Dr Callum McGregor

Senior Lecturer

Biography

Background

Callum McGregor is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Edinburgh, where he is currently Programme Director for the MSc Social Justice and Community Action. Callum’s research addresses the relationship between education and democratic citizenship across a range of contexts, including schools, communities, and the contested 'public pedagogies' generated through different forms of activism.

He is particularly passionate about education and action for climate justice, and work in this area has focused on social movement learning, formal education, and the often-fraught relationship between the two. His also addresses broader themes of populism and democratic education, political literacy, data justice and of radical digital citizenship. Callum's work is both theoretical and empirical in orientation, often drawing on agonistic and psychoanalytic political theories to understand the affective dimensions of education and collective action.  

Callum is currently working on several live research projects. Alongside Professor Akwugo Emejulu (Sheffield University), Dr Marlies Kustatscher (Edinburgh University) and Dr Nat Arias, he is working on the project 'Race against time: Young people of colour and climate justice activism.' He is also working alongside Dr Huw Davies (University of Edinburgh) on the ESRC-funded project "Embedding research informed political and digital literacy in Scottish education." where we are working with key stakeholders including teachers and partners from Education Scotland.  Callum is also currently leading the development of interdisciplinary research into climate anxiety, understood as a contested political emotion.

Callum's latest book is called ‘Ambivalent activism: Working contradiction, hesitation and doubt for social change.’ It is a co-edited collection (alongside Professor Akwugo Emejulu and Dr Marlies Kustatscher) that asks the question, ‘what if doubt, hesitation and ambivalence weren’t barriers to activism but powerful tools for change?  https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/ambivalent-activism

Callum is open to PhD supervision and welcomes expressions of interest related to these themes. He also welcomes possibilities for interdisciplinary academic collaboration and working with partners outside of academia. 

 

NB  The fully online and part-time MSc Social Justice and Community Action welcomes students from across the globe and is currently accepting applications for the 2025/26 academic year. For more information click the following link: https://www.ed.ac.uk/education/graduate-school/taught-degrees/social-justice-community

Qualifications

Relevant Education

2014   Doctor of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh (ESRC Studentship)

Title:              “The cultural politics of climate change activism as public pedagogy: direct action, relocalisation, and professional activism”

 2010   MSc with Distinction, Educational Research, University of Edinburgh

 2008      MSc with Distinction, Community Education, University of Edinburgh

Responsibilities & affiliations

  • Programme Director, MSc Social Justice and Community Action
  • Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) Research Affiliate
  • Co-Lead of the Social Justice and Inclusion Thematic Research Hub 
  • External Examiner, Postgraduate Social Policy Programmes at University College Cork
  • Book Reviews Editor of the Journal of Contemporary Community Education Theory and Practice (CONCEPT)
  • Editorial Board Member of Environmental Communication
  • Member of the Scottish Youth Work Research Steering Group 

Undergraduate teaching

  • Applied Policy Analysis (EDUA10209). Course Organiser. 
  • Honours Seminar and Social and Educational Theory (EDUA10212). Course Organiser. 
  • Ideology and Social Problems (EDUA07008). Tutor.

Postgraduate teaching

  • Dissertation, Social Justice and Community Action (REDU11075). Supervisor. 
  • Theories and Politics of Social Justice (EDUA1324). Tutor. 
  • Policy Analysis for Social Justice (EDUA 11326). Course Organiser.
  • Learning for Democracy (EDUA110327). Course Organiser. 
  • Organisational Management for Social Justice (EDUA11328). Tutor. 
  • Education for Environment and Sustainability (EDUA11450). Tutor. 
  • Working with Children and Young People for Social Justice (EDUA11438). Marker.

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

Callum is open to PhD supervision and is also open to inter-disciplinary supervisory arrangements. Callum’s research addresses the relationship between education and democratic citizenship across a range of contexts, including schools, communities, and the contested 'public pedagogies' generated through different forms of activism. He is particularly passionate about education and action for climate justice, and work in this area has focused on social movement learning, formal education, and the often-fraught relationship between the two. His also addresses broader themes of populism and democratic education, political literacy, data justice and of radical digital citizenship. Callum's work is both theoretical and empirical in orientation, often drawing on agonistic and psychoanalytic political theories to understand the affective dimensions of education and collective action. He also has methodological expertise in discourse analysis, qualitative research and activist research methods.

 

Current PhD students supervised

Anne O’Donnell (Principal Supervisor), ‘Learning to Challenge Epistemic Injustice: Collective Advocacy and Mental Health Law Reform in Scotland

Philangenkosi Shabangu (Co-Supervisor with Professor Emmanuel Ojo, Wits University), 'Pre-service teachers' pedagogical competencies to teach sustainability education for social justice during work-integrated learning'

Laura Weiner (Co-Supervisor), 'Constructing ‘Youth Activist Competency’ in an American Youth Activist Group Case Study.'

