Scotland’s Centre for Transformative Change in Schools (CenTCS) celebrated its re-launch with an event featuring a panel of leading global education experts.

Formerly known as the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change, CenTCS is an international research centre housed at the University of Glasgow’s School of Education. It facilitates research and collaborative practice to support transformative change in schools.

Professor Aileen Kennedy and Professor Brianna L. Kennedy took over as Joint Directors of CenTCS in August 2024.  

CenTCS brings together researchers whose work aligns with the overall aim of seeking to better understand educator professional learning as a lever for transformative change in schooling systems.

“We’re so excited to be leading the Centre for Transformative Change in Schools, and pleased to be able to share our vision with colleagues, stakeholders and friends from across and beyond Scotland. Through CenTCS, we’re bringing together a critical mass of researchers whose work focuses on educator professional learning as a means of making transformative changes in the school lives of children and young people – work that is needed now more than ever.”

Pam Duncan-Glancy MSP and Willie Rennie MSP, who are Education Spokesperson for the Scottish Labour Party and the Scottish Liberal Democrats respectively, attended the relaunch event at the University of Glasgow’s Advanced Research Centre (ARC). They joined an audience of educators, policy makers and academics in hearing from Professor Aileen Kennedy and Professor Brianna Kennedy about their own transformative journeys, before an expert panel discussed the future of professional learning.

On the panel were Professor Reza Gholami, University of Birmingham; Professor Jenny Gore, Teachers and Teaching Research Centre, University of Newcastle, Australia; Professor Tyrone Howard, UCLA’s Center for the Transformation of Schools; Dr Douglas Hutchison, Executive Director of Education Services for Glasgow City Council; and Professor Margery McMahon, CenTCS Fellow, Director of the St. Andrew’s Foundation for Catholic Teacher Education, and Director for the Centre for Teaching Excellence (hosted by the University of Glasgow).

“It’s about being courageous - and holding our nerve” said Professor Margery McMahon, echoing a strong theme throughout the discussion, during which the experts shared experiences and learning from their own countries. The panel was led by Professor Edward Sosu, the incoming Research Director for the UofG’s School of Education.

The relaunch event was followed by the ‘Researching Professional Learning at Scale symposium’, which took place the following day.

Introducing CenTCS 

 

 

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First published: 27 March 2025

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