CTLR/SEAP: Drug Use and Child Protection: What can/should schools do? with Dr Simon Flacks
Thurs 30 Nov, 4-5pm, via Zoom.
Dr Simon Flacks (Law, Sussex) reflected on his research into how drug use (including alcohol) by both children and parents can trigger child protection interventions and school exclusions. He considered the tensions between discipline/punishment and welfarist approaches to drug use, and asked how teachers and other professionals can approach the difficult task of understanding and contextualising risk within such a morally-charged area of social policy.
The School Exclusions & Alternative Provision (SEAP) network:
The SEAP network aims to provide an inclusive space for researchers, practitioners and policymakers to come together to share thoughts on pressing issues and new directions with a view to improving the educational progress and life chances of some of the most disadvantaged children and young people.
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10th Annual Researching Educational Practice Conference
Saturday 25 November 2023 / 9.30am-1pm Ground Floor, Fulton Building, University of Sussex
The Centre for Teaching and Learning Research (CTLR) welcomed primary and secondary teachers, ITE and other colleagues in Higher Education to this event. The conference showcased the research of our Education MA and PhD practitioner researchers and university colleagues, including those in ITE.
CONFERENCE THEMES INCLUDED:
• Interrogating issues and pedagogy for culture, equality, inclusion & widening participation
• Developing oracy, reading, writing and student voice
• Using arts-based approaches to support cross-curricula learning and trainee teachers’ critical reflection
KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
‘Why should we research educational practice and what should we be doing?’
Professor Meg Maguire, King’s College, London
Re-thinking Challenging Behaviour: Improving Outcomes and Life Chances
Date: Wednesday 12 July, 9.30- 3.10
Location: Terrace Room, Bramber House Conference Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton.
This event was for stakeholders and researchers interested in exploring how approaches to challenging behaviour can be developed to improve the educational outcomes and future life chances of Children and Young People (CYP). We explored issues relevant to policy and practice within a life course approach, across the age range 0-25 years. We anticipate that the insights afforded could support positive changes in individual and wider practices.
Programme:
1. Problematising exclusion policy. Presentation of findings from the Excluded Lives research project: Professor Gillean McCluskey (University of Edinburgh)
2. Changing approaches to challenging behaviour. Panel discussion and Q&A. Senior leaders will reflect on:
• Developing a trauma-informed behaviour policy: Hayley Butchard
• Introducing approaches from restorative practice: Chris Harvey
• In/exclusion from the perspective of CYP attending Alternative Provision: Anton McLean
3. The impact of early adversity on the cognitive and social development of CYP - key messages for educators and carers: Dr Vanessa Putz, Programme Co-Director of the UCL Postgraduate Diploma in Child and Adolescent Psychology and Neuroscience in Practice (University College London)
4. Exploring the connections between disadvantage and life chances: learning from the extension of the Virtual School’s remit to Children with a Social Worker. Researchers from the University of Sussex.
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DOCTORAL RESEARCH IN PROGRESS SEMINAR
Using “Listening Guides” to Analyse Video Recorded Data in Sign Language
Date: Friday 30 July 2021
Presenter:
In this online presentation, CTLR doctoral researcher, Tania Nayely Campos Vidal, sought to explain the process of analysing interviews in sign language (video recorded from October - December 2020) via the use of “listening guides”. The emphasis was on the specific methodological steps of analysing narratives of deaf adults in Mexico around formal and informal education and literacy practices. Tania is in the third year of her PhD researching literacy practices of deaf professionals in Mexico.
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OPEN RESEARCH SEMINAR
Income Support in Sweden: Facilitating educational opportunities for young people in newly-arrived families from Syria
Date: Tuesday 18 May, 2021
Jointly hosted by the Centre for Teaching and Learning Research and the Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth (CIRCY)
In this seminar, Professor Anette Bolin from the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, University West, Sweden, presented her research.
In Sweden, many of the children and young people living in families are reliant on social assistance - assessed to be among the poorest in the country - have an immigrant background.
