Category: Research

Open Autism Research – thinking about the steps forward

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

Blog by Dr Felicity Sedgewick, Masters Level Psychology Programme Director, School of Education, University of Bristol

The best way to start the new year (in my opinion) is spending a day with interesting people talking about interesting ideas. In early January, that is exactly what a group of autism researchers (autistic and non-autistic, from a range of career stages), autistic people, and charity and journal representatives did. (more…)

The School of Education Climate Justice Challenge 2022: Get involved!

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

The School of Education is launching the Climate Justice Challenge 2022 and we want you to get involved!

As part of the “Advocacy” element of the School’s Climate Action Plan, during the month of March 2022, the School of Education is undertaking a ‘Climate Justice Challenge: Learning from Change’, supported by cCHANGE, a team of experts in transformational change from Norway.

The aim is for the challenge to help us explore how we mobilise to make wider changes. In particular, it will help us work on how we can act, as individuals, in teams, in our School, and in the wider University community, in ways that are consistent with the University’s declaration of a climate emergency. The challenge focus was chosen to reflect the broad agenda and commitments of the School. (more…)

Education Policy and Research Service Autumn Review: Top Ten

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

Blog by Helen Aberdeen, Director, Education Policy and Research Service, School of Education, University of Bristol

A Happy New Year to all in education – let’s hope it is a more settled year than 2021! As Director of the Education Policy and Research Service (formerly DSS), producing monthly summaries of key policy and research, I have had something of a bird’s eye view of the educational landscape over the last year – think of me as a seagull eyeing up passing ships and attempting to swoop when something tempting comes into view.

So, let’s have a look at the most popular summaries downloaded by fellow educational seagulls (aka our subscribers) last term – we’ll refer to them as the ‘Top Ten.’  Some of these reports and more are available to view in our samples webpage. (more…)

Mindset

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

Blog post by George Mitchell, MFL PGCE student; School of Education, and Sport Psychologist

The mindset is our beliefs and how we can make sense of what goes on around us. This mindset plays a part in shaping a lot of our behaviours and the way we handle situations. When developing our mindset, we can intentionally evaluate, modify, and refine these beliefs, and therefore move it along the continuum from fixed towards growth mastery. (more…)

Rent strikes and the continuing relevance of Paulo Freire at 100

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

Blog post by Dr Lucy Wenham, School of Education, University of Bristol; and Dr Helen Young, London South Bank University

Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, student rent strikes took place in many universities in England. Lockdowns and moves to online learning meant that students were at times required to pay rent for accommodation they were unable to occupy, or which offered significantly reduced amenities. These students were largely first-year undergraduates, in accommodation owned, overseen or marketed by their universities. They often did not know other students even within their accommodation blocks, as the pandemic lowered occupancy levels and movement and mixing was frequently restricted. Nonetheless, these students joined together to resist, to act collectively and to refuse to pay their rent. Their action resulted in at least partial victory, in some places, for some moments. It also resulted in a growing critical consciousness among those involved. (more…)

Teacher motivation and student learning in India – which is the chicken, and which is the egg?

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

Blog post by Rhiannon Moore (PhD student, School of Education, University of Bristol) and Anustup Nayak, (Project Director for Classroom Instruction and Practice, Central Square Foundation)

What do we know? Teacher motivation and student learning

Teacher motivation is a commonly discussed topic within policy and research in LMICs. Such discussions tend to have two main points of focus: firstly, that teacher motivation is worryingly low; and secondly, that this is having an impact on student learning. In this blog, we are particularly interested in exploring the latter of these two points. We largely focus our discussion on teachers in India, where our experience and research suggests that it may be helpful to consider this relationship as a two-way cycle instead of an input-output process. Thinking about teacher motivation in this way can change the way we think about both teachers and students, asking that we challenge the often over-simplified picture of a poorly motivated teacher whose behaviour inhibits their students’ learning, and instead start to consider teachers as dynamic agents whose own needs may not be being met. (more…)

Voices from Small Island Developing States: priorities for COP26 and beyond

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

This blog is written by Dame Pearlette Louisy; Dr Merle St Clair-Auguste; Dr Aminath Muna; Dr Aminath Shiyama; Dr Rosiana Lagi; and the ESSRG Leadership Team, and first published on the Cabot Institute for the Environment blog

The School of Education’s Education in Small States Research Group (ESSRG) in collaboration with the Cabot Institute for the Environment and the Centre for Comparative and International Research in Education (CIRE), have produced a short (15 minute) video as a direct contribution to COP26 in Glasgow. This has been developed from the zoom recording of a joint online event titled ‘Voices from SIDS at the Sharp End of Environmental Uncertainty: Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Speak to COP26’ held on 5 October 2021. (more…)

Black History Month 2021 | Celebrating Black History and Committing to Racial Justice at the School of Education

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

A collaborative blog post from the School of Education

As the School of Education welcomes many new and returning students to Berkeley Square, we also celebrate Black History Month and reflect on how addressing issues of racial justice continues to be central to both our research and teaching. Last year, we highlighted the importance of understanding Bristol’s Black History for new students at the School of Education, and looked forward to ways in which research and teaching at the School can promote racial justice. This year, we share some of our recent and ongoing activities, with an invitation to all to continue to participate and learn with us.  (more…)

Network connects educators with latest research in Climate Change Education

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

Blog post by Lauren Hennessy, Research Associate, CCERN, University of Bristol

The Climate Change Education Research Network (CCERN),  formed in November 2020, was funded by the GW4 generator grant, to connect academic researchers and educators to address the big questions in Climate Change Education (CCE) together. (more…)

Introducing ‘Rehumanising Teacher Education’: a website for teachers and teacher educators

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

Blog post by Dr Janet Orchard, School of Education, and Nidia Aviles Nunez, School of Education

With a (contentious) market review of teacher education in England currently underway, we are reminded that in many parts of the world the place of critical reflection by teachers is increasingly called into question. Teacher ‘training’ is becoming increasingly pre-occupied with content and academic attainment as the sole purpose of schooling, with schools increasingly positioned as competitors within educational systems focused solely on assessing their performance through targets and measurable outcomes. As a result, education systems are undermining attention to those fundamentally human concerns that characterise teaching and through which teachers educate their students.

(more…)