Funded Research and Innovation
Kaleidoscope works with universities, public bodies, education systems and industry partners to generate evidence, understand lived experience and support meaningful change.
Our funded research and innovation projects combine quantitative evidence with qualitative insight, organisational context and intersectional lived experience. Through Kaleidoscopic Data™, we help partners understand not only what is happening, but why experiences differ and what should happen next.
Making Language Visible in School EDI
Funded research | Current
Partners and funder: University College London and the British Association for Applied Linguistics
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Funded by the British Association for Applied Linguistics, this research partnership between University College London and Kaleidoscope explores how language and multilingualism are understood within school equality, diversity and inclusion work.
The project is led by Dr Elisabeth Barakos at UCL and co-led by Dr Nicole Ponsford at Kaleidoscope.
Schools routinely collect information relating to ethnicity, disadvantage, attainment and additional needs. Language and multilingualism, however, can remain absent from EDI strategies or be understood primarily through a deficit lens.
This research will gather evidence from school leaders, staff and students through the Kaleidoscope Platform. Using Kaleidoscopic Data™, it will examine how language intersects with identity, belonging, participation and lived experience, including how these experiences differ between groups.
Kaleidoscope is the project’s research, engagement and impact partner, supporting school participation, evidence collection, intersectional analysis and the translation of findings into practical recommendations.
The research will inform a collaborative workshop and resources for schools in 2027, helping education settings make language and multilingualism more visible within their inclusion work.
All schools can take part. The research focuses on insight and growth, not on having a perfected approach.
Watt’s Possible? Diverse Pathways into the Nuclear Industry
Research and evaluation | Year-long pilot
Research partner: Inclusion and Diversity in Nuclear
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Kaleidoscope has worked with Inclusion and Diversity in Nuclear on a year-long research pilot exploring how young people understand careers within the nuclear industry and what helps them imagine that they could belong within it.
Working across three academy trusts, the research has engaged more than 300 predominantly Year 9 students.
Baseline and follow-up surveys, workshops, Ambassador Career Cards, videos, classroom discussions and student reflections have explored young people’s understanding of the industry, perceived career pathways, safety concerns, representation and access to opportunity.
Using Kaleidoscopic Data™, the evaluation looks beyond levels of career interest. It examines how identity, lived experience, family background, confidence, social capital and representation influence how young people understand their future choices.
Early analysis from the first trust to complete both phases found that students’ initial understanding was dominated by bombs, radiation, explosions and danger. Following sustained engagement, students described a much broader range of opportunities, including engineering, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, environmental protection, maintenance, apprenticeships and digital careers.
“Nuclear jobs are more interesting than I thought.”
Students also moved from asking primarily whether nuclear careers were safe to asking about qualifications, apprenticeships, salaries, working environments and routes into the sector.
Importantly, the purpose of the work was not to persuade every student to choose a nuclear career. It was to support better-informed choices and understand what makes an industry feel accessible, relevant and possible.
The findings are helping ID Nuclear consider how authentic role models, transparent career pathways, workplace experiences and sustained engagement can support more inclusive access to the industry.
Building City-Wide Evidence for Inclusion in Portsmouth
DfE-funded programme | Completed, with schools continuing
Funding and delivery partners: Department for Education and Portsmouth City Council
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Portsmouth City Council used Department for Education Priority Education Investment Area funding to give schools across the city funded access to the Kaleidoscope Platform.
Beginning with a two-school pilot, the programme expanded to approximately half of the city’s schools within three months. Schools from different phases participated, with around 3,000 pupils and thousands of staff contributing their experiences.
Using Kaleidoscopic Data™, the programme enabled Portsmouth to develop a more consistent and intersectional understanding of inclusion across its schools.
The work provided:
Consistent staff and student voice evidence
Analysis of differences between groups and settings
Insight into patterns not visible through traditional audits
Findings and Action Plans for participating schools
Access to relevant professional learning and practical support
Evidence to inform priorities at both school and city level
The programme helped individual schools understand where inclusion was being experienced differently while also enabling the local authority to identify wider patterns, shared strengths and potential system-level barriers.
“The platform is an invaluable tool for ensuring an equitable experience for all. It quickly identifies strengths and areas for development and links to practical solutions through visual media and further reading.”
Several participating schools continued using the Platform into a second year, demonstrating the value of moving from a small pilot towards a sustained, city-wide approach to understanding inclusion.
Innovating Inclusive Educational Leadership in Wales
Grant-funded innovation | Completed
Original funder: National Academy for Educational Leadership Wales
Historical note:
This project was funded by the National Academy for Educational Leadership Wales, which is no longer operational. Dysgu is now the national professional learning and leadership body for maintained schools and settings in Wales. Welsh Government
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This work was funded through an Innovation Grant awarded by the former National Academy for Educational Leadership Wales.
The project worked with schools and educational leaders across Wales to explore how learner voice, staff voice, lived-experience evidence and Kaleidoscopic Data™ could support more inclusive leadership and evidence-informed school improvement.
Participating settings were given access to the Platform and supported to examine how inclusion was experienced across different groups.
Rather than relying only on attainment, attendance or other institutional measures, the project enabled leaders to consider how identity, belonging, participation, relationships and lived experience shaped people’s experiences of education.
The work explored how this evidence could:
Support the Curriculum for Wales
Strengthen learner participation and voice
Make differences in experience more visible
Inform inclusive leadership and school improvement
Help leaders connect evidence with practical action
Develop a more systemic understanding of equity and belonging
The Innovation Grant supported the development and testing of the approach, alongside reporting and case-study evidence about its relevance and impact for educational leaders.
This project demonstrated how Kaleidoscopic Data™ can support leadership development by helping leaders listen systematically, interpret evidence in context and understand why experiences differ across their communities.