This presentation is about 36 young people in newly arrived families from Syria and their perceptions about receiving social assistance. The young people and their families arrived in Sweden between 2014 and 2016. Applying Kuczynski and De Mol’s (2015) model of children’s agency reveals how participants’ experiences of social assistance in this study differ from those of young people in previous studies in Sweden. Rather than connecting social assistance with hardship, limitations, stigma and shame, participants viewed social assistance as sufficient for current needs and providing opportunities to improve the family’s situation; in particular, for parents receiving social assistance enabled the young people to go to school. Reciprocity was also highlighted, with participants expressing the desire to contribute to a welfare system from which they currently benefitted.
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Building Confidence, Community and Connection Inside and Outside the Classroom
Date: Wednesday 28 April 2021
In this session, Verona Ní Drisceoil (Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Sussex) shared insights from several student experience projects aimed at building confidence, community, and connection. Broadly, Verona’s research and practice is guided by a key question: ‘Who is not in the room, and why not?’ Exploring what is meant by ‘confidence’, ‘community’ and ‘connection’ forces us as educators to consider the barriers, hierarchies and biases that obstruct and prevent inclusion. Are we complicit in reproducing these barriers and hierarchies in our day to day practices? While Verona’s research is focused primarily on projects in the law school, the discussion in this session was relevant across disciplines.
Verona Ní Drisceoil teaches on the Education and Scholarship Pathway and holds a number of student engagement roles within the Law School, including Deputy Education Lead, Year 1 Tutor and Widening Participation Convenor for Law. Verona is currently working on two key projects. One, with Imogen Moore (Bristol), exploring ‘confidence, community and voice’ in law school transitions and another exploring inclusion, exclusion and hierarchies in law schools. The second project asks, ‘who is not in the room and why not?’
Hosted by the Centre for Teaching and Learning Research and the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Pedagogy Plus
This session was part of the PGCertHE programme for academic professional development
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Translation in Research
AN OPEN RESEARCH SEMINAR
Jointly hosted by CTLR and the Centre for International Education (CIE)
Date: Monday 26 April 2021
This seminar looked at what is involved in cross-cultural and cross-linguistic research work, exploring the interpretation and translation of data/texts between one language to another, and how meaning itself is translated or lost or changes within these transformations. This process sometimes involved several researchers with differential power relations to one another. It also raises issues around how the original speakers and communities are served in the process in relation to their texts.
Fixed as written data, using a dual language or bilingual, indeed multilingual approach to present data can recognise and valorise the original language (s) and allows the findings to reach a wider audience. This may also however devalue and problematise the original language, seen as second best against the majority academic language – which generally remains English.
This joint CTLR-CIE seminar was facilitated by three researchers who have wrestled with these issues:
- Tania Nayely Campos Vidal a doctoral researcher, focussed on the narratives of Deaf adults in Mexico around formal and informal education and literacy practices. Tania discussed the translation from Mexican Sign Language, to written and oral Spanish and then into English, analysing the issue of power dynamics and challenges of translating meaning as it was originally conveyed whilst at the same time acknowledging the nuances that have to be adapted.
- Norina Yusoff is an alumni PhD student from Sussex and is currently attached to the Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education, Malaysia. She is a post-structuralist who is interested in how English Language Teaching can be understood from a multilingual/translanguaging angle. Norina shared some data and issues she faced whilst managing and analysing the multimodal data from her research focussing on issues of translation.
- Jo Westbrook, a Senior Lecturer in Education who discussed research in Western Uganda undertaken with a Ugandan team that looked at learning to read in a local language and English in primary school, and considered their bilingual approach to analysing and presenting data extracts in the written text.
The presentations were followed by a general open discussion with all attendees on the challenges and ways around translation in research.
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From Pillar to Post: Disability and Inclusion in ESW
Date: Wednesday 21 April 2021
Students co-created this event with Jacqui Shepherd and Tish Marrable to talk about their experiences of having a disability, mental health issue or specific learning need to develop understandings of disability and inclusion in our school. The event was open to all professional services and academic staff and all students so that all would work together to create a more inclusive School of Education and Social Work that everyone feels part of.
