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Overview
Affiliations
AffiliationRoom numberTelephone
Associate Professor in the School of EducationED127+44 (0) 191 33 48323
Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing +44 (0) 191 33 48323

Biography

Nadia Siddiqui joined Durham University in 2013. Her interests are school improvement by equalising opportunities, and overcoming the challenges of access to education in the developing countries (Pakistan and India). She has several hundred research publications, including four books, and an H index above 20. She has a considerable track-record of active citizenship, serving on grant assessment panels, other funding panels, and advisory boards for policy and practice. She is a fellow of the Academy of Social SciencesShe is nominated and selected in the UPSIGN list of 75 notable British Pakistani Academics. She has successfully examined and supervised doctoral students to completion, in the UK and abroad. She received her first independent research grant from Nuffield Foundation on a study of the non-cognitive impacts of teaching Philosophy for Children in primary schools. The findings of this study were disccused on BBC radio 4: Bringing Up Britain: Critical thinking (series 10) (from15:58)

She is currently leading a British Academy GCRF funded project on examining the role of school in early childhood years of learning. She is a co-investigator in two funded research projects by ESRC. She has worked on Annual Status of Education Research (ASER) data of the intakes to and results from schools in Pakistan. She is author of several peer-reviewed journal articles on research methods, evaluations of school-based interventions, and equity in education. She is a co-investigator in the projects funded by Education Endowment Foundation, Society for the Advancement of Philosophical Enquiry and Reflection in Education (SAPERE), Peter Sowerby Foundation.

Her research interests are to explore the stubborn patterns of poverty and inequalities through population data sets and large scale surveys such as National Pupil Database (NPD, England), Higher Education Statistics (HESA), Annual Survey of Education Report data (ASER, Pakistan), Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England (LSYPE). By using these secondary data resources she investigates the indicators of disadvantage that determine children's academic attainment, well-being and happiness, and access to pathways for successful life.

She is also interested in finding the impact of educational programmes that can break the cycle of poverty and its impact on young people’s lives. She has conducted evaluations of popular educational programmes such as Philosophy for Children, summer school during primary school transition stages, Fresh Start phonics and Accelerated Reader. She is concerned with improving the quality of social science research, and passionate about the role of schools in shaping a fairer society.

Affiliate of the

Durham University Evidence Centre for Education

Completed Supervisions

Evaluation of Metacognitive and Self-Regulatory Programmes for Learning, Pedagogy and Policy in Tertiary EFL Contexts.

A study of school attendance and exclusions in secondary schools in England.

Is Progress 8 a valid and reliable measure of school effectiveness?

Family, school and jobs: intergenerational social mobility in Next Steps.

An Evaluation of the ‘Philosophy for Children’ programme: The impact on Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills.

Research interests

  • Secondary data
  • Understanding poverty
  • Evaluation of educational programmes
  • Education in the developing countries

Research Projects

  • Accelerated Reader
  • Anglican School Partnership
  • CUREE Response to Intervention
  • Evaluating the use of contextual data in undergraduate admissions
  • Evaluating the use of contextual data in undergraduate admissions
  • Evaluation of a randomised controlled trial of ‘SAPERE: Philosophy for Children’
  • Evaluation of Children's University social action trial
  • Evaluation of EdTech Innovation Testbed
  • Evaluation of FLASH Marking Feedback Project
  • Evaluation of Literacy for Life Programme
  • Evaluation of Writing about Values
  • Evaluation of Youth United Social Action Trial
  • Examining the role of schooling in the cognitive and wider development of children in the province of Punjab (Pakistan) and State of Gujarat (India): Establishing routes for sustainable education
  • Fresh Start
  • Future Foundations Summer School
  • Northern Power: Making Engineering and Physical Sciences Research a Domain for All in the North of England
  • Nuffield Parental Involvement Intervention
  • Research into non-cognitive and KS2 attainment impacts of philosophy for children
  • Research into the non-cognitive impacts of Philosophy for Children (P4C)
  • Switch On
  • The kinds of poverty in schools and their impact on student progress
  • The research design basis for undergraduate quantitative methods (QM) teaching

Awarded Grants

  • 2019: Evaluation of EdTech innovation testbed, £723K, DfE/Nesta
  • 2019: Examining The Role Of Schooling In The Cognitive And Wider Development Of Children In The Province Of Punjab (Pakistan) And State Of Gujarat (India): Establishing Routes For Sustainable Education(£151170.90 from The British Academy)
  • 2017: EEF Funded Evaluation Of Meols Cop High School Feedback Project (£107619.40 from Education Endowment Foundation)
  • 2016: Evaluation Self-affirmation(£76485.11 from Education Endowment Foundation)
  • 2016: Research into non-cognitive and KS2 attainment impacts of philosophy for children(£16856.00 from SAPERE)
  • 2016: The kinds of poverty in schools and their impact on student progress(£132288.00 from ESRC)
  • 2015: Evaluation of National Literacy Trust Academies Programme(£53333.33 from National Literacy Trust)
  • 2015: Research into the non-cognitive impacts of Philosophy for Children(£31760.00 from The Nuffield Foundation)

Esteem Indicators

Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

  • Education:
  • General policy:
  • Subject specialists:
  • Admissions & college affairs:

Publications

Authored book

Chapter in book

Edited book

Edited Journal

Journal Article

Newspaper/Magazine Article

  • Gorard,S & Siddiqui,N (2021). Sats – why bringing back tests for 14-year-olds could help disadvantaged students. The Conversation
  • Smruti,B, Siddiqui,N, Saeed,S & Sarfaraz,H (2020). Adapting to the new normal in survey research. BERA: Blog post

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

Other (Print)

  • Rizk, Rita, Summerbell, Carolyn D., Siddiqui, Nadia, Obeid, Omar & El-Obeid, Tahra (2022). Conference Poster: Nutrition and Physical Activity Policies for Preschools in Lebanon and Qatar.

Presentation

Report

Working Paper

Supervision students