Latest news
Calls for renewed focus on social justice in access to higher education
Dr Colin McCaig from the Centre for Education and Inclusion Research was invited to participate in a plenary panel discussing Research into Inclusion and Widening Participation: Toward a coherent international agenda at the Open University’s Discourses of Inclusion Conference held on April 24th and 25th at Whittlebury Hall, Northampton. He used the platform to advocate a renewed focus on social justice in access to higher education in the face of threatened retrenchment in neo-liberal economies and foreground his ongoing analysis of OFFA access agreements.
LGBT Research website
LGBT community research website is now live. The terms ‘LGBT community’ and ‘LGBT communities’ are often used, but how much do we know about how these terms are understood – and how people experience this ‘community’ or these ‘communities’? This UK research project aims to address these questions, and explore the impact on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) health, wellbeing and ‘quality of life. Please visit the website if you would like more details or to find out how to participate in this research.
Highly Cited Work
Dr Colin McCaig’s article English Universities, additional fee income and access agreements: Their impact on widening participation and fair access , published by the British Journal of Educational Studies has been included in Routledge Education’s Highly Cited Research Collection for 2012. The level of citations for this article (originally written in conjunction with Nick Adnett for the British Journal of Education Studies in 2009) demonstrates the increasing importance of Dr McCaig’s work on the impact of OFFA Access Agreements and the tuition fee/bursary regime on widening participation to English higher education. Dr McCaig will be presenting findings from his latest analysis of New 2012/13 Access Agreements at the European Conference for Education Research, Cadiz, 18th-21st September 2012 and in future publications.
New Arts and Humanities Research Council funding grant for CEIR to explore LGBT communities
CEIR's Eleanor Formby has recently been awarded a prestigious AHRC funding grant to investigate lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) communities. The research will focus on understandings and experiences of 'community' among LGBT people, and their potential influence on experiences and perceptions of 'wellbeing'. The study will run from February until late 2012 and involves a literature review and various consultation methods (community- and web-based). Eleanor said 'I’m delighted to have secured funding to conduct this exciting piece of work, which has the potential to make an important contribution to understanding LGBT people’s sense of community, and hopefully support improvements to LGBT people’s lives. For more information please contact Eleanor Formby.
Evaluation of Booked Up
The Centre for Education and Inclusion Research and the School of Education at the University of Sheffield have recently been commissioned by Booktrust to carry out an evaluation of their Booked Up programme. Booked Up is a key programme in the Booktrust's portfolio of children's book gifting programmes delivering free books to 11 year olds via schools in England. The project will run from January 2012 until March 2012.
This is the first project being carried out through the Collaboration Sheffield partnership between the two universities, which aims to share the best of both universities to support educational and social transformation in the city region and beyond. The project brings together collective expertise and experience in the study of literacy, research and evaluation with schools and a track record of completing short term projects to a high standard.
For further enquiries please contact the Project Manager Lucy Shipton
Phonics evaluation most downloaded
CEIR’s research brief on their evaluation of the pilot Phonics Screening Check was the most downloaded DfE research report in the month of its publication - September 2011 – and continued to be in the top 10 downloads throughout the rest of 2011, with over 1800 downloads by the end of November 2011.
Work still needed to tackle homophobia in schools and youth work settings
Sheffield Hallam University has published a research report looking at barriers to raising or discussing sexuality with young people at secondary schools and youth work settings across South Yorkshire. The author, Eleanor Formby, interviewed young people, teachers and youth professionals for the report called Tackling Homophobia and Transphobia In Settings Supporting Young People (PDF 745KB).
Young people said that homophobic bullying was not always dealt with effectively by schools and the report found that many pupils want to be taught about homophobia in their personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) classes. Eleanor added, 'Staff often want to be able to tackle issues dealing with sexuality, but are often unaware of or unable to access training or resources that are on offer so they can deal with these issues appropriately and effectively.'
The report says that teaching about lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) issues is 'patchy'. And it stresses that schools should approach homophobia with the same emphasis that is used to combat racism. The research suggests the importance of management support for staff working to raise awareness about sexuality issues in school and youth work organisations. This is also imperative for those directly supporting LGB young people, whether in schools or within youth work.
Eleanor said, 'This study suggests that whilst many young people and staff strongly believe in equality for LGB groups, there is still a clear view among some that same-sex relationships are 'different', 'unnatural', 'unfamiliar' and therefore wrong. It is concerning that young LGB people may still face these attitudes from both their peers and professionals who ostensibly should be working towards supporting and safeguarding their wellbeing.'
