EDUCATION RESEARCH WITH PLYMOUTH UNIVERSITY
For more information visit: www.plymouth.ac.uk
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Contents
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Contents
Learning Outside Formal Education Voice, inclusion and Participation
→ LOFE
Professional Theory and Practice
→ PTP
→ VIP
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EDUCATION RESEARCH WITH PLYMOUTH UNIVERSITY Our educational research is distinctively lifewide and life-long. We focus on understanding and transforming education and learning at all ages, from babies to people in their nineties. This includes formal and informal contexts: nurseries, schools, colleges and universities, but also communities, nature, work, arts, families and much more. Our perspectives are global with networks and projects across the world including Marie Curie Fellowships, ESRC international networks and research for the Council of Europe. We attract funding from ESRC, British Academy/Leverhulme, Arts Council, Natural England, Erasmus+ and many government bodies and charities. Our publications, impact and research culture were recognised as worldleading and internationally excellent in the recent REF and we welcome and nurture early career researchers and doctoral students.
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Learning outside Formal Education Research Cluster (LOFE) LOFE is a ground-breaking research cluster with a critical interdisciplinary focus on education and learning in its widest sense. We are particularly interested in how learning takes place in spaces beyond formal education: in nature, communities, cultures and families. We also critique the normative assumptions, concepts and practices of formal education.
PROFESSOR JOCEY QUINN My research is interdisciplinary and draws on ideas from cultural studies, sociology, human geography and feminist theory. I have focused on socio-cultural studies of higher education and lifelong learning with an abiding interest in the forms of knowledge generated outside mainstream Education. Overall, my research addresses the 5 key themes that we combine in LOFE: Nature, Communities, Cultures, Families and Critiques. My current funded projects include: The Significance and Survival of the Occupy Movement’s Tent City University, funded by the British Academy/Leverhume; Beyond Words.; The non-verbal in inclusive music practice. Implications for the Arts in a post human world, funded by the Arts Council Research Grants Programme and PrevDrop. Preventing drop out from Higher Education or switching successfully to Vocational Education and Training, funded by Erasmus+.
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LOFE Themes and Members NATURE Our research has influenced schools across the world to employ the outdoors to transform curriculum and pedagogy. We also take a broader perspective with projects including Forest Schools, place centred play, marginalised young people learning in nature, and the benefits of camping for learning and wellbeing. We also have a strong interest in post human theory and methodologies.
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SUE WAITE I am Associate Professor (Reader) in the Plymouth Institute of Education. My principal research interests are in outdoor learning. These include studies of Forest School, decline of provision of outdoor learning in schools and issues of transition, health and wellbeing outcomes from woodland activities, pedagogies in placebased and curriculum learning in natural environments. I currently lead an ESRC international partnership development award on cross cultural understandings of outdoor learning and the ÂŁ600,000 Natural Connections Demonstration Project commissioned by Natural England, DEFRA and English Heritage.
DR ROWENA PASSY I am a Research Fellow in Plymouth Institute of Education. My research interests are outdoor learning, leadership in coastal academies, and primary teacher training. I am currently the evaluation manager of the Natural Connections Demonstration Project, which aims to encourage and support teachers to take their pupils outside for curricular learning.
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LOFE Themes and Members NATURE DR ALUN MORGAN My work focuses on the interface between geography and science education, environmental education and education for sustainability and global citizenship. I am particularly interested in working across the formal-informal learning sectors, outdoor education and in the sphere of community outreach.
MANDY ANDREWS Most of my research experience has been conducted outside of the formal educational environment. I am passionate about play, the ecology of the child, children’s rights and children’s participation. I am currently working on my PhD on the theme of Children’s Experiences of Play in Place (exploring the geography of play in contexts meaningful to children; why children gravitate to certain places and what meanings develop from these located experiences).
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MILES OPIE I studied at Plymouth University, graduating in 1996 with a BEd Primary (Hons) degree with a specialism in Geography. I am an early career researcher and I am developing an interest in Outdoor Education and the use of technology. I am currently studying on the IMP Programme and have recently completed work looking at the use of technology in outdoor education.
JAMES BETTANY I trained as a primary school teacher with Plymouth University, completing my BEd in 2012. As a new lecturer I am in the very early stages of development focussed on completing my Master’s thesis. The focus of this is Storytelling and Education for Sustainable Development. I am investigating the extent to which the contemporary performance storytelling movement is influenced by an ethic of sustainability.
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LOFE Themes and Members COMMUNITIES Our research explores how education and learning shapes and is shaped by diverse communities both locally and globally. We take an interdisciplinary approach working across the arts, social care, and youth provision to understand and have a positive impact on practice. We are also interested in alternative communities and the ways in which learning takes place there. This includes online communities, eco-communities and alternative universities. Our research develops new concepts around how we define community and learning.
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DR ROGER CUTTING My research is essentially in the area of education for sustainable communities. I am presently involved in a number of quite diverse research projects. One is in collaboration with the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust evaluating their Wild Woods programme. This is a programme of outdoor education for young children who have been identified as having behaviour issues in class. I am also working with Canadian colleagues on a project looking at student attitudes to learning belief and spirituality. I am also interested in the history of education and political extremism, which has contemporary parallels with present anti-radicalisation strategies.
DR JULIA MORGAN My research interests are focused on childhoods in diverse communities, children’s perspectives and social justice both within the UK and internationally. It has focused on support offered by schools to children with a father in prison, children’s experiences of visiting their parent in prison, the children of military families project and a project on services for children who ‘go missing’. Since 2010 I have been working with groups of children who live and work on the street in Zambia and Mongolia.
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LOFE Themes and Members COMMUNITIES ROBERT COOK My main research interest is in Education for Sustainability, with a particular focus on the role that human desires and perceptions have in the currently unsustainable level of demands that we are making upon planetary resources. My current focus is on the potential that Mindfulness and similar methods of personal development have, for reducing “consumerism�; human environmental impacts, and also improving human wellbeing.
STEVE WHEELER My research focuses on digital communities. My interests include: Use of social media in higher education, cybercultures, new and emerging pedagogies (rhizomatic learning, connectivism, heutagogy, paragogy), blogging as professional practice, mobile learning
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LOFE Themes and Members CULTURES We are strong in comparative research which explores how educational pedagogies and curricula in schools and universities are shaped by cultural norms, practices and philosophies. This includes research in early years in Ethiopia, in schools across Germany, Denmark and UK and in universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We also explore how learning takes place through cultural forms such as music and in cultural spaces like museums. We have taken a lead role in theorising Education and Culture.
DR PETER KELLY I am a Reader in Comparative Education. My main research interests are: Education politics and policy studies and European social policy and comparative pedagogy. Since 2009 I have led a project, working with Nick Pratt and Ulrike Hohmann at Plymouth and colleagues at Aarhus University, Denmark, comparing lower secondary language, literature and mathematics teaching in Denmark and England, which has resulted in a number of publications. In 2012 we began a new phase, looking at mathematics teaching in Baden-WĂźrttemberg, Germany with colleagues at Freiburg Pedagogic University. In 2012 I began a second strand in this collaborative study with researchers at the University of Bristol and at Aalborg and Aarhus Universities in Denmark, comparing the assessment of children‘s reading in primary schools in England with that in folkskoles in Denmark.
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DR ULRIKE HOHMANN My research interests are family policy, Early Childhood Education and Care provision, the work force in care and education, relationships within families and relationships between children and adults. I have a keen interest in comparative research methods and in research methodology in general. I am developing the research project ‘Practitioners’ understanding and implementation of early childhood education and care policy in day centres and nurseries’, a comparative study in England and in Germany. I have also been working with Dr Peter Kelly and Dr Nick Pratt and Dr Hans Dorf (Danish School of Education, Aarhus University) on the international pilot study ‘CATE’ (comparing and analysing teacher expertise.)
DR VALERIE HUGGINS Studying for a Doctorate in Education at Plymouth University was the best professional development of my career. I now have the confidence to use innovative approaches such as Facet Methodology and Appreciative Inquiry in my research in Early Years education, both in the UK and in Majority World contexts. A key part of my research agenda is a longitudinal knowledge exchange and research project in Nekemte, Ethiopia. I am collaborating with a group of teacher educators and teachers to develop the pre-primary provision in the government schools in the town. This is a participatory appreciative inquiry, with a postcolonial perspective. I am also involved in an international network of researchers, linked to OMEP, gathering examples of effective practice in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability, with a focus on sub-Saharan continents.
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LOFE Themes and Members FAMILIES The family, in all its multiple forms is where much of our learning either happens or is supported. Our interests range from how babies learn, how families support transitions into schooling, digital learning in the home, and the role families play in supporting first generation students in HE.
ROD PARKER-REES My research interests include: very early, preverbal communication; playfulness; the role of young children as active social agents and the social dimension of HE students’ learning. I have co-edited ‘Major Themes in Education- Early Years Education’ (2006) and ‘Early Childhood Studies: an introduction to the study of children’s lives and children’s worlds’ (4th edn, 2015) and edited ‘Meeting the Child in Steiner Kindergartens’ (2011). Since 1999 he has been a co-editor of Early Years: an International Research Journal.
