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Issue 09 November 2020
Responding to the Covid-19 pandemic In March 2020, as the UK entered lockdown, the University of Huddersfield closed its campus in order to limit the spread of Covid-19. HudCRES staff quickly adapted to working from home – modifying research projects and moving teaching and meetings online – minimising, as much as possible, the disruption to our existing work and students’ learning. Throughout this challenging time our research has continued to evolve, and new projects have been initiated, in response to the realities of life and education in a very different world.
Corona Chronicles Led by Professor Helen Lomax, with Dr Kate Smith (Centre for Applied Childhood, Youth and Family Research), the CHEER research project explores the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the everyday lives, education and relationships of school children aged 9-11 (UK school years 5 to 6). The project is informed by participatory action research and children as researchers – its methods are inclusive, collaborative and value all voices. Children from five primary schools have been supported to visually ‘chronicle’ their experiences during the pandemic using creative media of their choosing (photographs, drawings, narrative and film). These chronicles, together with image elicitation focus-groups with children and teachers, a parent survey and children’s wellbeing selfassessment will generate new understandings of the material,
familial and personal resources available to support children’s resilience and flourishing. To find out how the team are researching remotely with children see the two-minute video produced by visual artist Belinda Walsh.
Outputs, including an illustrated guide to children’s wellbeing co-produced with children themselves, will enable the research to contribute directly to educational and societal recovery and be of value for responding to future pandemics/crises.
For updates and access to creative resources for researching remotely with children follow Professor Lomax on Twitter @LomaxHelen or attend the HudCRES online event ‘Seeing the World through Children’s Eyes: Visual Methodologies and Approaches to Research in the Early Years’ in December 2020 (see back page for details).
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Parents’ and guardians’ experiences in lockdown All schools across the UK closed (except for the care of vulnerable children and those of key workers) on 20th March 2020. In a matter of days, record numbers of children were being home-schooled – with little regard to circumstances including parents’/guardians’ wider responsibilities, capacity and needs.
A survey by the Sutton Trust suggested fewer than half (42%) of parents/guardians felt confident home-schooling their children. Twelve percent reported feeling ‘unconfident’. A poster designed collaboratively with research participants provided ‘Top Tips’ for parents and guardians as schools reopened fully in September. Click to download.
Top Tips
For Parents And Guardians As Schools Re-Open To More Children
Reach Out To Your Child’s School Don’t be afraid to ask your school questions about any worries you may have about how your school is managing their day-to-day routines, so that they can better support you and your child(ren).
Our research suggests that parents and guardians feel very differently about the imminent return to school, but all parents that took part in this study felt that good communication links between the home and school were key to helping families settle into new and changing routines.
Different Lockdown Experiences Understand that not all families will have experienced homeschooling and the lockdown in the same way. As schools re-open people will react and feel very differently about ‘getting back
to some form of normality’. It is normal to experience some worries about your child(ren) going back to school, so seek support from your school to ease any concerns you may feel.
Our research has shown that each and every family member will have had a very different and unique experience regarding the Covid-19 pandemic and homeschooling.
Keep Talking To Your Children Keep talking to your child(ren) and acknowledge their feelings to help them feel safe and secure upon their return to school. It is normal for your child(ren) to have some worries about going back
to school and doing school work again. By talking openly with your child(ren) you can help your child(ren) feel better prepared, which in turn will help you as a parent/guardian also feel more at ease.
Our interview data showed a real mixed picture in terms of how parents felt their child(ren) felt about returning to school, with many brimming with excitement and others feeling not so sure.
There Are Positives Hold on to any positives you and your family experienced during lockdown and think about how to best integrate these into your post lockdown family routines.
All parents that took part in the study talked about experiencing ups and downs. With many enjoying watching their child(ren) grow up and engage with nature and others struggling to manage the tensions between homeschooling and working.
Understanding how parents and guardians have experienced homeschooling during the Covid-19 pandemic is really important so we can better advise professionals and policy makers about parent perspectives and their lived experiences during the pandemic. For more information about the research ‘Homeschooling – a parent/ guardians’ perspective in the advent of Covid-19’ please contact Dr Lisa Russell (Reader in Education at the School of Education and Professional Development at The University of Huddersfield).