This event was hosted by CTLR, the School of Education and Social Work's EDI Committee and the School's Director of Student Experience (DoSE)
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Class Divide
Date: Wednesday 24 March 2021
Speakers:
- Dr Carlie Goldsmith, Class Divide spokesperson, and Research Fellow, School of Education & Social Work, University of Sussex
- Dr Sarah Leaney, campaign member, and Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Brighton
- Dr Sara Bragg, campaign member, and Lecturer, UCL Institute of Education
This 'Space to Share' event introduced an independent grassroots campaign launched in 2020 to draw attention to the deeply unjust educational attainment gap for young people from the communities of Whitehawk, Manor Farm and Bristol Estate in Brighton and Hove. Made up of parents, residents and supporters who have experienced these problems or have expertise in education, the campaign is funded where necessary by donations and is independent of any political organisation.
Representatives from the campaign presented some of the views collected from those living in these communities about their experiences of local educational provision - as parents or students or both. They showed how these perspectives counter some common assumptions or explanations used to explain away educational under attainment.
The audience was given the opportunity to share their perspectives as teachers, researchers and practitioners working with yougn people, exploring the issues and sharing examples of good practice in generating more positive experiences of schooling for marginalised and working class young people.
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Developing Online Learning in Schools
Date: Tuesday 23 February 2021
The aim of this session was to bring together teachers from across the ITE partnership - alongside postgraduate researchers in education - 
to explore innovative practice and the challenges of online teaching in primary and secondary schools in the time of Covid-19. Discussion explored some of the challenges and opportunities that moving from traditional to online delivery can entail for teaching, and how these have been approached across key stages and subjects. We considered the processes of both moving face-to-face provision online, and developing online content from scratch.
Issues covered included those around e-safety, diverse platforms, student access, engagement and inequalities.
The first part of the session reflected on challenges and opportunities for online learning, alongside opportunity to discuss these together. The second part of the session invited short reflections from a panel of colleagues across the ITE partnership who shared their experiences so far and responded to questions from the wider group:
- Tamzin Nobes - Year 6 Class Teacher,
Science and Assessment Lead & Professional Tutor:
Brackenbury Primary School / ITE Tutor: University of Brighton - Mark Leswell - Research Leader & Geography Curriculum Leader: Uckfield College (Y7-13)
- Karen Sturgess - Secondary Drama Teacher, School Improvement
and Lead Practitioner for Drama: Thamesmead School, Shepperton /
Lecturer & Course Leader of Secondary Drama Education: University of Sussex
A Padlet was used for those wanting to make comments or ask questions anonymously.
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Developing Online Learning: Experiences so far!
Date: Wednesday 27 January 2021
More than 60 colleagues from across the University joined together for this session which focussed on the development of online and blended learning that is an increasingly expected element of higher education teaching.
Discussion explored some of the challenges and opportunities that moving from traditional to online or blended delivery can entail for teaching, and how these have been approached across different roles and disciplines. We considered the processes of both moving existing face-to-face provision online, and developing online content from scratch. Issues covered focused less on the ‘tools’ and more on the ‘pedagogy’ including those around student access, engagement and inequalities. We also considered the implications for teacher resources including the demand for hybrid approaches and ability to move rapidly between face-to-face and online models.
The first part of the session reflected on challenges and opportunities for online learning, alongside opportunity to discuss these together. The second part of the session invited short reflections from a panel of colleagues across the university who shared their experiences so far and responded to questions from the wider group:
- Karen Gladwin, Education
- Pollyanna Ruiz, Media and Film
- Samuel Power, Politics
- Michael Melgaard, Mathematics
We also created a collaborative Padlet as a resource to share experiences, challenges and tips for others.______________________________________________
Decolonising Higher Education
Date: Wednesday 18 November 2020
Speakers:
- Jason Arday, Durham University
- Christine Callender, University College London
- Akanksha Mehta, Goldsmiths College
- Yusuf Sayed, University of Sussex.
Moves to ‘decolonise’ reading lists, pedagogies and broader practices within higher education institutions are prompted by the urgency of redressing forms of disadvantage associated with racism and colonialism. For educators in higher education, decolonising the curriculum has multiple meanings – from reflection on the embeddedness of privilege and whiteness within course curricula to practical efforts to broaden the scope of reading lists to include more diverse scholars. This panel session aims to raise and make visible some of the key debates within moves to decolonise, while also suggesting practical pedagogies and ways forward for re-designing higher education classrooms more inclusively.