A summary of the report is also available (PDF 363KB).
Improving e-safety in primary schools
CEIR's Lucy Shipton has recently published guidance for primary schools around e-safety on behalf of the TDA. The guidance report, available to download, involved working with two primary schools and followed their journey to reach 'outstanding' in terms of safeguarding.
Findings from the two case studies provide an overview of what works in terms of improving and raising e-safety awareness in primary schools, as well as the barriers and challenges schools may face in trying to implement them.
The development and use of digital technology has grown quickly, and advancements in social networking sites, web-cams, portable media devices, and online gaming have been particularly appealing to children and young people. Whilst these technological developments bring benefits and opportunities to young people in terms of their learning and development, they also bring about safeguarding implications. It is within this context that the report was written.
Young and warm and wild and free? New work on young people's sexualities: spotlight on Eleanor Formby
Eleanor Formby has been making waves with her work on young people's sexualities. Having recently secured Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) funding to explore homophobia and transphobia in schools and youth work settings she has also just had three peer reviewed papers published in the field. The articles all deal with sex and relationships education (SRE) and sexual health or personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) more broadly. Two, in particular, focus on the experiences of lesbian, gay and bisexual communities/young people.
Eleanor's work is being recognised internationally, for example having joined the editorial board of Pastoral Care in Education and having presented her research at both the European Sociological Association and the World Congress of Sexual Health this year. Locally, she has presented research findings to a variety of voluntary and statutory sector agencies and fora across South Yorkshire, and nationally will be delivering papers at the University of Greenwich and at a British Educational Research Association conference later in the year.
The homophobia/transphobia research report will be available later this year. To read any of the articles mentioned above see:
- Formby, E. (2011) 'Lesbian and bisexual women's human rights, sexual rights and sexual citizenship: Negotiating sexual health in England', Culture, Health and Sexuality 13 (10)
- Formby, E. (2011) ''It's better to learn about your health and things that are going to happen to you than learning things that you just do at school': Findings from a mapping study of PSHE education in primary schools in England', Pastoral Care in Education 29 (3)
- Formby, E. (2011) 'Sex and relationships education, sexual health, and lesbian, gay and bisexual sexual cultures: Views from young people', Sex Education 11 (3)
Science teachers' career: a new joint CEIR/CSE Research Project
Researchers from CEIR and CSE have recently begun work on a new project looking at the impact of continuing professional development (CPD) on science teachers' career development.
The National Science Learning Centre commissioned the team, jointly led by Mike Coldwell, head of CEIR, and Ken Mannion, head of CSE, to examine how the work of Science Learning Centres affects teachers' intentions to stay in the profession, and their career progression. This is the latest in a series of research and evaluation projects in the STEM field that the two centres (sometimes with Mathematics Education Centre colleagues) have conducted, and confirms Sheffield Hallam University's place as one of the country's leading STEM evaluators.
Alongside this project, the two centres - working under the Science and Innovation Observatory banner - have recently produced a Policy and Strategy Briefing on evaluating STEM initiatives, which has just been sent to leading lights in the STEM community. We will report on its impact in future briefings.
Process Evaluation of the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check Pilot
The Department for Education (DfE) has published CEIR's final report and research brief into this study.
For the majority of schools and - as far as this can be judged - pupils, involvement in the Check pilot was a broadly positive experience. Case study schools were able to give a range of areas where they could see that the results of the Check being would be useful, particularly in relation to planning, teaching and support for particular pupils.
There were, however, some areas that were less positive, and others where the experiences were more variable. Firstly, a number of schools identified that - in their view - the Check should be designed in such a way as to support planning and teachig. This related to using the Check as part of a wider set of tools to assess pupil reading over time; being able to use detailed notes on responses to support changes to teaching; not sharing results publicly; and having access to individualised results and benchmarked results at a school level.
Second, the study found that the majority of teachers in the survey did not agree that the Check's suitability for some groups of pupils, which has implications in relation to additional guidance on disapplication from and discontinuation of the Check for particular pupils.
Thirdly, there are some specific points in relation to other aspects of content, particularly in relation to labelling of pseudowords and ordering.
Finally, there were other points relating to administration, including the need for audio/visual practice examples, and guidance and support to minimise resource costs in roll out.
Note that the study did not ask whether teachers were in favour of the Check overall, so the study provides no evidence either way on their views on whether they support the roll out. The study concentrated on experiences and views based on involvement in the Pilot.