Email: L.Russell@hud.ac.uk
Twitter: @Russell2015Lisa
Webpage: https://pure.hud.ac.uk/en/persons/lisa-russell Designed and printed by Orbital Design. www.orbitaldesign.co.uk
An action-based research project led by Dr Lisa Russell involved parents and staff at a small village Primary school. It used online focus groups and photo-elicitation interviews to identify how parents and guardians experienced home-schooling and explored their feelings about their child(ren)s return to school.
“We’re not teachers, we don’t know how, I don’t know how to teach. I’ll hold my hands up and say that I haven’t got a clue.” Parents/Guardians Focus Group Interview Findings suggest that parents/guardians had very different and unique lockdown experiences. Some enjoyed the freedom to watch their child(ren) grow up and engage with nature whilst others struggled to manage tensions between home-schooling and work.
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Portrait of Mel, a full-time student, with her youngest child
Concerned with reports of an unequal impact of the pandemic on women, Dr Jim Reid investigated the specific experiences of women and mothers of school-age children in England during lockdown. He collaborated with photographer Fran Monks whose socially-distanced approach to portraiture via video-chat (often involving children as photographic assistants) enabled the women’s experiences to be seen as well as their voices heard during interviews. The report includes 24 portraits featuring the 12 research participants.
“Portraits have a power – you see the person and the context.” Dr Jim Reid Portrait of Shabnam, lone parent and head of sixth form at a local college. Her youngest child uses the games console to communicate with his friends
The report identifies increased awareness of gender inequality for women, particularly in terms of caring work and responsibilities, as well as challenges for lone mothers, loneliness and worry, an absence of support, and the importance of contact with friends, family and peers. The report of the research, Mothers, Covid-19 and Work at Home: Their account in words and portraits has been submitted as evidence in response to a call from the House of Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee.
Stay in touch with the development of educational research related to the Covid-19 pandemic at HudCRES by reading our blog – ‘Ed Space. In addition to regular research project updates, ‘Ed Space features posts exploring issues around being a researcher, undertaking research, the findings of our recent research and the use of research in policy, practice and wider society. Each post provides an opportunity to comment and engage in discussion with the author.
For more information about projects relating to Covid-19 being undertaken by staff and students across the University of Huddersfield see The University of Huddersfield’s Covid Response.
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Making an impact Educational researchers at HudCRES, in the School of Education and Professional Development, work in a wide variety of different ways, and with a range of people and organisations, to ensure that our research reaches the places where it can make a real difference. Over the next four pages we present just a selection of the numerous ways in which they are making an impact.
Influencing Further Education policy Professor Kevin Orr, Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning), is a member of the Ofsted Further Education Research Group and the Advisory Panel for the Ofsted FE Reliability Study – an initiative to improve the inspection process through more effective observations of teaching.
He is also Chair of the Education and Training Foundation’s (ETF) Teaching Expert Panel which supports professional development for teachers of T levels.
Caliban’s Dance: FE after The Tempest
T levels are qualifications in technical subjects that have been introduced as an alternative to A Levels – their introduction from September 2020 represents a significant change in how technical education is taught and studied in England.
ISBN 97818 58569246
“The government is turning its attention to improving technical and vocational education in England and we are glad that the University of Huddersfield is contributing to that effort through our work with FE colleges, Ofsted, and ETF.”
Edited by Maire Daley, Kevin Orr and Joel Petrie.
This is the final book in the ‘Dancing Princesses’ trilogy which has examined policy, practice and leadership in the UK Further Education sector. Caliban’s Dance includes chapters by several HudCRES researchers. “The analysis that this trilogy offers on the impact of policy on leadership, professional practice and wider perspectives on professional practice are exceptional in their accuracy and introspection. I would recommend the whole trilogy as part of the induction of all policymakers and leaders in FE in the UK.” Dr Ali Hadawi CBE Central Bedfordshire College
Professor Kevin Orr
Online resources Professor Kevin Orr also led a three-year research project commissioned by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation to better understand and enhance subject-specialist pedagogy for teachers of vocational science, engineering and technology in Further Education (FE) colleges.
