Carl Parsons is a Visiting Professor of Social Inclusion Studies at the University of Greenwich. He was previously Professor of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University until 2009, and retains an emeritus status there. His background is in research into exclusions, poverty, ethnicity and attainment and other equality issues in education. He is an experienced evaluator and social research methodologist.

His major professional preoccupation in recent years has been on strategies, structures, roles and practices to manage the continued education of children and young people who are excluded from school, at risk of disconnecting from education or are disadvantaged. In this, he makes the case for ecological thinking, whereby the school is one force for children’s care and development; too often, it is politically expedient to allocate it the prime responsibility.