Publishers who have nominated books in recent years include Bristol Policy Press, Continuum, Dunedin, Open University, Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge, Sage, Trentham, Bloomsbury, Manchester University Press, Emerald Publishing and Wiley Blackwell.
SES Book Award
Nominations for the 2025 SES Book Awards should be submitted to [email protected]
Awards are usually made at the Annual Fellows Dinner in November each year, so nominations should be received in good time in early 2025.
Usually, nominated titles should have already been reviewed in the British Journal of Educational Studies, however, arrangements can be made for a review to take place, where appropriate.
Criteria for Eligibility
Books must have a publication within the past three years. Recommendations for books to receive the SES Book Award are drawn from the following sources:
- Positive reviews of books in the BJES;
- nominations by SES members and trustees;
- books put forward by publishers.
Commendations will be given for the following four types of book:
- Type A: research quality, cutting edge research;
- Type B: collaboration in a team, interdisciplinary, inter-institutional or international;
- Type C: significance for public understanding, policy, practice or teaching;
- Type D: new researchers – normally their first book, with evidence of potential for leading the next generation of research.
A maximum of four books per year (one for each type) will be awarded and announced at the Fellows Dinner / AGM.
The books must meet the following criteria:
- At least one author must be based in the UK at the time of the Award, with at least one author being affiliated to a UK educational institution;
- the book must be published within the last two years (by copyright date);
- titles must be relevant to the broad area of educational studies.
Award winners do not have to be members of SES. Members of the SES Executive are eligible for the Award as an author but will not receive the pecuniary reward. If a Trustee’s book is nominated, they will not take part in the discussions deciding the Award winners.
Books will be judged, by the SES Executive, on their own merits, taking into account the following:
- Quality of research and/or scholarship;
- Originality of analysis and argument;
- Theory/practice relation;
- Quality and accessibility of writing.
Authors of books who receive an Award will receive a prize of £1,000 (lead author will decide how to share the prize if book is co-written) and a certificate. Books that receive the Award will be added to the SES website as a news story and maybe announced in trade press.
Previous winners:
2024 Winners
The Society has the pleasure to announce that Professor Helen Gunter (University of Manchester) has won the 2024 Book Award for A Political Sociology of Education Policy (Bristol Policy Press, 2024).
The Society awarded Dr Jessie Abrahams (University of Bristol) the 2024 Debut Book Award for Schooling Inequality: Aspirations, Opportunities and the Reproduction of Social Class (Bristol Policy Press, 2024).
Helen and Jessie were presented with a plaque commemorating her Award by Prof. Stephen Parker at the SES Fellows’ Dinner on 17 November 2023.
2023 Winner
The SES Book Award winner for 2023 is:
Professor Jane Martin Gender and Education in England since 1770: a social and cultural history (Springer, 2022).
2022 Winners
The SES Book Award winner for 2022 is:
Professor David H. Hargreaves, Beyond Schooling: An Anarchist Challenge (Routledge, 2019).
The Award for Debut Book goes to:
Dr Gurpinder Lalli, Schools, Food and Social Learning (Routledge, 2019).
There were no Awards made in 2020 and 2021.
The 2019 SES Book Award was made to Gary McCulloch and Steven Cowan for A Social History of Educational Studies and Research (Routledge, 2018). The title was reviewed by Dr. Liam Gearon in volume 67, issue 2 of the British Journal of Educational Studies. The review can be accessed here.
