Elizabeth Done

Academic profile

Dr Elizabeth Done

Associate Professor of Education Inclusion
School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business)

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The Global Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Elizabeth's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

Goal 04: SDG 4 - Quality EducationGoal 05: SDG 5 - Gender EqualityGoal 07: SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean EnergyGoal 10: SDG 10 - Reduced InequalitiesGoal 13: SDG 13 - Climate ActionGoal 16: SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

About Elizabeth

Dr Elizabeth J. Done is currently engaged in a research collaboration (UCL, Universities of Exeter and Sussex) concerning young people with disabilities, STEM education, the clean energy sector and net-zero transition. Her research focus is exclusionary or marginalising pressures in education locally, nationally and internationally. She is the author of Forgetting Inclusive Education: Memory, Politics and Ethics in School Education in Europe (forthcoming) and is the editor of a Palgrave book series on Exclusionary Pressures in Education which has a global reach, and a contributor to the World Yearbook of Education 2020. Elizabeth publishes in key educational, policy and inclusion-related journals (BERJ, JORSEN, Journal of Education Policy, Education Review), has delivered keynotes, including a 2020 EU, UNICEF and Turkish NME conference on inclusive early years education, and been sn EU project expert commentator and reviewer for the ESRC. She has impacted local and regional inclusion-related practice through numerous public event appearances and advisory roles, including the AP Research Network annual conference 2026 and local government research intended to reduce school exclusions 2025, and has presented at the European Conference of Education Research 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026. She is associated with a UCL eugenics legacies project, exploring links to current exclusionary educational practices.

2019 – date. Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter. Research Fellow. Co-investigator in jointly led (University of Plymouth) multi-strand research project on exclusionary pressures and practices; research design; supporting design of data collection instruments; related publications; project development.

2013 –  Plymouth University, SEN Coordination Programme (to 2019), providing programme-wide support to raise the quality of the programme and outcomes for young people with additional needs. MAEd Programme lecturing, dissertation supervision and assessment. Doctoral supervision (PhD / EdD) - inclusion-related research. Member of REF review and ethics review groups. 

2012-15 Visiting fellow. Graduate School of Education, Bristol University, Bristol, U.K. EU research bid co-production (multi-country).

2009 – 2011 Ahfad University for Women (Sudan). Professor in School of Psychology teaching MSc students. Contribution to Staff Development Unit (workshops and materials). Proposal writing (e.g. design of doctoral qualitative research methods programme for the Gender Unit).  

1983: London School of Economics. B.Sc. Hons. Sociology 2:1 (Including Sociological Theory, Research Methodology with Statistics, Philosophy, Politics, Economics, Sociology of Deviance, Gender Studies)

Conferences / Public engagement:

Alternative Provision Research Network Annual Conference, 31st July 2026. UWE. Invited speaker: Alternative (digital) futures: the politics of participation. 

Ignite+ project. Co-presenter / event organization. UCL, London, 29th June, 2026. Building Inclusive Futures: Education, Disability & Net Zero. 

European Conference of Education Research, Finland, August 2026. Discussant: Truth Telling, Relationality and Repair in HE and Community: A global perspective. Co-presenter: Not Seen. Not Heard. Structural Barriers for Disabled Young People. 

European Conference of Education Research, Serbia, August 2025. Co-presenter: Small Things / Big Picture. 

British Educational Research Association (SIG webinar), 3rd June 2025. Invited speaker: Questioning exclusionary practices.

University of Plymouth, ECR Network, invited keynote, 30th April 2025, Towards an ethics of resistance, with Helen Knowler (UCL).  
Public symposium (online), invited keynote, Alternative Provision National Research Network, 13th March 2025, How Inclusion Becomes Exclusion, with Helen Knowler (UCL).

European Conference of Education Research, Cyprus, August 2024, Nicosia. Presentation: (Re)thinking intersectionality and dis-ability through post-humanist intra-viewing in a higher education (HE) context.

Public Symposium, University of Exeter Enhancing Policy Coordination for Sustainable Transitions, 27th March 2024. Invited speaker: SEND Policy & Exclusion: Implications for Sustainability.

European Conference of Education Research, Scotland, August 2023. Co-presentation: Professional development for SENCos: The future of an accredited national award.

Southwest SENCo Conference, University of Plymouth, 16th March 2023. Keynote (online): Exclusionary practices and the SENCo role.
 
European Conference of Education Research, September 2022 (online). Co-presentation: The role of educational psychologists in exclusionary practices and tensions between performance management, inclusion and safeguarding: a framework for dialogue.

European Conference of Education Research, September 2021 (online). Co-presentations: 1) Educational Psychologists’ Perspectives on Strategic and Illegal Exclusion in Schools in England.2) Planning for COVID-19 and Future Crises.

Public symposium / invited speaker: Theorising school exclusion / alternative provision. University of Winchester, August 2022.

Public symposium on school exclusion; with the Black Country Living Museum, February 2022.

European Society of Medicine General Assembly. Presentation: Care of the professional self in a pandemic context, August, 2022 (online).

BERA, September 2021 (online); BERA Small Award presentation. Exclusion and the Strategic Leadership Role of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) in England.

International Congress of Early Childhood Outdoor Practices 2021 (Turkish National Agency and EU Erasmus) Presentation: Outdoor activities in ECE and the centrality of context, confidence and creativity. 25 March 2021, Sakarya (online).

European Conference of Education Research, August 2020 (online). Co-presentation: Exploring senior school leaders’, parents’ and carers’ perspectives on illegal school exclusions or 'off rolling' in England.

Public symposium on off rolling / illegal school exclusion, Exeter University September 2020. Co-presenter / organizer.

UNICEF / Turkish Ministry of Education / EU International Conference of Inclusive Early Childhood Education for Children with Disabilities. Keynote speaker, 4th March 2020, Ankara, Turkey.

Teaching

  • Research methods (predominantly qualitative, including development of innovative methodologies, post-structuralist analysis and posthumanist writing practices).
  • Student writing.
  • The politics of inclusion / exclusion.
  • Theory-based analysis of inclusion policy and its implications for teachers in varied settings.
  • Post-structuralist and feminist post-structuralist theory.
  • Pedagogic theory in the context of competing discourses around education. 

Contact Elizabeth

Room 502, Rolle Building, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA
+44 1752 585156