DR NORMAN GABRIEL I am a sociologist with research interests in early childhood studies and relational sociology. Inspired by the work of Norbert Elias, now considered to be one of the most important sociologists of the twentieth century. I am developing a distinctive, multi-disciplinary approach to early childhood, one that is relational, comparative and historical. I am currently writing a book on the Sociology of Early Childhood to be published by Sage in 2016.
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KAREN WICKETT Motivated by the political focus on children’s school readiness my EdD thesis explores parents’, ECEC practitioners’ and teachers’ understandings and experiences when preparing and supporting children during the transition to school. During the doctorate I have become aware that my research interests include the learning that happens between two or more groups with different cultures when they interact, making links between theory and practice, multi-professional working (particularly arts practitioners and ECEC practitioners and other issues related to Early Childhood Education and Care.
VICTORIA BAMSEY I am an Early Career Researcher interested in children’s well-being within early education. Current projects include researching early years practitioners concepts of school readiness, what this term means and how such interpretations affect practitioners work with very young children as they prepare for school.
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LOFE Themes and Members CRITIQUES All our research takes a critical approach to normative practices and concepts within the field of education and learning. This includes analysis of national education policy and its impact on social justice, critiques of the role of assessment in schools and deconstruction of the concept of inclusion in universities.
DR RUTH BOYASK My research interests are in the intersection between educational practice, research and policy, and are particularly focused upon how policies are used to open and close possibilities for social equity. My major current research project is concerned with the nature of the public good in an era of educational privatisation and individualism, for which I have received funds from the British Academy/Leverhulme and BELMAS. I have recently led the Respecting Children and Young People project for the British Educational Research Association (BERA) that led to the development and publication of an evidence-based manifesto for children and young people prior to the last election.
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DR NICK PRATT My research is in the area of mathematics education, but more generally exploring the way school mathematics is shaped by social relationships and teachers’ professional practices. My current research is exploring assessment as a form of professional capital for teachers; how assessment forms the basis for teachers’ success, and failure, in their work and the effect this has on their relationships with pupils. I am also involved in the work comparing teaching in England with Denmark and Germany, particularly looking at ways in which teaching is culturally situated and the effect this has on the way pupils experience their education. I am a member of LOFE because although my work is set in mainstream schooling its aim is to critique everyday teaching practices and to understand schooling from the perspective of the social and political relationships involved in it, including issues of power and social inequity.
DR SUANNE GIBSON My research has focused on disability and on critiquing the concept and practice of inclusion in Higher Education. In 2012 I was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship, in 2013 I was awarded an International Scholarship with the Higher Education Academy for my work on ‘Inclusive pedagogy’ and in 2015 I was invited to become a fellow at the RSA. My recent research has resulted in the establishment of a growing international network of academics addressing questions of social justice, widening participation and ‘culturally responsive pedagogy’.
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LOFE Projects
NATURAL CONNECTIONS DEMONSTRATION PROJECT Funded by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Natural England and English Heritage, the £600,000 Natural Connections Demonstration Project led by Sue Waite and Dr Rowena Passy aims to encourage and support schools in building learning outdoors into their everyday practice. Through a model of cascaded responsibility in five areas of high deprivation in south-west England, the project has recruited 125 schools, and a further 70 schools have been involved in teacher continuing professional development events. Schools have been involved in a wide range of activities that include developing sustainable approaches to learning outside. Early research findings suggest that learning outside engages pupils with learning, has a positive impact on their behaviour, develops children’s social skills, and improves their health and wellbeing. There is also some evidence that this contribute to higher attainment.
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CHILDREN LIVING, LEARNING AND WORKING ON THE STREET IN ZAMBIA AND MONGOLIA Dr Julia Morgan has been conducting participative research with children living working and learning on the street in Zambia and Mongolia since 2010. This project has important implications for research involving children and has resulted in a number of publications, including collaborative work with Tumendelger Sengedorj of the Mongolian State University of Education, Mongolia.
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LOFE Projects
THE SIGNIFICANCE AND SURVIVAL OF OCCUPY MOVEMENT’S TENT CITY UNIVERSITY This project is funded by British Academy/Leverhulme. It focuses on Tent City University, an alternative university set up by the Occupy Movement at its protest camp at St Paul’s Cathedral London. Through life histories with those who were there, the project explores what it was like to be part of Tent City University, how it differed from other forms of learning in their lives and how it continues to live on in their lives in multiple ways. It is very timely in contributing to current debates on the roles of universities in society and the significance of activism. The project is led by Professor Jocey Quinn.
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COMPARING AND ANALYSING TEACHER EXPERTISE: CATE Dr Pete Kelly, Dr Nick Pratt and Dr Ulrike Hohmann have been working on a longitudinal comparative research project since 2010. With colleagues from Aarhus University, Denmark and Freiberg Pedagogic University in Germany they have been exploring how culture shapes pedagogy in lower secondary classrooms across UK, Denmark and Germany.
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LOFE Projects
BEYOND WORDS This two year longitudinal project is one of only 8 national projects funded by the prestigious Arts Council Research Grants Programme. In partnership with community music organisation Plymouth Music Zone it explores how learning music can facilitate communication and wellbeing for those who struggle to be understood in words: including those with dementia, autism, strokes and mental illness. It explores the non-verbal in music making and implications for the Arts in a post human world. The project is led by Professor Jocey Quinn and Claudia Blandon. (Image: Plymouth Music Zone Sensory Room)
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PUBLIC GOOD IN AN ERA OF PRIVITISATION AND INDIVIDUALISM/FAIR AND EQUAL EDUCATION Dr Ruth Boyask has received funding from British Academy/Leverhulme and BELMAS to critically explore the nature of the public good in an era of educational privatisation and individualism. She has also led the BERA Social Justice SIG in producing a a blog and manifesto Fair and Equal Education: Respecting Children and Young People.
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LOFE Research Networks THE OUTDOOR AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK This highly active network, the outdoor and experiential learning research network is also based in LOFE, led by Sue Waite and Dr Rowena Passy. This network includes more than a hundred academics and practitioners and meets often with presentations ranging from international academics to local outdoor activities.
ESRC INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP AND NETWORK AWARD Sue Waite and Dr Rowena Passy lead the ESRC funded network ‘Understanding educational and wellbeing implications of learning outside the classroom through cross-national collaboration’. Partners in this award are from Australia, Singapore and Denmark.
ESRC SEMINAR SERIES Professor Jocey Quinn was principal investigator on the ESRC seminar Series: New Perspectives on Education and Culture led by Plymouth University, which took place in diverse locations such as the Whitechapel Gallery, British Film Institute, Women’s Library and NUT headquarters. It explored the intersections of learning and culture within popular cultures, local cultures, teaching cultures, family cultures and knowledge cultures.
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HE ACADEMY FUNDED INTERNATIONAL NETWORK Funded by an International Fellowship from the Higher Education Academy Dr Suanne Gibson has conducted research in UK, United States and New Zealand and developed an international network of researchers critically exploring issues of inclusion in Higher Education and developing ‘culturally responsive pedagogies.’
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Recent LOFE books
Sue Waite
Steve Wheeler
Jocey Quinn
Norman Gabriel
Mandy Andrews
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Roger Cutting
EditEd by
Rod Parker-Rees
Meeting the Steiner child inkindergartens
An exploration of beliefs, values and practices
Rod Parker-Rees
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Recent LOFE Special Issues
Special Issue: International Perspectives on Outdoor and Experiential Learning Editors: Tony Rea & Sue Waite.
Valerie Huggins
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Norman Gabriel
Suanne Gibson
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The Voice, Inclusion and Participation Research Cluster CLUSTER LEADERSHIP Dr Joanna Haynes leads the VIP cluster. With a background in philosophy and wide experience as an educator in different contexts, her theoretical, conceptual and empirical research is about putting philosophy into practice in the quest for just and equitable education. Research interests include dangerous and troublesome knowledge; democratic and community education; critical thinking and dialogue; philosophy in schools. Joanna is a philosopher of education with an international reputation for her work on communities of philosophical enquiry. She regularly leads research seminars and gives keynote presentations at national and international conferences. Joanna co-edited a special issue of Studies in Philosophy and Education on the theme Child as Educator. Recent books include Picturebooks, Pedagogy and Philosophy (Routledge 2012), co-authored with Karin Murris (University of Cape Town, SA) and Philosophy and Education (2014) co-authored with cluster members Ken Gale and Melanie Parker.
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CLUSTER RESEARCH INTERESTS The Voice, Inclusion and Participation Research Cluster focuses on international discourses, policies and practices of social inclusion and justice in the fields of education and early childhood. Whether in formal settings, such as nurseries, schools or universities, or in contexts such as family, community or virtual spaces, we are interested in the lived experiences of learners, parents, caregivers, volunteers and practitioners. Our research involves working in partnership with practitioners, service users and academics to question and enrich theories, policies and practices of social inclusion, justice, participation and voice. The interests and the research of cluster members are interdisciplinary. Our research spans a wide variety of sectors including early years provision, Children’s Centres, schools, informal, alternative and community education and contexts, continuing professional development, special educational needs provision, colleges and higher education.
