Career Summary

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Initially training as a Social and Developmental Psychologist at the Universities of St Andrews (MA Hons, PhD) and Cambridge (MPhil), Alexander then went on to hold various posts that included teaching, research, professional leadership roles relating to educational quality and governance, as well as leadership roles developing and supporting the student experience at the Universities of St Andrews, Stirling, and now BPP University. He continues to be research and scholarly active, examining the ascendancy of neoliberalism in British Higher Education through a Foucauldian and Bourdieusian theoretical lens. In 2019, Alexander was recognised for his contributions to social advancement through education by his nomination and subsequent election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts, was appointed to an Associate Professorship in January 2023 in recognition of his applied research and scholarly work in advancement of the field of academic and educational leadership, and in 2024 he completed his Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD) at the University of Glasgow. Alexander also acts as a national appointed reviewer of educational standards in the tertiary education sector (Further and Higher Education) in Scotland through his work as a Tertiary Quality Enhancement Reviewer with QAA Scotland. 

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Research Interests

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Sociology of Education

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Alexander's main research focus examines the effects of neoliberal ideology and policies on educational contexts and the broader impact this has on society. He uses theory on academic labour, Foucauldian theory on governmentality, discipline, and care of the self, and Bourdieusian theory on habitus, field, capital, and the use of symbolic violence, in order to understand how constituents in the educational field are positioned and influenced by social, economic and political issues. 

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Psychology of Education

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Alexander has a significant interest in the Social Identity Approach (SIA) to understanding how individuals identify with groups and engage in group behaviour. Whilst his previous research work has examined the SIA in connection to memory within the areas of gender, religious, and political identification, his focus has become orientated towards examining the potential role SIA can play in understanding educationally-based group identification and its impact on both the academic and social experiences of staff and students engaged in Education settings. 

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Theoretical Synthesis of Sociology and Psychology

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In recent work Alexander has also focused on interpreting Bourdieusian and Foucaldian theory on identity formation through the lens of social, cognitive, and developmental psychological theory. More specifically he is interested in how we can deepen our understandings on how processes such as governmentality, discipline, and symbolic violence occur at the individual psychological level when considering how identities are constituted and shaped to desired societal outcomes. 

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Previous Research - Social and Developmental Psychology

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Alexander's early work focused on Social and Developmental Psychology, and in particular socio-emotional development, examining the role of attachment styles and methods of coping to manage crises in childhood and throughout the lifespan. He later progressed onto understanding how identities were formed and maintained across the lifespan through the interaction between the external social context and internal human memory and cognitive systems. More specifically this research focused on how processes of selective remembering and forgetting are harnessed by actors in our social context to shape collective mindsets and mobilise collective senses of identity and related action. As his research progressed, he became significantly interested in how power is harnessed, exerted, and maintained through the mobilisation of identities.

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