Dr Nadia Siddiqui

Contact Dr Nadia Siddiqui (email at nadia.siddiqui@durham.ac.uk)

Nadia Siddiqui joined Durham University in 2013. 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 and national evaluation testbed of educational technology funded by Nesta. 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

Indicators of Esteem

• :

  2020: Expert Panellist for The What Works Trial Advice Panel: Cabinet Office

  2019: Member Grant Assessment Panel: National Centre of Science and Technology Evaluation Centre of Science and Technology Evaluation, Kazakhstan

  2019: Member Grant Assessment Panel: GCRF Porjects for Secondary Data Analysis

  2019: Invited speaker on Understanding inequalities in education using large datasets, Quantitative Methods Hub, University of Oxford

  2019: Presented on pupil premium for disadvantaged pupils: how to work out its effect in the Evidence Week held in parliament

  2018: Member ESRC Grant Assessment Panel D

  2018: Member UKRI Large Grants Assessment Panel

  2018: Invited speaker on Labour Party Conference: Phasing out selection – what’s Labour’s problem?

Supervises

• Miss Xin Shao
• Miss Xianan Hu
• Lindsey Wardle
• Mr Meechai Wongdaeng
• Miss Pian Shi
• Mr. David Prendergast
• Ms. Yiyi Tan

Research Interests

• Understanding poverty and inequalities through large-scale secondary data resources
• Evaluation of educational programmes
• Education in the developing countries

Research Groups

• Assessment, Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness
• Durham University Evidence Centre for Education (DECE)
• International and Comparative Education

Research Projects

• Accelerated Reader
• Anglican School Partnership
• CUREE Response to Intervention
• 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 Literacy for Life Programme
• Evaluation of Meols Cop High School Feedback Project
• 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

Selected Publications

Journal Article

• Boliver, V., Gorard, S. & Siddiqui, N. (Accepted). Using contextual data to widen access to higher education. Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education
• Gorard, S. (2020). Commentary on “Diving in where angels fear to tread”. The Psychology of Education Review (PER)
• Siddiqui, N. , Gorard, S. & See, B.H. (2019). Can learning beyond the classroom impact on social responsibility and academic attainment? An evaluation of the Children’s University youth social action programme. Studies in Educational Evaluation 61: 74-82.
• Siddiqui, N., Gorard, S. & See, B. H. (2019). Can programmes like Philosophy for Children help schools to look beyond academic attainment?. Educational Review 71(2): 146-165.
• Gorard, S. & Siddiqui, N. (2019). How trajectories of disadvantage help explain school attainment. SAGE Open 9(1): 1-14.
• Siddiqui, N., Boliver, V. & Gorard, S. (2019). Reliability of Longitudinal Social Surveys of Access to Higher Education: The Case of Next Steps in England. Social Inclusion 7(1): 80-89.
• Siddiqui, N. (2019). Using secondary data in education research. Social Research Update Spring(68).
• Siddiqui, N. (2019). What do we know about children’s access to school and learning outcomes in Pakistan? Analysis of the risk factors to children’s proficiency in literacy and numeracy assessments. Journal of International Development 31(8): 752-763.
• Siddiqui, N. & Ventista, O.M. (2018). A review of school-based interventions for the improvement of social emotional skills and wider outcomes of education. International Journal of Educational Research 90: 117-132.
• Gorard, S.A.C. & Siddiqui, N. (2018). Grammar schools in England: a new analysis of social segregation and academic outcomes. British Journal of Sociology of Education 39(7): 909-924.
• Siddiqui, N., Gorard, S. & See, B.H. (2018). The importance of process evaluation for randomised control trials in education. Educational Research 60(3): 357-370.
• Gorard, S. & Siddiqui, N. (2018). There is only research: the liberating impact of just doing research. International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches 10(1): 328-333.
• Gorard, S., Siddiqui, N. & Boliver, V. (2017). An Analysis of School-Based Contextual Indicators for Possible Use in Widening Participation. Higher Education Studies 7(2): 79.
• Gorard, S., Siddiqui, N. & See, B.H. (2017). Can ‘Philosophy for Children’ improve primary school attainment?. Journal of Philosophy of Education 51(1): 5-22.
• See, B.H., Gorard, S. & Siddiqui, N. (2017). Can explicit teaching of knowledge improve reading attainment? An evaluation of the core knowledge curriculum. British Educational Research Journal 43(2): 372-393.
• Siddiqui, N. & Gorard, S. (2017). Comparing government and private schools in Pakistan: the way forward for universal education. International Journal of Educational Research 82: 159-169.
• Siddiqui, N. (2017). Parental education as a determinant of school choice: A comparative study of school types in Pakistan. Research in Education 99(1): 3-18.
• Siddiqui, N. (2017). Socio-economic segregation of disadvantaged children between schools in Pakistan: comparing the state and private sector. Educational Studies 43(4): 391-409.
• Gorard, S., Siddiqui, N. & See, B.H. (2017). What works and what fails? Evidence from seven popular literacy ‘catch-up’ schemes for the transition to secondary school in England. Research Papers in Education 32(5): 626-648.
• Gorard, S., Siddiqui, N. & See, B.H. (2016). An evaluation of Fresh Start as a catch-up intervention: A trial conducted by teachers. Educational Studies 42(1): 98-113.
• Siddiqui, N, Gorard, S & See, B H (2015). Accelerated Reader as a literacy catch-up intervention during primary to secondary school transition phase. Educational Review
• Gorard, S.A.C., Siddiqui, N. & See, B.H. (2015). An Evaluation of the ‘Switch-on Reading’ Literacy Catch-up Programme. British Educational Research Journal 41(4): 596-612.
• See, B. H., Gorard, S. & Siddiqui, N. (2015). Best practice in conducting RCTs: Lessons learnt from an independent evaluation of the Response-to-Intervention programme. Studies in Educational Evaluation 47: 83-92.
• Gorard, S., Siddiqui, N. & See, B. H. (2015). How effective is a summer school for catch-up attainment in English and maths?. International Journal of Educational Research 73: 1-11.
• Boliver, V., Gorard, S. & Siddiqui, N. (2015). Will the Use of Contextual Indicators Make UK Higher Education Admissions Fairer?. Education Sciences 5(4): 306-322.
• Siddiqui, N., Gorard, S. & See, B.H. (2014). Is a summer school programme a promising intervention in preparation for transition from primary to secondary school?. International Education Studies 7(7): 125-135.
• Siddiqui, N. (2014). Women's magazines in Asian and Middle Eastern countries. South Asian Popular Culture 12(1): 29-40.
• Gorard, S., Hordosy, R. & Siddiqui, N. (2013). How stable are 'school effects' assessed by a value-added technique?. International Education Studies 6(1): 1-9.
• Siddiqui, N. (2012). Who reads Urdu women’s magazines and why? An investigation of the content, purpose, production and readership of Urdu women’s digests. International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 8(2-3): 323-334.