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The Voice, Inclusion and Participation Research Cluster MEMBER RESEARCH ACTIVITY Cluster members are involved in a very wide range of research projects. Verity Campbell-Barr and Jan Georgeson are engaged in national and international projects on quality in early childhood education and professional training. Becky McKenzie is engaged in international research on young people with autism and their families. The cluster includes colleagues with interests in theories and applications of philosophy, sociology, psychology and psycho-analysis in education. With others in the cluster Ken Gale is interested in post-structural and post-humanist philosophy. Ken’s interest in the writings of Deleuze and Guattari are shared by Mike Murphy, who leads postgraduate work with special educational needs coordinators. Ken has published widely in the field of qualitative enquiry – Ken also has an interest in writing as a method of collaborative inquiry. Melanie Parker’s interests lie with critical pedagogy and utopias of education. Emma Macleod-Johnstone belongs to a Jung study group and she brings her background in counselling psychology to her teaching and research. Sofia Chanda-Gool also has a background in counselling. Phil Selbie’s research focuses on children’s spirituality and well-being. Sociologist Marie Lavelle is currently developing an intergenerational project on parenting. With her interests in international human rights Research Assistant Claudia Blandon is also an active member of the cluster.
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RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS Cluster members’ research often involves working in partnership with other professionals, for example Maureen McGinty’s research is with Learning Assistants in schools and Howard Cotton and Carrie Ansell are engaged with teachers and trainee teachers in research around the teaching of reading. Wendy Lambert-Heggs is interested in lifelong learning and transformative education and is currently researching the inclusion in higher education of ex-military personnel who have been seriously injured in active service. Ciaran O’Sullivan is concerned with education for sustainability and his doctoral research took him into secondary schools. Russell Shobrook is concerned with transitions made by forces personnel when a change of role involves training others. Julie Anderson and Cath Gristy are both involved in working with school teachers and are part of the Cooperative Schools research group. Cath Gristy and Jan Georgeson have worked with a wide range of multi- professional practitioners through their Common Assessment Framework project. Caroline Leeson’s research interests involve her in working with professionals in social work and the prison service, as well as with families.
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The Voice, Inclusion and Participation Research Cluster EXAMPLES OF FUNDED PROJECTS Recent examples of externally funded projects include Dr Becky McKenzie’s ESRC funded collaborative project on ‘Prediction of other people’s behaviour in healthy and autistic individuals’; Verity Campbell Barr, Jan Georgeson and colleagues’ project on ‘TWO-YEAR-OLDS in England,’ funded by TACTYC, and Cath Gristy’s EERA funded ‘The Future for schools in rural Europe: an engagement with place and social justice’. Verity Cambell-Barr and Chris Mamas have both recently been awarded prestigious Marie Curie Fellowships. Joanna Haynes has been awarded funds by the Philosophy of Education Society for her project on teachers’ perspectives on philosophy for children. VIP cluster members have also been awarded internal funding. Inclusivity researcher Chris Mamas has Institute of Health and Community (IHC) HC funding for his project using social network analysis of classroom interaction; Cath Gristy has also had IHC funding for projects on school journeys and, with Marie Lavelle, for a project on the current framework for multi-disciplinary professional working. Melanie Parker has funding from Learning Support and Well Being for a community adult literacy project. Julie Anderson was awarded a teaching and learning fellowship for her research on support for Master’s students writing research projects. Joanna Haynes, Melanie Parker and Emma Macleod-Johnstone have had a number of grants from PEDRIO for their ongoing teaching and researching disturbing and dangerous knowledge in HE project.
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Marie Curie Grant Success in Plymouth Institute of Education Two members of the Voice Inclusion and Participation Research Cluster have recently had the good news of their success in their grant applications. Both are lecturers on the Early Childhood Studies Programme. Dr Christoforos Mamas will be engaged with a project titled: Inclusive Education for an Inclusive Europe (IE2): Examining Social Interactions, Dynamics and Friendship Networks of Students in Mainstream Primary Schools. Chris will be based at Department of Education Studies, UC San Diego, in the USA. He has provided a description of his project: The overarching research aim of this project is to examine the social interactions, dynamics and friendship networks of all students in mainstream primary schools, with an emphasis on those identified as having additional support needs or special educational needs. The IE2 project sets out to understand how inclusive education is being implemented across three countries (US, UK, Cyprus) and contribute to the debate on how to create more inclusive European education systems and society by providing rigorous research evidence and recommendations.
The project seeks to achieve three main objectives. First, to develop an innovative and interdisciplinary methodology to understand the social interactions, peer relationships and friendships by combining advanced Social Network Analysis (SNA) and ethnographic methods. Second, to establish an SNA toolkit for schools to enable practitioners understand the social dynamics within their settings. Third, to develop a platform for visualizing large datasets within inclusive and special education in Europe. This is a three-year project that is innovative and interdisciplinary as it breaks the boundaries between social sciences and humanities and computational studies, mathematics and statistics. Christoforos will spend two years at the University of California, San Diego and will be mentored by Professor Daly. He will return to Plymouth to complete the third year of the fellowship and will be working closely with his supervisor Dr Kaimi. Dr. Verity Campbell-Barr’s project is titled Knowledge, Skills and Attitudinal Competences for Quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC Workforce)
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Verity will be based at Faculty of Child and Adult Education, University of Debrecen, Hungary. Her project outline follows: The education and training of the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) workforce is of prime importance as it equips practitioners with the knowledge, skills and attitudinal competences needed to work with children. Training supports them in creating quality environments for children to enhance the quality of provision and subsequent child outcomes. Whilst qualifications have been established as important for the quality of ECEC, little is known about the nature of the qualifications and the role that they play in developing the knowledge, skills and attitudinal competences needed to best enhance the quality of ECEC provision. Through the Fellowship Verity will consider ECEC qualification requirements, structure, content and characteristics across Europe, with a particular focus on Hungarian approaches for preparing early childhood pedagogues. The project is in four stages designed to go from a Macro to Micro level:
1. European mapping of ECEC qualification and child outcome data 2. Systematic (qualitative) analysis of qualifications in selected European countries of the knowledge, skills and attitudes advocated 3. Hungarian country survey of knowledge, skills and attitudinal competences advocated by kindergarten pedagogues 4. Micro analysis of Hungarian approaches to ECEC pedagogue training ECEC in Hungary is under explored despite it being ranked highly for the quality of provision globally. Hungary offers an interesting case to study due to how its history, market composition and quantity of provision contrast with those experienced in the UK. The research undertaken during the Fellowship will build on existing research involving Verity and the host institution (Faculty of Child and Adult Education , University of Debrecen), that has explored divergent views on the attitudes needed to work in ECEC between Hungary and the UK.