Past PhD students supervised

2024                                        

Barbara Becnel (Principal Supervisor), ‘Culture of the Condemned: A Critique of How Death Row Became a Symbol of Heroism for America’s Street Gang Generation’

2022    

Ethan E. Lewis (2nd Supervisor), ‘Identity, Space, Place and Power: An Ethnographic Case Study of a Community Garden’

2021    

John Pierce (2nd Supervisor), ‘The Nature of Public Provision Outdoor Education in the Republic of Ireland: An Ethno-Case Study of Four Outdoor Education and Training Centres’

Research summary

Callum’s research addresses the relationship between education and democratic citizenship across a range of contexts, including schools, communities, and the contested 'public pedagogies' generated through different forms of activism.

He is particularly passionate about education and action for climate justice, and work in this area has focused on social movement learning, formal education, and the often-fraught relationship between the two. His also addresses broader themes of populism and democratic education, political literacy, data justice and of radical digital citizenship. Callum's work is both theoretical and empirical in orientation, often drawing on agonistic and psychoanalytic political theories to understand the affective dimensions of education and collective action.  

 

Current research interests

Callum is currently working on several live research projects. Alongside Professor Akwugo Emejulu (Sheffield University), Dr Marlies Kustatscher (Edinburgh University) and Dr Nat Arias, he is working on the project 'Race against time: Young people of colour and climate justice activism.' Exploring young people of colour's climate justice activism in Scotland and England, this project asks 'why is the climate justice movement so white and how are young activists of colour organising and mobilising despite this hegemonic whiteness?' Callum is working alongside Dr Huw Davies (University of Edinburgh) on the ESRC-funded project "Embedding research informed political and digital literacy in Scottish education." Through this project, we are working with key stakeholders (including teachers from across Scotland and partners from Education Scotland) to shape and embed a set of 'Big Ideas' for political literacy in Scottish education. Through our research we were seeing a real disconnect between how young people experience and understand politics and how its addressed in schools. Young people who have little interest in politics as it’s conventionally understood are being politically educated on social media and within their communities. We have conducted research with secondary teachers from across Scotland to understand the challenges teachers are experiencing, how they are responding, and their professional perspectives on the effects of this informal political education. This research build on previous collaboration between Dr Huw Davies and Dr Callum McGregor that explores the intersections between digital and political literacy. As we analyse emerging findings, our next steps are to conduct research directly with young people in schools and outside schools within their communities. Callum is leading the development of interdisciplinary research into climate anxiety in education, understood as a contested political emotion. He is currently engaged in theoretical and empirical work that mobilises psychoanalytic ideas and methods to better understand the circumstances under which climate anxiety might foster or foreclose education for climate justice by apprehending it as a contested political emotion. He is particularly interested in the operation of disavowal and how educational institutions can become spaces of both epistemic erasure and possibility. Through this work, he is investigating how knowledge itself can act as a fetish that sustains disavowal, as well as the potential of creative pedagogical practices to foster agency through engaging with ambivalent thoughts and feelings around the fraught politics of climate (in)justice. Callum has recently drawn on psychoanalytic and agonistic political theories to better understand how processes of education aimed at extending and defending democratic life might respond to and engage with populist politics. Most recently, he has attempted to develop an analysis of what is at stake when we explicitly consider the left populist construction of a ‘people’ as an educational task: McGregor, C. (2024) 'Left populism and the education of desire', Studies in Philosophy and Education, 43, pp. 73–90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-023-09913-4 Callum's latest book is called ‘Ambivalent activism: Working contradiction, hesitation and doubt for social change.’ It is a co-edited collection (alongside Professor Akwugo Emejulu and Dr Marlies Kustatscher) that asks the question, ‘what if doubt, hesitation and ambivalence weren’t barriers to activism but powerful tools for change?  https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/ambivalent-activism

Past research interests

Callum's PhD research employed poststructuralist discourse analysis to investigate the cultural politics of climate activism as a form of public pedagogy. His work has addressed the affective dimensions of education and action for climate justice across a range of contexts, including community action, social movement activism and schools. His work, which is situated at the intersection of critical education and social movement studies, has also addressed broader themes of populism and democratic education, political literacy and digital citizenship. He is the editor of the 'Data justice and the right to the city', published open access by Edinburgh University Press: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-data-justice-and-the-right-to-the-city.html

Knowledge exchange

Callum has led several knowledge exchange projects in recent years. In 2021, he led a large-scale knowledge exchange project called "Education for climate justice: Centring social justice amidst demands to prioritise the climate crisis in education." Funded by the Scottish Universities Insight Institute, the project brought together diverse stakeholders to examine what it means to truly place social justice at the heart of efforts to address the climate crisis in education. See here for more information: https://www.scottishinsight.ac.uk/Programmes/UNGlobalGoals/EducationforClimateJustice.aspx

Callum is currently working with Dr Huw Davies (University of Edinburgh), Education Scotland, and a range of other stakeholders to co-produce a set of ‘Big Ideas’ for political literacy. This work has been supported by the ESRC's Impact Accelerator Fund. 

