For nearly five decades I have been working on the development of young peoples’ moral, civic and political beliefs, identity and behavior,including the educational, cultural and social factors which influence these developments.  I have also worked on cultural factors in science and society, including how young people regard science and technology and how this influences their choices of study and career.  A strand in all this work has also been the role of gender and feminist theory.  I use both qualitative and qualitative methods.  My data sources are international, including the UK, China, South Africa and Europe.  My work is based on a theory of culture and the individual that addresses language, rhetoric and metaphor.

My research on civic and moral engagement and educationincludes questions about ethics,moral, social and civic understandingand the relationship between values, activism and citizenship. What promotes, and what inhibits, youth civic participation? I have explored data on this from Britain, China, Europe  and South Africa. While a Visiting Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education (2003-2018) I ran a training program for doctoral students working on civic education research, the New Civics Early Career Scholars Program, funded by the Spencer Foundation.  

My recent work on science and society includesbeing part of a six nation project funded by the European Union on young people’s beliefs about and orientation towards science, including the relationship with social and personal values.I have also directed projects on Britishyoung people’s images of science and technology, their motivations towards and away from pursuing science beyond school, and the relationship between these and their social values. I have also explored  how images of science and scientists are closely aligned with conceptions of rationality and culturally sensitive dualities like reason and emotion, order and disorder.  This maps also on to gender and feminist theory, a major interest throughout my career.  

 I contributed to OECD’s millennial work  on ‘competence’ for 21^stcentury life.  I identified five areas of ‘competence’ that relate to adaptation and the management of continuity and change, rather than a list of ‘skills’.  I am currently involved with OECD’s Education for 2030 which addresses, inter alia,values.  I am the author or editor of six books and numerous scholarly papers.  I have also  been a frequent contributor to broadcasting and public media.

Professional roles and awards

From 1971 -2008 I was on the faculty of the University of Bath in England, where I am now professor emerita.  I was chair of the Dept of Psychology there from 1997-2001.  I was a Visiting Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education from 2003 – 2018. I have also held honorary visiting positions at the University of Jinan, China,  the University of Exeter, England,  the Education University of Hong Kong and North East Normal University in Changchun, China

I have received recognition for my career and contributions from the International Society of Political Psychology (the Knutson and Sanford Awards) and from the Association for Moral Education (the Kuhmerker Award). I am a Fellow of the following British academic and scientific societies:  the British Psychological Society, the Academy of Social Sciences, the British Science Association and the Royal Society of Arts.  Significant leadership positions include President of the International Society of Political Psychology, Chair of Council and Vice President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science,  and President of the Psychology Section.  I have been on the editorial board of several scholarly journals and was co-editor of POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY from 2010 -15.