Tag: Education

‘They don’t have enough’ – schools in England are running food banks for families

Posted on by Lucy Backwell
Evgeniya Grande/Shutterstock

Will Baker, University of Bristol

The peak of the cost-of-living crisis may have passed, but millions of families are struggling to buy enough food to feed their children. Experiencing food insecurity can be deeply damaging for children and negatively affects their achievement at school.

My research, alongside other studies, shows that schools are operating their own food banks and providing charitable food aid to families. This shows how the education system – from early years to secondary schools – is increasingly at the front line in responding to child poverty, food insecurity, and destitution. (more…)

BlogJAM: Latin America regional encuentro – Four days of mutual learning and good vibes

Posted on by Lucy Backwell

Blog by Dr Raúl Valdivia-Murgueytio, EdJAM Research Associate, University of BristolEdJAM-Regional-Event_July-23_Picture

The EdJAM regional event in Bogota, Colombia, was a resounding success. During the last week of July, colleagues from all the EdJAM-funded projects in Latin America came together to share their approaches to dealing with the violent past in their communities. This was also an opportunity to get to know each other in person after a year of online meetings, and to discuss future collaborations. (more…)

Impact and collaboration in doctoral studies: Understanding education inequalities in Nigeria through my overseas research visit

Posted on by Lucy Backwell

By Obiageri Bridget Azubuike – PhD in Advanced Quantitative Methods. School of Education. University of Bristol.

As part of my PhD, I embarked on an overseas visit sponsored by the SWDTP. My aim was to engage with a research organisation called TEP Centre whose work in education partnership, research, design, implementation, and evaluation of education programmes in Nigeria aligns closely with my research.

Among the planned activities during the visit, we organized a webinar where I had the privilege to present my preliminary research findings and moderate a panel discussion featuring three distinguished speakers. The panel discussion revolved around the topic of inequalities in post-primary education in Nigeria. (more…)

The Uncharted Journey: From the classroom to understanding life

Posted on by Lucy Backwell

Varshini ParthibanBy Varshini Parthiban, MSc Education, School of Education, University of Bristol

In the bustling sea of educational practices and learning strategies, I discovered a unique and profoundly enriching experience – working as a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Disabilities (SEND) teaching assistant.

A part-timer by title, I became full-time in my commitment, dedication, and passion. This journey became a looking glass, providing me with a fresh perspective on creativity, technology, inclusion, and social justice, ideas that I previously encountered only in the confines of my education course modules. (more…)

Global Dialogue: Reflections as a student participant

Posted on by Lucy Backwell

Global dialogue reflections as a student participantBlog by Emily Hui Sein Yue (Elim), Master of Education (MEd)(Comparative and Global Studies in Education and Development)student, Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong.

I first participated in the Going Global Project in 2019, going on to be a facilitator. In this article, I share my experiences and thoughts about the value of the dialogue meetings that I have been involved in. (more…)

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

Posted on by Lucy Backwell

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 Lucy Backwell

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…)

Network connects educators with latest research in Climate Change Education

Posted on by Lucy Backwell

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…)

A matter of inclusion: Schools continue to navigate government advice in support of students

Posted on by Lucy Backwell

National Inclusion Week 2021. Blog post by Lucy Wenham, University of Bristol  Helen Knowler, University of Exeter  Elizabeth J. Done, Institute of Education, University of Plymouth

As the school year in England begins once again against an evolving Covid-19 backdrop, we ask what this latest set of circumstances means for issues of inclusion, including which students will continue to be at greater risk of being sidelined, ‘off-rolled’ or marginalised (Wenham, 2021). Off-rolling or ‘grey exclusions’ refers to the removal of a student from the school roll when they are not subject to formal procedures such as permanent exclusion. Instead, parents are encouraged to deregister their child. (more…)

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

Posted on by Lucy Backwell

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…)