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VIP themes and members DR JULIE ANDERSON Dr Julie Anderson is an Associate Head of Institute of Education for the Postgraduate programmes - and Senior Lecturer/ associate Professor, teaching modules on the EdD and Masters in Education. She is also thesis supervisor/ DoS and dissertation tutor for both programmes respectively. With a background in Postgraduate research, in particular around the masters and dissertation experience for students, she won a Teaching Fellowship award in 2013 for work on the latter and in February 2015 was awarded a Senior Fellowship of the HEA (Higher Education Academy). She is currently engaged in more participative and collaborative research work with teachers and other colleagues across the SW - and increasingly working with auto ethnography with colleagues from Marjon and Bristol universities too. She regularly attends and contributes papers to international conferences including BERA, ECER, ISSOTL and UCET as well as UK events. Writing includes paper/ chapters in books: 1. Anderson, J. and Gristy, C. (2014) Coaching of staff in schools: what can we learn from the new role of the Masters in Teaching and Learning in-school coach for schools and the higher education tutors working alongside them?, in La Velle, L. ( Ed) (2014) Masterliness in the Teaching Profession, Routledge, London ( also published in the Journal of Education and Teaching (JET) Vol. 39, Iss 1,2013) 2. Anderson, J. Huggins, V. and Winfield, L. Exploring the experience of and support needs of part time master’s students in Brown, S. and Kneale, P (Eds) a Palgrave publication on the Masters experience, forthcoming, details TBC
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DR CARRIE ANSELL Carrie Ansell a lecturer in English, language and literacy at Plymouth Institute of Education. She worked in primary and early years education for 20 years in settings with a multilingual and culturally diverse population. She has an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and TESOL and is presently in the first year of studying for her doctorate. Carrie is interested in researching the dominant pedagogies of reading in primary settings in England, and Finland and how teachers can teach critical reading in creative contexts to enact change. Her research and writing explores the connection between first place and literacy from a critical literacy perspective. It makes links with other subject disciplines such as the field of social and cultural geography and draws on the conceptualisations of place framed by Doreen Massey and Tim Cresswell. Carrie is keen on developing international perspectives in literacy education and leads a Finnish enrichment experience for students on the BEd undergraduate programme. She is an active and keen member of the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) and is the South West Regional Representative for the UKLA: www.ukla.org/site/testimonials/
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VIP themes and members CLAUDIA BLANDON Claudia is a Research Assistant at Plymouth Institute of Education and her own research interests lie in human rights, right to education, inclusion, migration and outdoor education. A graduate in Sociology and Anthropology, Claudia has a graduate diploma in Migration and Refugee Studies and an MA in International Human Rights Law from the University of Cairo. Her field work for her MA dissertation: Legal Evolutions &Legacies: The Saharawi & Self-determination took her to five refugee camps in Southern Algeria. She has also carried out research with asylum seekers in Plymouth and with Spanish speaking migrants , the latter leading to publication of a co-authored paper in Applied Linguistics Review. In her post Claudia has been engaged in research and co-authoring of reports with Professor Jocey Quinn and Professor Linda La Velle. https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/claudia-blandon
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DR VERITY CAMPBELL BARR It is well established that the quality of early childhood education and care services are dependent on the quality of the staff that work on them. However, assessments of quality are frequently restricted by modernist approaches that privileged measurable features of quality that correlate with culturally constructed child development outcomes. Verity Campbell-Barr’s research looks to explore the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are identified as ‘good’ for quality early childhood education and care from a range of perspectives. Past Projects have included: • ‘Investigate the role of Early Years Professionals in leading communities of quality practice in early years settings in Devon’ – Funded by Plymouth University • Teaching Fellowship Award: Connecting Across Boarders (with Valerie Huggins and Steve Wheeler) - Funded by Plymouth University • Parent Initiated Training (with Karen Wickett, Caroline Leeson and Jocey Quinn) - funded by Somerset County Council • Quality Measurement Framework: Value for money comparison of public and third sector provision of pre-school childcare and education. - Funded by The Office for National Statistics • Parents and Childcare: A Literature Review - Funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and being written in association with the Daycare Trust Local Authority Use of Childcare Sufficiency Assessments. - Funded by Government Office South West • Employment Retention and Advancement Evaluation - Department of Work and Pensions • New Deal Pilots: A Qualitative Evaluation of Quarterly Work Focussed Interviews, Work Search Premium and In Work Credit - Funder Department for Work and Pensions • Camden Sufficiency Assessment – Camden Council • Paid Officials and Community Engagement in Governance – Joseph Rowntree Foundations • The Economy of Childcare – Kent County Council
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VIP themes and members DR SOFIA CHANDA-GOOL Sofia Chanda-Gool (ILT, BACP) is a lecturer in Early Childhood Studies and Education at Plymouth University. Her main research interests lie in the area of crosscultural and comparative studies, inclusive practice and ethnographic methodology. She has worked closely with diverse minority ethnic communities in the UK; families in South Asia and the Indigenous communities of Australia. Recently she has focused on developing group work research with students to enhance collaborative learning with lecturers. The group work research has received interest and support through PedRIO funding and work with ethnic minority communities has resulted in an ERASMUS application: UNIROM. Strengthening trainee teachers’ skills in Romani Studies. With fellow cluster member Phil Selbie, Sofia is currently awaiting the outcome of this bid to the European Commission for 253,595.00 euros; an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership with colleagues at University of Seville, Spain, University of Debrecen, Hungary and FAKALI (Andalusian Federation of Roma Women). https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/sofiachandagool
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HOWARD COTTON Howard Cotton is a lecturer in English language and literature on the PGCE and BEd courses in Initial Teacher Education (ITE). His research interest at Masters level was the use of colour-coded graphemes to teach French in primary level education. He recently completed a chapter for a second edition of Children Learning Outside the Classroom, edited by Sue Waite. His current research interest is in the use of picturebooks as a pedagogical medium. He has given presentations on this theme at national and international conferences. He is currently engaged in writing a book with Lacey Evans on the use of visual texts in the primary classroom.
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VIP themes and members DR KEN GALE
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38 This book is a passionate engagement with Gilles Deleuze and collaborative writing, the topic. This powerful and complex text, which will appeal to scholars within qualitative inquiry, investigates the question of how we might begin to write, together, on what Deleuze would call an immanent plane of composition. On such a Deleuzian plane, or plateau, the writers seek to bond with Deleuze, to open up with him a new stream of thought and of being.
“This four-voiced engagement with Deleuze brilliantly moves collaborative writing into new spaces. The text explores uncharted topics, including all the transgressive poetic places be-
WYATT, GALE, GANNON, DAVIES
in which four writers explore together the insights that Deleuze has contributed to
tween ontology, ethics, and nightmares. In [these authors’] hands, writing becomes more than
“This is a delirious book, in the best possible sense, and a vivid and accessible engagement with the work of Deleuze. It is a mix of memoire, travelogue, philosophical exploration, pedagogical text and, near its conclusion, heart-stopping thriller. But of course it is none of these exactly. ‘JKSB’ shakes up cosy, humanist notions of collaborative writing, opening it up to something altogether more dangerous, fragile and promising.” — Maggie MacLure, Professor, In-
stitute of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom “This unusual book takes you on a collaborative writing journey alongside the ideas and conceptualisations generated by Deleuze. It makes for an edgy and compelling read that is not so much ‘about’ Deleuzian theory (although much thoughtful theoretical insight is shared) as about ‘hanging out’ alongside a group of hugely enthusiastic writers whose expressions of life and practices of living and working simply exude and exemplify Deleuzian ideas. It is also an unexpectedly intimate book that both touches the heart and moves on swiftly leaving you wanting more. I couldn’t put it down.” —Jane Speedy, Reader in Qualitative Inquiry, University of
Bristol, United Kingdom Jonathan Wyatt author bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outv
Deleuze & Collaborative Writing
a method of inquiry, it is a way of being in the world. And once you enter this space, you can never go back.” —Norman K. Denzin, Distinguished Professor of Communications, University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Ken Gale author bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outvauthor bios
Susanne Gannon author bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outauthor bios out
PETER LANG
outauthor bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outauthor bios out
Bronwyn Davies author bios outauthor bios outauthor bios out-
www.p eterlang.com
author bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outauthor bios outvv
Ken Gale works in the Institute of Education at Plymouth University and has published widely and presented at a number of international conferences on the philosophy of education and anti-positivist approaches to education research and pedagogy. His co-authored books include: Between the two: A nomadic inquiry into collaborative writing and subjectivity, Deleuze and collaborative writing: an immanent plane of composition, How writing touches: an intimate scholarly collaboration and Philosophy and Education: An introduction to key questions and themes. He has recently co-edited journal Special Editions on collaborative writing for the International Review of Qualitative Research and on collaborative writing as a method of inquiry for Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies. He is an associate member of the Higher Education Academy, a member of the International Association of Qualitative Inquiry and the Narrative Inquiry Centre at the University of Bristol, where he is also a Visiting Fellow.
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DR BETH GOMPERTZ With a background in science education, Beth’s research interests include health education and outdoor learning. The engagement of children as co-researchers was the focus of her doctoral studies and presentations at the European Conference for Education Research and the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers Conference. She is currently exploring opportunities to extend this work with the Marine Academy Plymouth. She coauthored chapter on Science in the Outdoors with Kelly Davis in ‘Children Learning Outside the Classroom’ edited by Sue Waite.
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VIP themes and members DR JAN GEORGESON Jan Georgeson is a Research Fellow at Plymouth University. Her research is strongly influenced by culturalhistorical activity theory, in particular when applied to organisational structure, interactional style and approaches to pedagogy. She is currently researching inter-professional working and professional development for early years practitioners, especially those who work with very young children. With Verity Campbell Barr, she is investigating is provision for two-year-olds in England, following the introduction of government funding for disadvantaged two-year-olds. The initial study, commissioned by TACTYC, investigated what stakeholders, managers and practitioners in settings thought was important to be ‘good with two-year-olds’. http://tactyc.org.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2014/11/TACTYC_2_ year_olds_Report_2014.pdf The research has now been extended to
a creative practice project uniting artists, musicians and early years practitioners to work with parents and children from birth to two in museum and gallery spaces. This is helping to illuminate the different career pathways into work with two-year-olds, and show how individual characteristics - dispositions, experience and education/training - all contribute in different ways to being able to offer sensitive support for learning. http://www.cultureshift.org.uk/ portfolio/open-sesame-2014-2016/ Jan has also worked on a range of research projects on disability, special educational needs, children’s voice and inclusive practice, including the role of ICT in investigating disabled students’ use of digital technologies in new contexts and boys’ and girls’ attitudes to learning a foreign language. With Gill BoagMunroe she is developing a theoretical frame for understanding buildings and space based on the work of Halliday and systemic functional linguistics, to support practitioners who work with families reluctant to engage with children’s services.
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Cath Gristy and other members of the European Rural Schools Research Network (from Finland, Serbia, Montengro, Latvia and the Czech Republic) at a recent meeting in Prague.
