Dr Antonio Olmedo

Biography

My academic work has always been directly connected with the area Education Policy Sociology and Social Theory.

My research agenda has been shaped by the works of Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu, and in a more direct and personal manner by the contributions and company of Prof. Stephen Ball. More specifically, it focusses on the analysis of neoliberal policy networks, the role of new policy actors, and the enactment of new solutions for social problems, with an emphasis on emerging patterns of privatisation, opportunity and inequalities in education policy. Over the past fifteen years, I have led and participated in several national and international research projects.

I am a ‘critical friend’ of Education International (global union federation of teachers and other education employees) and, in the past, a school governor at a local primary school in the south west of England. This is a central part of my intellectual and social activity as I strongly believe that academic work should provide tools to understand and facilitate the construction of responses to the challenges posed by social change and social inequalities.

Interests:
My main research interests fall within the areas of:
• Education policy and social justice: social inequalities and segregation.
• Neoliberal policies and the creation of quasi-markets in education: privatisation, competition and school choice.
• The (re)creation of neoliberal subjectivities (school leaders/teachers/families) in education.
• Global policy networks: heterarchies, policy advocacy, philanthropy, and ‘edu-businesses’.

Description

Ono holds the post of Head of School (Education) at the University and is responsible for programmes such as the PGCE and the Masters in Education. He is a PhD supervisor and coordinates the Education Research Hub.

Selected Publications

• Wilkins, A. W., Olmedo, A., Gobby, B. and Karnovsky, S. (2025) ‘The teacher wellbeing turn: neuropolitics, education and the psy-complex’, Critical Studies in Education, pp. 1–21. doi: 10.1080/17508487.2025.2605266
• Junemann, C. and Olmedo, A. (2020) ‘New policy intercessors: Philanthropy and public private partnerships’, in J. Gideon and E. Unterhalter (eds) Critical reflections on public private partnerships. Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780429280450
• Collet-Sabé, J. and Olmedo, A. (2021) ‘The need for a critical school-family policy analysis perspective in the Spanish school reform framework’, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1701
• Junemann, C. and Olmedo, A. (2020) ‘Mobilising neoliberal discourse and fostering new subjectivities: The eclectic role of philanthropy in contemporary global education governance’, in A. Hogan and G. Thompson (eds) Privatisation and commercialisation in public education: How the public nature of schooling is changing. Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780429330025
• Junemann, C. and Olmedo, A. (2019) In sheep’s clothing: Philanthropy and the privatisation of the  ‘democratic’ state. Education International Research. Available at: https://issuu.com/educationinternational/docs/2019_ei_research_philanthropy_priva
• Olmedo, A. and Santa Cruz, G.E. (2018) ‘Investigando redes de política educativa. Un desafío epistemológico’, Con-Ciencia Social, 1, pp. 41-58. Available at: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=6660370
• Olmedo, A. (2017) ‘Something old, not much new, and a lot borrowed: philanthropy, business, and the changing roles of government in global education policy networks’, Oxford Review of Education, 43(1), pp. 69-87. doi: 10.1080/03054985.2016.1259104
• Olmedo, A. (2017) ‘Governing through parents: a genealogical enquiry of
  education policy and the construction of neoliberal subjectivities in England’, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 38(4), pp. 573-589. doi: 10.1080/01596306.2015.1130026
• Olmedo, A. (2014) ‘From England with love… ARK, heterarchies and global ‘philanthropic governance’’, Journal of Education Policy, 29(5), pp. 575-597. doi: 10.1080/02680939.2013.859302
• Ball, S.J. and Olmedo, A. (2012) ‘Care of the self, resistance and subjectivity under neoliberal governmentalities’, Critical Studies in Education, 54(1), pp. 85-96. doi: 10.1080/17508487.2013.740678