Category: Research
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Flexible working in teaching: what’s good for the goose is good for the gander
‘ Teacher supply in England remains in a perilous state.’ (NFER, 2023) Whilst effective flexible working in schools has traditionally been a part-time working pattern associated with women teachers with caring responsibilities, this can be stigmatising. But, new legislation means a request to work flexibly is now an option for all, and from the first…
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Learning through outdoor adventure today helps young people adapt to the challenges of tomorrow
Within a world which currently resembles a moving target, an enormous amount of unmitigated information is at young people’s fingertips. Consequently, the measure of their knowledge is not the amount of this information which can be retained (cognitive skills). Rather, it is their ability to curate (filter and process) material coupled with an understanding of…
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Minimising harm in research with multilingual parents – protecting participants through creating translanguaging space
Research ethics in higher education institutions are increasingly led by the mantra: protect the institution, protect the participants, protect yourself. Mostly this is quality assured through increasingly bureaucratic processes involving form filling and standardised risk assessments. As ethics representative for SIOE this has caused me many sleepless nights thinking about whether the multiple ethics forms…
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Speaking volumes and silent echoes: uncovering government priorities for disabled young people in the SEND review
“Language exerts hidden power like the moon on the tides.” Rita Mae Brown (2011) In a recent paper from the Right to Review project, we analysed the SEND Review (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), a Green Paper that set out the government’s proposed reforms for the SEND system. Our aim was to interrogate “the hidden…
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Writing on writing: five suggestions for challenging your writing practices
In this post I reflect on strategies that help me write. Of course, I still get stuck, distracted or temporarily disheartened, feeling that whatever I write is inadequate. But writing captures, however clumsily, an expression of an idea, an argument, a position, at a moment in time. And it can always be revised. As I…
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Writing the doctorate
Writing the doctorate is hard. I am reminded of this of late, as four of my doctoral students are in the mythical writing up stage. I say ‘mythical’ because we all know that students don’t just ‘write up’ once the data analysis is done and dusted. My students have been writing continuously over the course…
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Celebrating ten years of research and innovation in Sheffield Institute of Education
As the new academic year begins, we celebrate ten years of research and innovation in Sheffield Institute of Education, taking the opportunity to thank Sam Twiselton for her leadership and support throughout this time. In 2013, the education staff of Sheffield Hallam University were brought together in the Sheffield Institute of Education, with Sam Twiselton…
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Unlocking potential: navigating personal data sharing across multiple universities for enhanced collaboration
Are you or students you supervise involved in research collecting personal data across a number of different partners or institutions? Are you involved in collecting data at the post-graduate level? Before you encounter the myriad pitfalls and considerations, please read this blog… the insights will equip you with the confidence and expertise to navigate the…
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Covid has put wellbeing in schools front and centre
Covid has put wellbeing in schools front and centre The school shutdowns during the Covid pandemic may feel like a distant memory. But the effects of this period are still being felt in schools today — and pupil wellbeing is one of the biggest casualties, as explored recently by Dr Caron Carter on this SIOE…
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The bigger picture: taking a systems approach to encouraging research use in education
This post originally appeared on the BERA blog and is shared here with BERA’s kind permission: https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/developing-a-systems-based-approach-to-research-use-in-education Whilst it is not always easy to see the tectonic plates moving, a culture shift appears to be occurring in English schools towards widespread engagement with research (Department for Education, 2022). Yet, when we consider the development of…