DR CATH GRISTY Cath Gristy’s research is underpinned by a commitment to social justice and she is interested in being involved in research that will make a difference to the lives of young people, their schools and teachers. Her current research interests include access to schools for all young people and links between schools, families and communities. She has a particular interest in education in rural places and this research links me into research in rural spaces and places in European and other international contexts. Her own experiences of being a school teacher doing postgraduate study and research means she is committed to developing opportunities for teachers to be involved in research. https://www.plymouth. ac.uk/staff/cath-gristy https://plymouth.academia.edu/CathGristy Exploring the experiences of lifelong
learners and their journeys to school: a narrative study. Study involving the University of the Third Age (U3A). Stories from the School Bus: Being Heard and Spreading the Word through Deleuzian Assemblage. This study conceptualises the school bus as agentic assemblage. Organisations in Partnership with HEIs: Collaboration in a Time of Competition. A collaborative schools research group. Partners are teaching staff from Cooperative Schools/academies in the South West of England, two academics from a University Education Department and a colleague from the Schools’ Cooperative Society. An aim of the project has been to develop a model that could be a supportive framework for all to undertake research within a cooperative community of researchers.
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VIP themes and members DR JOANNA HAYNES Joanna has engaged in research and scholarship in the theory and practice of philosophy for/with children (P4C) and communities of philosophical enquiry for more than twenty years. With the Philosophy for Children charity SAPERE (http://www. sapere.org.uk/) she has been involved in establishing and developing training courses on in the UK. A current focus is the ‘age-transgressive’ character of philosophy for/with children and this focus is the basis of theoretical research, informed by critical posthumanism, presented with Karin Murris at the International Council for Philosophical Inquiry with Children conference held in Vancouver this year: Philosophy and the Picturebook: A ‘Post’-Age Pedagogy? Her book Children as Philosophers has been translated into several languages.
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Joanna is currently leading a Philosophy of Education Society (GB) funded research project on school teachers’ experiences of teaching P4C, and their conceptions of the philosophy and the child in this educational approach. This three year project is based in a group of schools in Tower Hamlets, East London. To date much research on Philosophy for Children (P4C) has focused on outcomes for children. Each year in the UK many teachers are initiated into philosophical practices through training in P4C, but it is not clear how teachers who experience training and/or set out to put it into practice conceive of ‘philosophy’, ‘philosophical enquiry’, or ‘children as philosophers’. This research focuses on teachers’ perspectives and aims to explore their understandings and critical reflections on practice. Joanna is Associate Researcher of the Núcleo de Estudos Filosóficos da Infância (NEFI) of the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) Brazil, led by Professor Walter Kohan. She regularly works collaboratively with Karin Murris at University of Cape Town, SA. Along with Maughn Gregory at Montclair State University, USA, they are co-editing the Routledge International Handbook on Philosophy for Children (forthcoming, 2016). From early experiences in community schools comes Joanna’s longstanding interest in multi- and inter-generational approaches. Her current work focuses on ageism across the whole life course and, with fellow cluster members Cath Gristy and Marie Lavelle, has recently started work on a research project called Playing with Age. The project was launched at an event bringing together practitioners across the south west region, and several research groups at Plymouth and Exeter Universities, all connected through creative approaches to democratic education across the life course. https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/joanna-haynes https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joanna_Haynes
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VIP themes and members RACHAEL HINCKS KNIGHT I am interested in inclusive education and in the experiences and perceptions of teachers and support staff in schools. In addition to my PhD study on ‘Trainee teacher preparedness for inclusive practice’ I am a member of the research network Outdoor and Experiential Learning. http://www6.plymouth.ac.uk/researchcover/ rcp.asp?pagetype=G&page=321
WENDY LAMBERT HEGGS Wendy Lambert Heggs is a lecturer on the Post graduate Certificate in Education teacher training programmes at Plymouth University. Wendy will soon be completing her Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD). Her main research interests lie with injured service personnel returning from active duty who have not been redeployed in the military and need to seek a civilian career change. The research for her thesis is focused on the transitions and processes that injured personnel go through when contemplating and engaging with a higher education programme of study as the pathway to a new career. Her approach is ethnographic using a methodology of ‘networks of intimacy’, used by Heath and Fuller (2007), which explores how and in what ways decisions are made within networks of family/significant others with regard to studying in higher education. The data drawn from the military families’ is rich and powerful revealing the stoicism, resilience and renewed aspirations of the service personal and their families and significantly augments the limited body of knowledge in this area in the United Kingdom.
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DR MARIE LAVELLE Whilst the impact of parenting on children’s lives is routinely a focus for early years research, the impact of being a parent across the life course is rarely explored. Working with parents (all mothers) whose children are 18-30 this project explores the temporal nature of parenting, in particular how parents view their experiences of parenting in retrospect. Discussion around the central question of ‘what do you wish you knew then that you know now about being a parent’ was aided by participants bringing items of memorabilia they had kept from when their children were young. Early findings have revealed dominant discourses of attachment, the tension between meeting own and children’s needs coupled with external societal demands. These feelings are not only located within the experience of parenting young children but continue to shape how mothers perceived themselves as their children too became adults.
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VIP themes and members DR CAROLINE LEESON With Julia Morgan and Penelope Welbourne, Caroline Leeson is investigating the interface between welfare interventions and policing in cases where young people go missing for the first time. They are interested in the issues involved in negotiating the boundary between police action and welfare intervention when young people absent themselves from home as this can be a contested area and, in the current climate associated with young people and risk of child sexual exploitation, is extremely topical. Also with Julia Morgan, Caroline is involved in research with families with a member in prison. Caroline co-leads the Participatory Research Methods Network at Plymouth University. http://docslide.us/documents/dr-caroline-leeson-university-of-plymouth-the-importanceof-the-relationship-between-looked-after-children-and-their-social-workerguardian.html
DR EMMA MACLEOD –JOHNSTONE Emma Macleod-Johnstone’s doctoral research explored and examined the experience of collective ‘madness’ within the halls of Academe through an autoethnographic lenses and Jungian theoretical framework. Informing and arising from these studies, her current interests are in experiences of the ‘dismemberment of the feminine’ within types of professional cultures, together with people’s experiences of Shame; and conversations and dilemmas in ‘ethics of care’, corporate ‘wellness’, and constructions and dynamics of ‘Evil’ within families, organisations, societies, and individual unconscious behaviours. She is part of a research group awarded PEDRIO research grants to examine concepts and narratives of ‘Difficult Knowledge’ within educational contexts.
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DR CHRISTOFOROS MAMAS Dr Christoforos Mamas is a lecturer in Early Childhood Studies and Education at Plymouth University. His main research interests lie in the area of inclusive and special education and he is particularly keen on using mixed methods within comparative and crosscultural studies. He is about to embark on a three-year research fellowship to examine the social interactions, peer relationships and friendship networks of primary school children with an emphasis on those identified as having additional support needs and disabilities. For more details on his current research projects and publications, please follow the links: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/christoforos-mamas https://plymouth.academia.edu/ChristoforosMamas https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christoforos_Mamas https://cy.linkedin.com/in/christoforosm
Pedagogy, social status and inclusion in Cypriot schools Published July 9, 2015.
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VIP themes and members MAUREEN MCGINTY Maureen McGinty lectures in special educational needs on the Integrated Masters Programme and the BEd. Her research interests are in the field of inclusion. Her doctoral research project is a study of the lives and identities of Higher Level Teaching Assistants, using both auto-ethnography and collective biography methodologies.
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DR BECKY MCKENZIE Research interests: Autism, Developmental psychology, Thinking and reasoning. Becky Mckenzie’s project ‘Families First’ is a cross-disciplinary research project exploring the experience of autism and family dynamics. The team is working towards a funding bid to develop a support package for the families based on systemic family therapy. This project draws together parents, clinicians, psychologists and local voluntary support groups and has a strong commitment to community engagement. Welcome Lab website http://welcomelab.webs.com/ The Welcome Lab within the Institute of Education is currently working on a number of projects with children and families. The Welcome Lab works with families in different settings and is engaged in projects with carers, parents, infants, children and adolescents.
Plymouth Autism Network http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/autism/ Becky runs the Plymouth Autism Network, which brings together academics, carers, families and other professionals interested in Autism Spectrum Conditions. Rebecca is a Developmental Psychologist and lecturer in the Institute of Education. She is currently working with parents of children with autism and a multi-disciplinary team to develop a new support package for families living with autism. The team includes representatives of charitable bodies, The National Autistic Society, Clinicians, Psychologists and Family Therapists. This is a large-scale project, which has grown out of interviews with parents about their experiences and needs associated with autism.
