IPSE News

2 April - 8 May 2012

Bid Success

Carole, Ayo and Kim successfully tendered for a DfE research project in collaboration with BMRB. The project, ‘An Investigation of School and College-level Strategies to Raise the Aspirations of High-achieving Disadvantaged Pupils to Pursue Higher Education’, begins this month and runs for a year. BMRB, who IPSE has collaborated with on previous projects, will take responsibility for a national telephone survey of schools and colleges, and IPSE will conduct ten school/college case studies to explore institutional-level strategies and experiences in depth.

Network for Intersectional Research into Higher Education (NIRHE)

Carole Leathwood is a member of the Network for Intersectional Research into Higher Education and attended their annual meeting at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, on 10th April. The network aims to support multidisciplinary and multi-methodological cooperation in Europe, with a view to developing joint bids and contributing to methodological and theoretical development of intersectional studies about higher education. The meeting provided an opportunity for network members to share current research and discuss several possible future collaborations. 

Erasmus Staff Exchange Programme

Tözün Issa visited the Education Faculty at Bilkent University in Turkey 16-20th May under the Erasmus staff Exchange programme. Tözün delivered a number of seminars, presentations and was involved in tutorials with MA and PhD students.   

Keynote Lecture

Carole Leathwood gave a very well-received lecture on 'Problematising the Discourse of Social Mobility: Doing critical policy analysis' at the University of Roehampton on Friday 27 April.  

Jean Monnet Lecture

 
The fifth lecture in the Jean Monnet Lecture Series: Border Crossings, Moving Borders, will look at young people in Romania.  Romanian society, culture and politics are changing at a rapid pace, and young people are being socialised into a complex and heterogeneous set of social structures.  Romania joined the European Union in 2007 as one of the poorest countries in the community, but with a population of over 21 million it is the seventh largest country.  The young people in the study comprise a generation born into these major changes, and have been socialised in greatly different circumstances to their parents and grandparents.  Based on focus groups in four different locations, the research included a wide variety of young people.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday 20th June 2012 from 5.30-7pm in Room GCG-08, Graduate Centre, London Metropolitan University, 166-220 Holloway Road, London N7 8DB. If you wish to attend please book your place via Eventbrite: http://jeanmonnet.eventbrite.com

Curriculum for Excellence (CfE)

Sarah Minty, Research Fellow in the School of Education, University of Stirling and IPSE Associate has recently had research findings published. The research was conducted in tandem with a Scottish Government funded partnership project, established between a Scottish local authority and the University of Stirling. The project explored teachers’ implementation of Scotland’s new Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). This is some of the first research conducted on the implementation of CfE, and the report finds that while the majority of teachers’ welcome CfE, they have found its implementation problematic. The report, Developing Curriculum for Excellence: Summary of findings from research undertaken in a Scottish local authority can be accessed at:

http://www.ioe.stir.ac.uk/research/projects/documents/StirlingCfEresearch-report_March2012.pdf

The report received significant coverage in the Scottish press and to a lesser extent in England (BBC, The Scotsman, The Herald, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Record and The Times) on 10 and 11 April:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-17674574

Getachew is walking for a charity!

On 26th May Getachew Zergaw (EdD student) will be walking 10 Kilometres to raise money for BCE (Battling Cancer in Ethiopia) a charity established to help cancer sufferers in Ethiopia.  Getachew kindly asks you to support him and donate what ever you can to BCE. 
All donations are appreciated.
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/getachewzergaw1

HERS

The next seminar in the HERS series will take place on Wednesday 6th June 12.30-1.45pm in Room BEL1-12.  Ann Morris will be discussing ‘Enhancing the learning of students with dyslexia or enhancing learning for our diverse students’.