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Women of impact
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Dr Rachel Marks - inspiring tomorrow's teachers

Dr Rachel Marks is passionate about education and in particular the hope that all children can have a fair and equitable opportunity to be taught the best, by the best. She believes that every child – of every age – has the right to receive an inspiring, holistic education that allows them to ‘dream big’ and to know they can achieve. To this end, she campaigns tirelessly against segregated educational practices, publishing and presenting to a wide range of audiences, face-to-face and online, and serving on a range of editorial and executive boards, to challenge some of the persistent and often stigmatising practices currently underpinning the English education system. Her book – Ability Grouping in Primary Schools: Case studies and Critical Debates – continues to attract both positive reviews and robust scrutiny from multiple audiences, some of whom may feel challenged by the ideas asserted in the book and the apparent challenge to the status quo. Rachel certainly isn’t afraid to provoke debate.

Dr Rachel Marks

Dr Rachel Marks

My ambition, my hope, is to achieve a future where all children have an unconstrained education and where notions such as ability are seen as archaic artefacts with no place in our current education system. In terms of mathematics, my hope is that research such as mine will allow teachers to see that all learners can engage with, enjoy and achieve in the subject, providing them with approaches to achieve this aim.

Dr Rachel Marks

Rachel is particularly enthusiastic about the teaching of mathematics, supporting trainee teachers to develop a holistic conception of the subject and a love of mathematics in order that they may inspire future generations of learners and disrupt some of the negative ways in which mathematics is often thought about in society. Rachel’s research in mathematics education is wide ranging, allowing her to have a deep impact on both future and current teachers. Her research crosses all educational phases from Early Years to Adult Education and from the micro exploration of single approaches to macro wide-ranging comprehensive reviews. Within her work, she has produced substantive reports for The Sutton Trust, The Nuffield Foundation and the Education Endowment Foundation. Her research is widely read, discussed and, importantly, drawn on by practicing teachers, allowing Rachel to achieve her intended impact of improving education – and particularly mathematics education – for all learners.

Coloured counting blocks
Rachel clearly brings a wealth of research experience as well as practitioner experience to the issue of ability grouping, and one of the great positives for me regarding the book is the potential of this publication to engage non-researchers in relevant research on this topic … I commend [her] for helping me, as a teacher educator, to start to call into question the issues around ability grouping, and to challenge the assumptions that we accept in practice with regards to children’s learning in schools.

Patrick Barmby, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Inspiring others

Rachel’s teaching, through her role as Assistant Programme Lead for the Primary PGCE and 3-7 Programmes, allows her to share her passion for education with trainee teachers at the very beginning of their careers. Bringing together her own classroom experience with her research in education, Rachel is able to inspire trainees, in an authentic and meaningful way, to challenge their beliefs and perceptions and to think again about common wisdom in education. Rachel shares her passion for mathematics with trainee teachers, unpacking their fears about doing and teaching mathematics and re-presenting the subject as one they can teach in a connected and coherent manner, allowing the children they will be responsible for to develop a deep-rooted interest in – and understanding of the importance of – mathematics. Some of Rachel’s trainees even decide that they do like mathematics after all!

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