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VIP themes and members MIKE MURPHY Mike Murphy is a senior lecturer in education at Plymouth University. He leads the National Award for Special Educational Needs Coordination (SENCOs) in the South West region and is Chair of the SW Consortium for the National Award for SEN Coordination. His main research and teaching interests lie in the areas of inclusive education and special education policy and practice; ( special educational needs coordination; autism),the professional learning experiences of teachers at M level within the HEI. Mike’s research draws on the theoretical perspectives of post structuralism/feminism, gender, and social justice. He is currently studying for an educational doctorate. Recent publications include: http://pae.sagepub.com/content/6/3/268.abstract http://www.cornwalllearning.org/media/1583/national-award-for-sen-2015-web.pdf
DR CIARAN O’SULLIVAN Ciaran is a Lecturer in Education Studies. He teaches on the BA Education Studies and the MSc in Education and Sustainability. Ciaran’s research has centred on education for sustainability in state schools, and, through this, he has focused on qualitative methods and methodologies, especially ethnography. He’s also interested in outdoor education, Forest Schools, environmental art and philosophy of education. Ciaran’s PhD was an ethnographic study of education and sustainability in secondary schools.
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DR MELANIE PARKER Melanie Parker is a lecturer in Education Studies here at Plymouth University. Melanie’s Doctorial Study was a philosophical study exploring the methodological application of Utopia in contemporary capitalist Education, this established Melanie’s ongoing commitment to critical transformative education and research and the theories of Karl Marx. This work recently formed the basis of Melanie’s chapters in the (2015) publication Philosophy and Education (with Joanna Haynes and Ken Gale). Melanie has been involved in extensive and large scale pedagogic research at the University of Plymouth including: Student-centred Learning in Construction Education (SLICE) Project; Staff-Student Partnership for Assessment Change and Evaluation (SPACE) Project, which involved developing a large-scale action research study with disabled students and colleagues across 5 HEI’S; Centre for Excellence in Professional Placement Learning (CEPPL), which included a nine-month ethnographic study working with a community group that supported asylum seekers and refugees; and Learning from WoErk. Melanie is privileged to be able to work with the Shout it Out group http://suetorrmbe.co.uk/ and colleagues and students on PEDRIO funded research projects that include: dangerous knowledge, intersectionality and disability, and most recently ‘Becoming Student’. Melanie is also branch coordinator for the Devon and Cornwall Branch of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB).
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VIP themes and members PHIL SELBIE
Philip Selbie (centre) with students and staff of the Roma Pre-school Teacher Training College, University of Debrecen, Hungary during a field work trip to north-western Romania in September 2014.
Philip Selbie is a lecturer in Early Childhood Studies at the Plymouth Institute of Education. He is a qualified Primary teacher with an MA in Early Childhood Education and has taught pre-school and KS1 children in International schools as well as in the UK. Philip currently teaches undergraduate student teachers at Plymouth University, he also is a school governor and often gives lectures to students at universities in Central Eastern Europe. His research and writing is focussed upon Jan Amos Comenius (1592-1670) and comparative studies in early childhood education and care. In addition, Philip is interested in young children’s spirituality and the cultural identity of Roma communities in the European Union
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RUSSELL SHOBROOK Russell Shobrook is a part-time PhD student and member of the teaching staff here at Plymouth University. Russell is interested in transitions. His PhD is examining the formation of a military identity and the subsequent career transitions. Using biographical narrative methods of data collection and examining these using relational sociological theories an emerging perspective of a specific military identity can be identified.
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Professional Theory and Practice Educational researchers have the potential to be agents of change. The Professional Theory and Practice (PTP) research cluster works on developing inclusive, socially-just and innovative pedagogical approaches to learning and associated professional practice across the life-course, focussing on formal educational settings, particularly schools and colleges. The distinguishing feature of this research group is a commitment to furthering social justice in education through a programme of robust scholarly research that has practical application for local and national policymakers, educational leaders, managers and professional practitioners. We use fit-for-purpose ethical research methodologies, so that we may monitor and analyse incidental changes that have bearing upon learning and equity, and undertake systematic development and evaluation of deliberate, innovative and transformative educational interventions. At Plymouth University we are ideally placed to fulfil the potential of educational research and inform the changing needs of educational practice. Equitable change requires full recognition of more than just one right way. We are not locked into old divisions between disciplines, research methodologies, practitioners and researchers or educational sectors. Our work incorporates a wide range of intervention studies, mixed methods and action research that enables the development of professional and applied educational knowledge. Externally funded projects within the cluster include: Action on Access (HEFCE), Teacher Taster online (TDA), Diversity Project (Plymouth LA), as well as European-wide projects such as Improving attitudes and learning in a second language through the increased use of ICT (British Council: Comenius Regio) and Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development: Qualified Teachers = Successful Learners (Erasmus+).
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Cluster members are all interested in various aspects of teacher education, including: • Educational leadership inlcuding critical aspects, emotions (Megan Crawford) • HE in FE (Liz McKenzie, Denise Summers, Simon Webster, Sue Webster) • Mathematics education (David Burghes, Christos Dimitriadis, Suki Honey, Sam Townsend) • Science education (Linda la Velle, Matthew Wharf) • Pedagogy and technology (Clare Dowdall, Linda la Velle) • Music education (Ruth Atkinson, Kip Pratt) • Physical education (Liz Taplin; Nina Jackson) • International education (Steve Caldock, Kay Chapman, Suki Honey) • Art education (Sadie Medway, Simon Webster) Please contact us for information about consultancy, research, evaluation and the development of innovative pedagogical approaches.
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In focus: Cluster profiles PROFESSOR DAVID BURGHES https://www1.plymouth.ac.uk/vcawards/Highlights/2011/ Categories/Pages/Internationalisation%20 category%202011/Professor-David-Burghes.aspx David Burghes has a consistent and outstanding record of developing international partnerships with University of Plymouth to deliver innovative programmes to enhance Maths teaching across the globe. David’s work as Director of the Centre for Innovation in Maths Teaching (CiMT) has created an international reputation for the University of Plymouth in providing the highest quality professional development for maths teachers. David is Director of three international longitudinal comparative projects, “Kassel Project”, “International Project for Mathematical Attainment (IPMA)” and “International Comparative Study in Mathematics Teacher Training”. This latter project was completed last month with a launch of the final report, both at the Royal Society in London and in Abu Dhabi, where the international coordinators from 13 countries were present and formulated the next project, which has in principle been agreed with funding from CfBT. This international project, aimed at improving and enhancing mathematics teaching in both developed and developing countries, in both primary and secondary sectors, is called “How can I become a better maths teacher?” and will use international evidence from around the world to help and support teachers improve their practice. David is also Director of the Mathematics component of e-Learning Jamaica, which was a competitively won project to provide CXC candidates (equivalent of GCSE) in Jamaica with comprehensive support through Student Instructional Material together with Teachers Instructional Material - this is now completed but has resulted in the Mico University College, the largest teacher training college in Jamaica, setting up its
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own centre, called the Caribbean Centre for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching and modelled on CiMT. David was keynote speaker at the launch of this centre on Wednesday 3 April, a joint Memorandum of Understanding with the intention of collaboration on research and development and higher degree courses for teachers of mathematics. David has also implemented projects for Primary Mathematics in Chile (in 11 schools in a country area with low achievement in mathematics) and in South Africa (in 3 township schools in the Potchefstroom region) both of which have shown promising gains in raising standards and have linked Plymouth with local Universities, namely University of Valparaiso and North West University. TOP 3 ACHIEVEMENTS 1. Outstanding international reputation established for exceptional professional development of maths teachers across the globe. 2. Consistently successful research and project bids to support innovative international research and development. 3. Transformational impact on economically and socially deprived countries through partnership to establish high quality maths teaching.
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In focus: Cluster profiles PROFESSOR MEGAN CRAWFORD Megan is Director of the Plymouth Institute of Education, and Professor of Educational Leadership and Professional Learning. Her career has developed from primary schools, where she was a Deputy Headteacher, to Higher Education teaching. Her particular teaching expertise is Postgraduate programmes, and in particular the needs of the part time student. She has been a governor of five schools, and set up two new primary and one new secondary school. She is currently Chair of a Multi Academy Trust. In 2009 Megan was governor of the year for the East of England, and she has been a National Leader of Governance since the start of the programme. She has worked on many projects for the Department for Education (DfE) and the National College on critical aspects of leadership in schools, including moving from Deputy to Head and managing performance. She has written over 50 articles on both practice and theory. Her particular research interest is in the emotions of leadership. Her first book, ‘Getting to the heart of leadership’ was published in 2009, and her most recent book, ‘Developing as an Educational Leader and Manager’ was published by Sage in September 2014.
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DR CLARE DOWDALL Clare Dowdall is a lecturer and researcher in language and literacy education at Plymouth University, where she has worked since 2001. Clare’s doctoral research focused on children’s text production in online social networking sites and she currently works with doctoral students, PGCE trainees and BEd students in the area of children’s literacy. Clare is a member of the Executive Council for the United Kingdom Literacy Association, where she co-convenes the Publications sub-committee. In November 2014, Clare was appointed as Associate Editor for the peer-reviewed Wiley Blackwell journal Literacy. Clare has written and published papers that focus on children’s informal text production. In 2010, she was awarded the UKLA/Wiley Blackwell Research in Literacy award for her paper Impressions, improvisations and compositions: reframing children’s text production in social networking sites.