The research brief and full report are available to download from the Department for Education website. Contact Mike Coldwell for further information on the study.
Paper chosen as a 'hot topic'
Mike Coldwell and Tim Simkin's paper 'Level models of continuing professional development evaluation: a grounded review and critique' has been chosen by Taylor and Francis Education Editors as a 'hot topic' article for June 2011.
The paper is available in Professional Development in Education Volume 37, Issue 1, 2011 pages 143-157.
The paper notes that continuing professional development (CPD) evaluation in education has been heavily influenced by 'level models', which attempt to trace the processes through which CPD interventions achieve outcomes. This paper considers the strengths and limitations of such models, and in particular the degree to which they are able to do justice to the complexity of CPD and its effects.
Tuition fees and widening participation
Dr Colin McCaig will be presenting his analysis of the potential impact of the tuition fee regime on widening participation at the annual conference of the European Conference on Educational Research 2011 which will take place at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany in September.
His paper is entitled 'The impact of the new student finance regime in England on widening access - international ramification for higher education'.
CEIR Nuffield success
Sean Demack, Anna Stevens and Colin McCaig have recently won funding from the Nuffield Social Science Small Grants Scheme.
The study, entitled 'Dreams and Realities in University Access: Mapping social differences in higher education aspirations and participation in England', is entirely based on secondary data analysis of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England. It aims to investigate the influence of a wide variety of social and educational factors on aspirations towards higher education (HE) amongst young people, alongside actual participation in HE.
A wide range of possible social and demographic explanatory variables will be used to investigate the key factors which influence these outcomes such as social class, ethnicity, bullying at school, parents' involvement in education and prior attainment.
The project, worth £13,189, will take place from 1 July 2011 to 30 April 2012. It adds significantly to CEIR's record of conducting high quality secondary analysis of data in the education field.
Perceptions of the Phonics Screening check
The Centre for Education and Inclusion Research has recently been appointed to conduct a process evaluation of the new Year 1 Phonics Screening Check on behalf of the Department for Education.
The evaluation will assess how the check is perceived by primary schools, parents/carers and pupils, and evaluate the effectiveness of its administration during the pilot stage. It is expected that the Phonics Screening Check will be rolled out nationally during the 2011–12 academic year.
For more information about this project please contact Mike Coldwell or Lucy Shipton.
Maximising pupil progress in secondary science research report published
Staff at Sheffield Hallam University conducted a recently-published-case-study based evaluation of the impact of the Maximising Pupil Progress programme, indicating how schools involved were able to help pupils make better progress in Key Stage 3 Science.
Peter Martin, senior director at National Strategies, commented on the 'high quality and extremely valuable evaluation work you have undertaken for us.' He continued, 'We have enjoyed working with Science and Innovation Observatory and are very pleased that your findings are now publically available.'
Download the report (PDF 745KB)
Science and Innovation Observatory
The Science and Innovation Observatory is a new joint venture between the Centre for Science Education (CSE) and Centre for Education and Inclusion Research (CEIR). Part funded by HEIF4, the Observatory aims to provide an independent voice in the field of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education and employment, informing policy and practice in the field.
Already attracting interest from policy makers, funders and the private sector, the Observatory is holding its first expert workshop in early April on 'Are STEM evaluations making a difference - and can we make them work better?'. With participants from key government departments, agencies, funders and evaluation organisations, the workshop aims to culminate in a policy briefing document on the future of STEM evaluation.
The initiative is jointly led by Ken Mannion, head of CSE, and Mike Coldwell, head of CEIR. The next set of planned activities will focus on engineering education and careers.
Largest study of personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education completed by CEIR - feedback from the Department for Education
The report was published last month, resulting in very positive feedback from the funder (the Department for Education), who commented, 'The research team was very experienced in project management and analysis and did a great job in designing the research instruments, completing the fieldwork and writing the report.
'They were very cooperative and responsive to our requirements all the way through the project and required minimum input, which is a significant advantage for us. The research report was very well written, especially the qualitative analysis, and brought out the key messages from a complex study.'
The study generated a variety of positive media and practitioner group interest, including the Financial Times, Children and Young People Now, the PSHE Association and the Drug Education Forum. CEIR staff have been invited to speak at the PSHE Association annual conference later this year, and are also currently in negotiation with the Pastoral Care in Education editor about producing a special edition of the journal focussing on different aspects of the study.
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