The Gatsby Charitable Foundation has strong influence and reach in the field of English education policy, particularly in relation to technical education. One outcome of the research, completed in 2018, was a collection of freely-available online resources. They have been widely promoted by the University Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) and the Teacher Education in Lifelong Learning (TELL) network. The purpose-built video clips analysing subject-specialist teaching in FE have had more than 2000 downloads and a survey confirmed they are being used in at least six FE colleges reaching more than 150 trainee teachers each year. Read the full project report.
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Lifesaving Lullabies International award for Social Impact In 2019, Dr Jim Reid and Professor Volunteers from St John, Zambia David Swann, design expert at Sheffield Hallam University, visited Zambia, meeting with St John, Zambia and UNICEF to develop new approaches to reducing maternal and infant mortality. The result was the world’s first ‘danger signs song’ - a lifesaving lullaby conceived and performed by the St John volunteers at Chunga MCH clinic.
“The simplicity and very human nature of this solution to a deeply embedded cultural challenge is really inspiring” Good Design Awards Jury
The project received international recognition recently at the prestigious annual Good Design Australia Awards. The Lifesaving Lullabies project was judged ‘Best in Class’ for Social Impact, defined as “… the process of inventing and implementing novel solutions
to address intractable or ‘wicked’ problems, drive societal change and/or promote environmental sustainability.” Now funded by the UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund, the project is responding to the Covid-19 pandemic by developing new songs highlighting protective measures such as increased social distancing and hygiene.
New Counter Terrorism Policing campaign The Community Reporting Thresholds project, undertaken by Professor Paul Thomas, Associate Dean (Research), and HudCRES Visiting Professor Michelle Grossman (Deakin University, Melbourne), was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council through the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST).
“Paul Thomas and Michele Grossman’s work on Community Reporting Thresholds has become a central element of delivering the UK PREVENT strategy, influencing a number of workstreams led by the national PREVENT team. This includes the development of a public safeguarding campaign … which is based on the research findings” Review of the impact of CREST research projects, p4
The new ACT Early campaign, a website and publicity materials, being developed by the national Counter Terrorism Police Headquarters (CTPHQ) aims to increase referrals to the Police by family and friends concerned that someone they know well might be vulnerable to radicalisation.
hud.ac.uk/research/education
Making an impact ArtActivistBarbie – raising awareness (and eyebrows) on social media Sarah Williamson uses the arts to explore issues of inequality and social injustice and research the potential of museums and galleries to be places which can educate for change. As part of her research, Sarah has developed a highly successful social media presence on Twitter – ArtActivistBarbie (AAB) @BarbieReports. The account has more than 15,000 followers worldwide, actively engaging with the critical, witty, playful and stylish content. One month saw the account reach more than 1.8 million impressions and 80,000 profile views. From the replies, and how content is shared, we can see that it is contributing to public discourse on the representation of women.
ArtActivistBarbie @BarbieReports engaged with Sunday Times art critic Waldemar Januszczak on the limited numbers of women artists in a feature on the history of art – suggesting that ‘His Story of Art’ might be a more accurate title.
ArtActivistBarbie has also been recognised in the UK media – including articles by The Guardian: That’s not art it’s Victorian porn – how one small barbie took on the art world and BBC Culture – as well as in US and European magazines and on New Zealand and Irish radio stations. She may be small in stature, but ArtActivistBarbie’s reach is wide and significant.
“...ArtActivistBarbie, subverting a plastic doll widely vilified by feminists for being a gender stereotype, was a stroke of genius on her creator’s part.” The fine line between art and pornography, BBC Culture, September 2020
Sarah has written about using ArtActivistBarbie in two recent publications, resulting from collaboration with academics from the University of Victoria, British Columbia and Brock University, Ontario, Canada. Feminist Critique and the Museum: Educating for a Critical Consciousness Edited by Kathy Sanford, Darlene Clover, Nancy Taber and Sarah Williamson. ISBN 978-90-04-44017-3 In this book feminist educators, researchers and activist scholars from Europe and North America explore the pedagogical potential, challenges and complexities of museums, art galleries, exhibitions and heritage sites. Order this book now and receive a 25% discount using promotional code 75000. Feminist Adult Educators’ Guide to Aesthetic, Creative and Disruptive Strategies in Museums and Community Edited by Darlene Clover, Suriani Dzulkifli, Hannah Gelderman and Kathy Sanford. Download this free resource containing a wide range of practical teaching ideas and strategies.