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In focus: Cluster profiles PROFESSOR LINDA LA VELLE Linda la Velle, MSc PhD is Professor of Biology in Education and Associate Head of the Plymouth Institute of Education, with responsibility for Research. She leads the PTP research cluster, and is co-ordinator for the Education REF Unit of Assessment for Plymouth University. At a national level, she is Chair of the Research and International Committee of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) and Deputy Editor of the Journal of Education for Teaching (JET). Her personal research interests are in the areas of teacher education and professional development in general and science education (new technologies and ethical issues) more specifically. Although her background is in secondary education, she firmly believes that pedagogic issues and enquiry span the life course and transferability is the key to research-based improvement of outcomes for all learners. Newly funded Erasmus+ projects include: PhenoloGIT, a threeyear programme in which schools across Europe will collect environmental and phenological data sets for analysis and resource building and Robo21, a two year programme of upskilling European teachers and pupils in computation and robotics. Recent research includes the HEFCE-funded Action on Access project (2009-10); Comenius Regio-Funded projects (2011-13, 2013-15) with UK school partners: Active Inclusion
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for Sustaining Communities (with the Ministry of Education in Cyprus) and Towards the development of deeper learning and transferable lifelong skills through the use of European Key Competencies and Improving attitudes and learning in a second language through the increased use of ICT (with the University of Santiago de Compostela and the Xunta de Galicia in Spain) and an Erasmus+ funded project Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development: Qualified Teachers= Successful Learning (with partners in Lithuania, Ireland and Spain). Publications since 1987: 5 authored/edited books; 6 book chapters; 10 official reports; 28 papers in international refereed journals; 50 international conference presentations/papers. Grants as Principal Investigator or co-applicant since 1988: total of circa £2.9M from e.g. EU, HEFCE, ESRC, Wellcome Trust, Nuffield Foundation, TDA, Royal Society.
Comenius Regio research team of PU staff and local teachers outside the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
Researchers and teachers presenting at BERA, 2014
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In focus: Cluster profiles DR LIZ MCKENZIE Dr Liz McKenzie is a lecturer on the Masters in Education at Plymouth University. With a background in primary education and as a teacher educator within the post-compulsory sector, her research interests include the use and experience of reflection among teacher educators and trainee teachers; the experience and identities of HE in FE practitioners; the role of writing for professional development; students’ experience of Foundation degrees and the long term impact of HE study on mature learners https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/liz-mckenzie https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Liz_Mckenzie
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SIMON WEBSTER Simon Webster works for Plymouth Institute of Education as a lecturer on their teacher training programmes for the post-compulsory education sector. This includes Adult and Community Education and Further Education. His particular interest is in art and design education; he has taught ceramics, metalwork, graphic design and art history at Plymouth College of Art and now works closely with trainee teachers across a whole range of disciplines at the College. Simon is undertaking his PhD studies and is investigating the effect of new technologies on the use of sketchbooks in post-compulsory art and design education. The omnipresence of the internet, mobile phones with built-in cameras, tablets, apps, and the rise of social media are all phenomena that were not present when Simon undertook his art degree – how have practices and expectations changed? What form might a contemporary sketchbook have – and what would be inside it? Simon is exploring the sketchbooks of current art and design students across a range of disciplines and is interviewing students and lecturers who create and assess them.
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In focus: Cluster profiles SUE WEBSTER My current post is as lecturer in Education with Plymouth University, teaching on Initial Teacher Training and Education for those working in the Further Education and Skills sector. My career path has been varied, beginning with qualification as a Registered General Nurse and working as a staff nurse in the 1980s and ‘90s. I then took a change of direction, expanded my areas of interest, achieving a BA (Hons) Fine Art 2:1 in 1999 with Plymouth University, for which I was awarded the Natalie Sitar Fine Art Prize for outstanding achievement. Shortly after finishing my degree I gained a PGCE (Post-compulsory Education and Training) and continued teaching in the Further Education sector, as well as building my teaching profile in Plymouth University as a lecturer on the Cert Ed/PGCE (PCET) programme. During this time I achieved a Master’s degree in Education, for which I was awarded the Nico de Bruin Award University of Plymouth, in 2009. I am also the proud holder of City and Guilds Diplomas in Embroidery, and in Patchwork & Quilting, I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, have Membership of the Institute of Learning and have been awarded QTLS (Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills).
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My research interests with Plymouth University are specifically related to my role as Lecturer and Centre Tutor for the PGCE/Cert Ed (incorporating the Diploma in Education and Training). I am currently undertaking a Doctorate in Education researching professional learning with teacher educators in the post-compulsory sector. Areas of particular interest include the relation between crafting and reflective practices, and working towards co-constructed curricula. Publications include: Exley S (2010) Dealing with change: Teacher Educators in the Lifelong Learning Sector. Teaching in Lifelong Learning, 2(2):24-34 Exley S & Ovenden-Hope T (2013) Preparing a Pathway of Professional Development for Teacher Educators in the Lifelong Learning Sector. Teacher Education Advancement Network Journal, 5(2): 4-18 Joint author of book chapter in process - due for publication 2015-16.
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Our Doctoral programmes EdD EDUCATION If you are responsible for leading learning in your organisation, whether it’s a school, college, HE institution or as an educator in a public or private sector organisation, this doctoral level programme is a fantastic opportunity to study education at a deep level and constantly relate this back to your own practice. The EdD will help you expand your knowledge and understand how learning works, allowing you to transform your own practice and help shape the future of education. https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/edd-education
“Studying for a Doctorate in Education at Plymouth University was the best professional development of my career” “The programme tutors challenge you to think about education in a multitude of ways which challenge any preconceptions you might have and give you new ways to conceptualise issues”
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EdD students: Forename
Surname
Forename
Surname
Alan
Hinchliffe
Kay
Chapman
Anthony
Dixon
Kevin Richard
Walker
Beth
Moran
Kitty
King
Carol Ann
Unwin
Mark
Ridolfo
Christie
Pritchard
Martyn
Rawson
Christopher
Grundy
Matthew
Wharf
Cicely
Alsbury
Melanie
Feek
Elaine
Copestake
Mike
Murphy
Emmanuel
Tackie-Yaoboi
Paul
Gosling
Helen
Riley-Humfrey
Paul
Hodson
Jacklyn
Williams
Paul
Norman
Jacqueline
King
Peter
Le Gassick
Jennifer
Stairs
Philip
Brown
John
Hilsdon
Pollyanna Jo
Magne
John
Perry
Sarah
Jones
Joseph
Allison
Sasha
Pleasance
Julia
Wheeler
Susan
Webster
Julia
Swain
Tracey
Downes
Karen
Sweeting
Tracy
Ashton
Karen
Wickett
Wendy
Lambert-Heggs
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Our Doctoral programmes MPhil/PhD
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/student-life/your-studies/the-graduate-school
Our Students: Student
DoS
Dissertation Topic
Becky McKenzie
Saudi Female Teachers’ Attitude towards Inclusion of SLD Children in Primary Schools
Linda La Velle
To evaluate the use of digital text to mediate children's literacy development in an Irish educational domain
Peter Kelly
The Use of Personal Response System at King Khalid University (KKU) in Saudi Arabia for learning development
Julia Morgan
Mathematical possibilities through oral story: How can educators facilitate children thinking mathematically using a creative pedagogical approach?
Carolyn Ansell
Joanna Haynes
What is the role of first place in shaping trainee teachers’ identities as readers and as teachers of reading?
Chioma Dibor
Jan Georgeson
Teachers' Implementation of Inclusive Education in Nigerian Primary Schools
Christine Smith
Ken Gale
A nomadic inquiry: - working with the concept of ‘subjectivity’ as the basis for (re) thinking pedagogical approaches to professional formation of youth and community workers as informal educators.
Derek Dodd
Debby Cotton
What does it mean to be an academic in the contemporary entrepreneurial University?
Amirah Alshenaifi
Andrew Whelan
Bandar Alzahrani
Caroline McGrath
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Student
DoS
Dissertation Topic
Dylan Williams
Becky McKenzie
Improving the Wellbeing of Students with Specific Learning Difficulties through Teaching Interventions
Eman Alamri
Avril Collinson
Factors affecting food intake in Saudi adolescent girls (16-18 years)
Fatmah Alotaibi
Roger Cutting
Exploration of Active Learning in Saudi Universities and its Effects on Students’ Performance
Gillen Motherway
Fintan McCutcheon
How to develop better methods for fostering critical thinking skilss in Irish primary school students.
Jocey Quinn
The transformational role of the arts as a medium for teaching and learning about issues of racism in primary and secondary schools
Helen Knowler
Peter Kelly
What has been the impact of gaining HLTA status for TAs on their working lives, identities and relationships with teachers?
Howard Cotton
Joanna Haynes
Postmodern Picturebooks, Reading Comprehension and Reading for Pleasure
Ulrike Hohmann
The place of learning documentation in informing teaching and learning in the primary school classroom
Jenny Evans
Ruth Boyask
An exploration of how art learning is understood and practiced in classrooms in elementary/primary schools in England and the United states.