Authored book

• Gorard, S., See, B.H. & Siddiqui, N. (2017). The trials of evidence-based education. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
• (2013). Urdu Women’s Digests: Reading for Pleasure Behind ‘Walls and Veils’. Saarbru¨cken.

Chapter in book

• Gorard, S. a & Siddiqui, N. (2018). Refining measures of poverty and their impact on student progress in England. In Understanding school segregation. Bonal, X. & Bellei, C. London: Bloomsbury. 85-102
• Boliver, V., Gorard, S. & Siddiqui, N. (2017). How can we widen participation in higher education? The promise of contextualised admissions. In The University as a Critical Institution?. Deem, R. & Eggins, H. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. 95-110.

Edited Journal

• Siddiqui, N. & Gorard, S. (2019). Special Issue 2: Using multiple methods to investigate complex educational issues (Editorial). Review of Education, 1 (2): Wiley.

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Gorard, S., Boliver, V. & Siddiqui, N. (2019). Fair access means admitting more applicants with lower grades. Blog.
• Gorard, S., See, B.H. & Siddiqui, N. (2013). A Randomised Controlled Trial (or ‘Fair Test’): Evaluating an Educational Innovation. SAGE Research Methods Cases

Presentation

• Ventista, O.M. & Siddiqui, N. (2016), Which school interventions are beneficial for the development of non-cognitive skills of primary school students? A review of existing evidence, The European Conference of Educational Research (ECER) 2016, Leading Education: The Distinct Contributions of Educational Research and Researchers. Dublin, Ireland.

Report

• Siddiqui, Nadia, Towl, Graham, Matthewson, Jennifer, Stretesky, Christine & Earnshaw, Melanie (2019). Religious and Race Hate Experience Survey: Report Findings. Durham University Office for Students.
• Siddiqui, N., Gorard, S. & See, B.H. (2017). Children's University and Youth Social Action, Evaluation Report and Executive Summary. School of Education. London, Education Endowment Foundation.
• Siddiqui, N., Gorard, S. & See, B.H. (2017). Non-cognitive impacts of Philosophy for Children. School of Education, Durham University.
• Gorard, S. & Siddiqui, N. (2016). Grammar schools in England: a new approach to analysing their intakes and outcomes. School of Education. Durham University.
• Gorard, S., See, B.H., Siddiqui, N., Smith, E. & White, P. (2016). Youth Social Action Trials: Youth United Evaluation report and executive summary. School of Education. London, Education Endowment Foundation.
• See, B H, Gorard, S & Siddiqui, N (2015). Evaluation of the Curriculum Centre Word and World Reading programme. Education Endowment Foundation.
• Gorard, S, Siddiqui, N & See, B H (2015). Philosophy for Children: SAPERE, Evaluation Report and Executive Summary, EEF.
• Gorard, S., See, B.H. & Siddiqui, N. (2015). Word and World Knowledge: Curriculum Centre. EEF.
• Siddiqui, N., Gorard, S. & See, B.H. (2014). Accelerated Reader: an aggregated trial. Educational Endowment Foundation.
• See, B.H., Gorard, S. & Siddiqui, N. (2014). Evaluation of Anglican Schools Partnership Enhanced Feedback Pilot. Educational Endowment Foundation.
• Siddiqui, N., Gorard, S. & See, B.H. (2014). Evaluation of Future Foundations Summer School Programme. Educational Endowment Foundation.
• Gorard, S., See, B.H. & Siddiqui, N. (2014). Process and summative evaluation of the Switch-On literacy transition programme. Educational Endowment Foundation.
• Gorard, S., See, B.H. & Siddiqui, N. (2013). Process and summative evaluation of the Switch-On literacy transition programme. Education Endowment Foundation.

Working Paper

• Gorard, S., Siddiqui, N. & Boliver, V. (2017). An analysis of contextual and other indicators of HE students for possible use in widening participation. (Working Paper 3).
• Gorard, S., Boliver, V., Siddiqui, N., Banerjee, P. & Morris, R. (2017). Which are the most suitable contextual indicators for use in widening participation to HE?. Education working paper series

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