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‘Cultural capital’ and the school curriculum In the current Ofsted Inspection Framework (2019) schools, colleges and further education providers in England are tasked with equipping pupils ‘with the cultural capital they need to succeed in life,’ p9. The term comes from the work of French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu.
Dr Cheryl Reynolds recently led an interactive workshop with school leaders from the North Halifax Cluster, West Yorkshire, which included playing the Bourdieu game which she initially devised to help trainee teachers explore concepts and issues around cultural capital. Work with the North Halifax cluster is continuing as a collaborative research project exploring cultural capital issues in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The feedback from head teachers about the workshop was excellent... especially around understanding the scope of cultural capital and how it could be developed. People perhaps hadn’t realised (as indeed I didn’t) the depth of the phrase cultural capital and what it means for schools, particularly in regard to curriculum breadth, coverage and end points.” David Kirk, North Halifax Cluster Officer
Challenging assumptions about childhood – decolonising the curriculum As reflective practitioners, academic staff at HudCRES use an ongoing action research approach to enhance their teaching and make a positive impact on student learning within the School of Education and Professional Development.
Dr Dimi Kaneva, Dr Jo Bishop and Nicole Whitelaw have written about their progress towards decolonising the Childhood Studies BA(Hons) curriculum – which they undertook in order to ensure that the perspectives, experiences and voices of children who are often silenced or misrepresented are central in course content and discussions about childhood. Their aim was to challenge students’ thinking through engagement with stories recounting children’s first-hand experiences, rather than merely providing a focus on diversity. Students’ own childhood experiences were a starting point in thinking about difference and an opportunity to enrich the curriculum in order to question the notion of a universal childhood.
“One student commented that children’s agency was revealed through the stories and admitted that she did not expect this to be the case, but now realised that she needed to be mindful about assumptions made based on contextual differences and the multiple ways of being in childhood.” Initiating decolonial praxis: childhood studies curricula in an English university, pp85-86
Promoting the benefits of Lifelong Learning Professor Lyn Tett has more than thirty years’ experience of researching the impact of community education on adults.
In October 2019, she was one of a number of academics asked to provide evidence to a session of the House of Commons’ Education Select Committee’s Adult Skills and Lifelong Learning inquiry. They provided evidence about the direct and indirect benefits of lifelong learning in terms of physical and mental health, employment, social cohesion and integration, and democratic participation.
“It is sometimes difficult as an academic to see the impact of your research, but this evidence session provided a direct route to well informed and interested politicians to discuss our mutual interests in lifelong learning. It was a real privilege to be invited to be a witness to this inquiry.” Professor Lyn Tett
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Upcoming events online HudCRES has always hosted an extensive in-person programme of public lectures, seminars, practitioner research events and international symposia, often involving high-profile visiting speakers. During the Covid-19 pandemic we are obviously unable to hold such events on campus. We are planning to offer a series of online events showcasing research by HudCRES staff.
Events are advertised on the HudCRES website as well as on the University Events page where you will find details of how to register to participate or access recordings later. Please check back regularly as details are occasionally subject to change and the programme is updated throughout the year. If you would like to be notified of upcoming events by email, please join our mailing list.
• S eminar: Education and Extremism: English Schools on the frontline of the Counter-Terrorism Prevent Strategy
18 Nov 2020
Professor Hazel Bryan, Dean and Professor Paul Thomas, Associate Dean (Research).
• International Symposium and Book Launch
3 Dec 2020
Seeing the World through Children’s Eyes: Visual Methodologies and Approaches to Research in the Early Years. Edited by Professor Jayne White. ISBN: 978-90-04-43331-1 The speakers at this event will include the book’s editor Professor Jayne White, Associate Dean Early Childhood Education, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia as well as HudCRES colleagues Professor Helen Lomax, Director of Research, Nicola Firth and Amanda Crow who each contributed chapters. They will share insights from their creative and visual research with children (0-8 years). Order the book now and receive a 25% discount using promotional code 75000.
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Contact us HudCRES@hud.ac.uk +44 (0)1484 478249 hud.ac.uk/research/education Follow us on Twitter: @HudCRES 20129