

Chapter

Gillborn, S 2026, Mainstreaming misogyny: The policy and politics that normalise extreme misogyny. in The Social Science of Conspiracism, Extremism, and Hate. Oxford University Press.

Comment/debate

Gillborn, S & Gillborn, D 2021, 'Racism, psychology and higher education: a response to ‘Seeking equality of educational outcomes for Black students: A personal account’ by Louise Taylor', The Psychology of Education Review, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 23-29.

Jankowski, G, Sandle, R & Gillborn, S 2018, 'Why is our teaching still mostly white and Western?', The Psychologist, pp. 6.

Jankowski, G, Gillborn, S & Sandle, R 2017, 'Advancing BME psychology', The Psychologist, pp. 2.

Muskett, T, Sandle, R, Gillborn, S & Jankowski, G 2017, 'Chicken or egg, theory or action? A critical rethinking of how we do things in psychology', Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section Bulletin, no. 24, pp. 51-55.

Other contribution

Gillborn, S 2024, It doesn't measure up: Tracking kids' BMIs needs to end. Academy of Social Sciences. <https://acss.org.uk/the-devolution-catch-22-weak-local-institutions-uneven-growth-and-inequality-across-english-regions/>

Gillborn, S 2022, Exploring racism in psychology through an exploration of the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum. The British Psychological Society. <https://www.bps.org.uk/news/exploring-racism-psychology-through-exploration-undergraduate-and-postgraduate-curriculum>

Gillborn, S 2021, How psychology reproduces racism. <https://edpsy.org.uk/blog/2021/how-psychology-reproduces-racism/>

View all publications in research portal