Judith Sanders
Linda La Velle
To investigate the impact of technology on learning in the context of initial teacher training
Kelly Davis
Linda La Velle
Dialogue makes a difference; but how do we get there?
Heather Knight
Janette Gourd
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Our Doctoral programmes Student
DoS
Dissertation Topic
Mahmut Yazici
Becky McKenzie
Comparing teachers’ strategies to develop social and communication skills of children with autism in the UK and Turkey and adaptation used strategies and National Curriculum in the UK for Turkish teachers or practitioners in a special education school where there are children with autism.
Mandy Andrews
Ulrike Hohmann
Landscapes of Play: Researching Children’s Play Activity in Place and Personal Context
Maria Kmita
Ulrike Hohmann
Importance of Humour in Educational Staffrooms
Joanna Haynes
What has been the impact of gaining HLTA status for TAs on their working lives, identities and relationships with teachers?
Jocey Quinn
An investigation of English and Turkish early years/kindergarten teachers¿ perspectives on each other’s outdoor practice
Nadeem Al-Abdalla
Ken Gale
Learning Outside of Formal Education: The Role of Non-Formal Education in Enabling its Participants to Rediscover The Self & The Other. A study of non-formal education provided by Iraqi-British centres
Naomi Sani
David Burghes
Case studies into the successes and limitations of ‘retraining’ non-specialist mathematics teachers
Rachael Knight
Linda La Velle
Trainee teacher preparedness for inclusive practice
Norman Gabriel
How do instructors in the Royal Navy understand and experience their changing role from Sailor to trainer/educator?
Linda La Velle
An examination of physical literacy in the early years: identifying, charting and analysing the physical literacy journeys of seven year old children
Maureen McGinty
Mehmet Mart
Russell Shobrook
Sarah Taplin
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Student
DoS
Dissertation Topic
Simon Webster
Ken Gale
What effects are new technologies having on the conceptualisation, content and form of sketchbooks, and associated pedagogical practices, when used in formal education with a UK post-compulsory are context?
Sundos Alsharif
Linda La Velle
How can social restrictions shape the use of Blackboard in the Saudi Electronic University
Wenjun Liu
Jocey Quinn
A life history research of females higher education in Chinese urban cities
Zenna Kingdon
Norman Gabriel
Role-play in Pack-away Settings: The impact on Sustained Shared Thinking
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS Jocey Quinn and Ruth Boyask of LOFE at the American Educational Research Association conference, Chicago, 2015 Ruth Boyask chaired and Jocey Quinn presented as part of a symposium chosen by BERA to represent the best of British educational research. The symposium ‘ How Can Education Policy Respect Children and Young People? British Social Justice Researchers Seek New Ways to Inform Public Debate’ attracted a large and appreciative audience.
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Navigating Transitions in Life and Learning
Image courtesy of Photographer Carol Duke of Flower Hill Farm Seminar Programme 11.00-13.00 Life Transitions
Practitioner Presentations: Plymouth
Music Zone, Jeremiah’s Journey, PCC Children’s Services & Plymouth Refuge
Youth Music Presentation Launch of Research Report
13.00-14.00 Lunch 14.00-16.00 Learning Transitions Jocey Quinn: What are transitions? Pete Kelly: Transnational Learners Karen Wickett: Transitions from home
to starting school
Seminar organised by The Centre for Culture, Community and Society & the Learning Outside Formal Education Research Cluster 19th September 2014 11.00-16.00
Practitioner and research presentations, films and discussions on navigating life and learning transitions. Launch of research report ’Feeling their way: women and children using music to navigate transitions from domestic violence’. All Welcome to attend both or either session Lunch provided Attendance to this seminar is free but registration is required; to book a place please email: IHC@plymouth.ac.uk
Ruth Boyask & Philippa Bellows: Tran-
sitions from student to professional
Babbage Building, Room 406 Plymouth University
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
CREATIVE APPROACHES TO DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION ACROSS THE LIFE COURSE – WORKING TOGETHER FOR CHANGE Room 102, Rolle Building, Plymouth University—13th May 2015, 5pm—7pm Refreshments available from 4.30pm
Image
You are warmly invited to join this event exploring imaginative approaches to working for democratic education across the life course. The Plymouth University event introduces projects that take up alternative and democratic ideas in diverse informal or formal education settings, or open up new education spaces. This gathering follows a very successful event at Exeter University, hosted by CREATE, and exploring these ideas in schools.
Professor Jocey Quinn presents her British Academy funded research on Tent City University (Occupy)
Drs Cath Gristy, Julie Anderson and colleagues from the South West Cooperative Schools Research Group
Drs Joanna Haynes, Marie Lavelle and Cath Gristy invite you to join in their Playing with Age research project.
Discussant: Professor Michael Fielding, Institute of Education, London. Please come and join us for this exciting event! Booking essential—for further information and to book your place please visit http://ihc130515.eventbrite.co.uk Event hosted and supported by: Centre for Culture, Community and Society (CCCS) Voice, Inclusion & Participation Research Cluster (VIP) Learning outside Formal Education Research Cluster (LoFE) Creativity, Sustainability and Educational Futures, University of Exeter Research Network CREATE, University of Exeter Research Group RePlace, University of Exeter Research Group
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This powerful event led by members of the VIP cluster was fully booked and drew in people from local schools, housing associations, youth research and charitable organisations as well as staff from across the university. The success and reach of the event was due to the keen participation and promotion by all the partners indicated, who joined forces to make it happen and be meaningful to their communities. The event also reflects partnership between Plymouth and Exeter universities with thanks to the IHC.
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS RESEARCHED INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR SERIES HIGHLIGHTS Between communality and modernity: Danish teacher education as a case of unresolved conflicts Dr Hans Dorf, Associate Professor of Sociology of Education, University of Aarhus, Denmark Danish teacher education may be seen, for many reasons, as being in the process of crossing a treacherous river in a heavy mist. The opposite bank cannot be discerned, the water carries all sorts of sediments, the depths cannot be assessed, and the stepping stones are undependable. But the situation calls for crossing. This may seem a familiar image to a large number of educationalists. However, Danish teacher education is confronted with an array of strains ranging from new challenges set by the school, problems of student recruitment and declining completion rates, cuts in public funding, new modes of political governance, increased questioning of the professional paradigms of teacher education, an educational reform which doesn’t work properly, and a manyvoiced discussion of the proper institutional setting of future teacher education. These strains are interlinked, just as no single issue of teacher education can be understood in isolation. Thus, the three dynamic forces constituted by a changing society, political intervention, and responses from the profession(s) must be brought together if one wants to understand the tensions inherent in the actual development of teacher education.
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Border Crossings and Cultural Fusions: Working Class Students Constructing Hybrid Identities in Higher Education. Prof Gill Crozier, University of Roehampton, Visiting Professor Plymouth Institute of Education The seminar focus is on how working class, White and Black and Minority Ethnic students perceived their identities in relation to their universities and their peers together with their processes of negotiation in developing or asserting a sense of ‘belonging’ or ‘fit’. A key question is whether the students feel the need to adapt and change their identities in order to survive and progress at university, and/or whether they resist any pressures and expectations to do so. An individual’s identity is made up of many facets and these multiple identities in the learning situation may conflict and struggle for expression. Through the experiences of 24 working class student case studies it is shown how the students in three very different universities relate to potentially alien or certainly hitherto unknown environments and navigate their way through these. The tensions between ‘assimilation and belonging’ and ‘betrayal and exclusion’ for Black and Minority Ethnic and White working class students is considered, and whether there are gendered implications.
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS RESEARCHED INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR SERIES HIGHLIGHTS The Editor’s View of Submissions to Their Journal: Dealing with the Gatekeepers to Publication Professor Peter Gilroy, Jos Owen Chair of Education, Plymouth University As is always the case when writing, an author has to have their readership in mind. However, when writing for an academic journal it is a mistake to think of a single category of reader as there are multiple readerships involved, each with their own agenda. Drawing on his extensive experience as both an academic author and an editor of an international peer reviewed journal, Professor Peter Gilroy will identify the different readerships involved in academic journal publication, suggest ways in which they can be addressed, and close with a brief introduction to the importance of the new agenda of bibliometrics.
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What is Effective Professional Development in the Early Years and How Do We Know? Sandra Mathers, University of Oxford and Visiting Fellow Plymouth Institute of Education. Pre-service qualifications have long been accepted as an important driver of quality in schools and early years settings. In recent years, in-service professional development has also moved up the agenda for educational policy-makers, with large sums invested each year. However, the concept is often ill-defined and the evidence sparser than that relating to pre-service qualifications. Evaluation of professional development has traditionally been poor, conducted largely through participant responses (e.g. evaluation forms) or small-scale case studies, and the last decade has seen ever louder calls for better data. In response, rigorous studies including randomised controlled trials have begun to emerge to test the impact of specific programmes (Hill et al., 2013). This presentation explores what is currently know about the characteristics of effective professional development, and some of the challenges for evaluators in practice and research contexts.