 

Project activity

2017 - 2019: ‘A curriculum for climate justice: a collaborative investigation of the challenges and opportunities for climate change education through a social justice lens’ (Principal Investigator, Principal's Teaching Award): https://institute-academic-development.ed.ac.uk/learning-teaching/funding/funding/previous-projects/year/march-2017/climate-justice-curriculum

2018: ‘Using Critical Discourse Analysis in Community Settings’ (Principal Investigator, Global Justice Academy): https://www.globaljusticeblog.ed.ac.uk/2018/06/27/spring-school/

2019: 'Data Justice Week' (Co-Organiser, Edinburgh Futures Institute): https://www.de.ed.ac.uk/event/data-justice-week-20th-24th-may-2019

2020-2021:  ‘Education for climate justice: Centring social justice amidst demands to prioritise the climate crisis in education' (Scottish Universities Insight Institute, Principal Investigator): https://www.scottishinsight.ac.uk/Programmes/UNGlobalGoals/EducationforClimateJustice.aspx

2022: ‘Learning for Democracy: Exploring Populism in Communities’ (Principal Investigator, ESRC Impact Accelerator, Festival of Social Sciences)

2022-2024: ‘Getting in, fitting in and getting on: Investigating what works in enabling mature age working class undergraduate students to succeed’ (Co-Investigator, Principal's Teaching Award)

2024-2025:  ‘Embedding research-informed political and digital literacy in Scottish education’ (Co-Investigator, ESRC) 

2025 - Ongoing: 'Race against time: Young people of colour and climate justice activism' (Co-Investigator, Flax Foundation)

Current project grants

‘Embedding research-informed political and digital literacy in Scottish education’ (Co-Investigator, ESRC IAA, £9,800, PI: Dr Huw Davies, University of Edinburgh) 

'Race against time: Young people of colour and climate justice activism' (Co-Investigator, Flax Foundation, £23,992, PI: Professor Akwugo Emejulu, University of Sheffield)

Past project grants

‘A curriculum for climate justice: a collaborative investigation of the challenges and opportunities for climate change education through a social justice lens’ (2017-2019). Award amount: £12,928 (PTAS, Principal Investigator)

‘Education for climate justice: Centring social justice amidst demands to prioritise the climate crisis in education’ (2020-21). Award amount: £15,000 (SUII, Principal Investigator)

‘Using Critical Discourse Analysis in Community Settings’ (2018). Award amount: £6000 (Principal Investigator, Global Justice Academy)

'Data Justice and the Right to the City’ (2019). Award amount: £10,000 (Co-Investigator, Edinburgh Futures Institute)

‘Learning for Democracy: Exploring Populism in Communities’ (2022). Award amount: £1000 (Principal Investigator, ESRC)

‘Getting in, fitting in and getting on: Investigating what works in enabling mature age working class undergraduate students to succeed’ (2022-24). Award amount: £14,530 (Co-Investigator, PTAS)

Invited speaker

2025

Invited lecture at King's College London with Dr Beth Christie (University of Edinburgh). "From learning for unsustainability to unlearning for sustainability? Stuckness, disavowal and the importance of making space for ambivalence." 

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/from-learning-for-unsustainability-to-unlearning-for-sustainability-stuckness-disavowal-and-the-importance-of-making-space-for-ambivalence

2024   

Invited lecture at the University of Cambridge’s Climate and Sustainability Education (CASES) series.  "Climate anxiety, profane knowledge and the politics of education."

2023   

Invited speaker at Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA) conference speaking to the theme of ‘theoretical approaches to climate anxiety’ (event postponed).

2021     

Invited to Chair the ‘Law and Social Justice’ panel at the prestigious Chevening conference (Chevening is the UK Government’s international scholarships and fellowships programme);

Invited presentation on my research on education for climate justice to the ‘Earth Unbound’ network 

2019    

Keynote Lecture at the symposium, Social Policy Education: Enhancing Digital Skills, at University College Cork;

‘Best paper’ award at the 2019 BERA conference for my paper, ‘Climate Justice Education: Between Social Movement Learning and Schooling’, delivered with Dr Beth Christie

Invited speaker at Queens University, Belfast at a Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) event on digital education and social justice;

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