News and Events

Grant award success for School of Education Applied Linguistics PhD student researching language teachers’ emotions in Japan

Sam Morris, a distance learner PhD student based in the School of Education, has been awarded a highly prestigious grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to support his research into the emotion regulation practices of Japanese university foreign language educators under the supervision of Dr Jim King.

The Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research program is the Japanese government’s primary funding scheme for university research. Its purpose is to develop pioneering scientific research in all disciplines, and grants are awarded on merit through a peer-review screening process. The grant awarded to Sam is to the value of 1.8 million yen (approximately £12,000), and will be used to support the analysis of his research data, the dissemination of his results at international conferences and the organisation of a symposium focusing on the topic of his thesis.

Sam’s research aims to better understand the emotion regulation actions that non-Japanese EFL teachers at Japanese universities employ during their work, and the contextual factors that underlie their emotional decisions. The work is expected to have implications for teacher well-being and teacher-student relationships, leading to meaningful guidance for improved professional practice and institutional support.

Upon receiving the grant, Sam commented: "I am very pleased and proud to have been awarded a grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. This money and the support of my supervisor will ensure that I will be able to maximise the impact and reach of my thesis results. Dr King said: "We're delighted that Sam has been awarded this money to support his work. The continual successes shown by our doctoral students are testament to the high-class research being conducted at the University of Leicester into applied linguistics and foreign language education."

Prestigious award for Doctoral Student in School of Education

At the Annual Standing Conference on University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults (SCUTREA) last week, doctoral student Farhat Syyeda was awarded the Tilda Gaskell award for the best student paper.  Postgraduate Tutor in the School of Education, Dr Joan Woodhouse, commented ‘We are very proud of Farhat and delighted that she has received this prestigious award for her excellent work investigating the experiences of adult learners with Maths anxiety’.  Farhat carried out an ethnographic study of adult students in a College of Further Education, working with them as a Learning Assistant and researching their life histories and relationship with Mathematics over time.  The majority of the students were female and BAME.  An important theme to emerge from the study was that motherhood led the women to re-assess their relationship with the subject, encouraging them to return to college to study Maths despite their anxieties and apprehensions.  Other motivating factors included professional and personal development, but these were subordinate and linked with motherhood and welfare of the family.

Superstar Award Winner - Sheila Dennis, School of Education

We are delighted to announce that Sheila Dennis, Lecturer in Education, is the winner of this year's Superstar Award for Best Personal Tutor! The Students Union wished Sheila a huge congratulations on the great work she is doing, highlighting that her hard work and dedication has not gone unnoticed!

Here are some of the fantastic things Sheila's students have said, and the impact she has had on their time at University:

"Sheila always goes the extra mile. She has been an absolute rock to me during my PGCE"

"She is a truly warm, caring person that always makes me want to be a better student. I can't imagine having for this far without Sheila's support, knowledge and kindness".

Sheila along with five other recipients of a Superstar Award were invited to the Student Voice Awards where they were presented with her trophy. The Ceremony took place on Thursday 30 May 2019.

CSSAH Research Poster Competition winner:

Kristiani Natalina, doctoral student in the School of Education, has been awarded an ELTU prize in the College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities Poster Competition for her poster ‘Understanding Indigenous Struggles in A Science Class: A Case Study in the Dayak Community’.  The judges liked the subtle association between the poster design and the theme. As a presenter, Kris used her poster as a tool to talk about her research and dealt confidently with questions. Phil Horspool, ELTU Director and one of the judges, commented that “her passion for her research shone through”. Her supervisor Prof. Wasyl Cajkler said: ‘The School of Education is very grateful that Kris had chosen to study here and is very proud of her achievement. Her research has taught us a lot about ways of thinking about science in different communities, offering very informative cross-cultural perspectives. We are also very grateful to ELTU for its valuable initiatives in supporting our doctoral students.’

Conferences and Research Seminars: March - June 2019

Mental Health in Schools Conference on Wednesday 5th June 2019: Supporting professionals to talk about mental health issues experienced by children and young people

We are proud to announce that the School of Education (University of Leicester) will be hosting its first Mental Health in Schools Conference on Wednesday 5th June 2019. The conference aims to support professionals in talking about mental health issues experienced by children and young people. Designed for those working with children with mental health difficulties in both Primary and Secondary school settings, the Conference will explore issues including self-harm, social media, mental health needs of vulnerable groups and understanding mental health needs from a parent's perspective. A full list of speakers will be announced shortly but will include expert contributors from child psychiatry, neurodevelopment, social media and self-harm research. The day will provide great opportunities for schools to network in a supportive environment and for teachers to contribute their perspectives.

Please register your interest by emailing EducationCPD@leicester.ac.uk. The cost for the conference, to be held at Stamford Court, Leicester, is £150 per person including lunch and refreshments throughout the day.

Research Seminars

An exploration of the treatment of student ‘errors’: One teacher’s atypical use of a bald ‘no’ and its implications

Fay Baldry, Lecturer in Mathematics Education and Doctoral student

Mon 29 April 12.45-2.00 ED005 (107-111 Princess Rd East)

This discussion will explore teachers’ treatment of errors as they occur both within and outside of Initiate-Response-Evaluate (Cazden, 1988) interactions. Data are drawn from a classroom-based video study in England, involving three participating secondary mathematics teachers and six classes. Here, the focus is on one of those teachers, whose lessons contained the widest range of treatment of errors. This included facilitating extended peer-to-peer turn-taking and bald negative evaluation of student contributions; the later appeared to be atypical, both in relation to the other teachers in this study and the wider literature. Analysis showed that, for this teacher, indirect evaluation of errors was associated with teacher-initiated interactions, whereas bald negative evaluation was associated with student-initiated exchanges. Consideration is given to the interactional patterns related to the occurrence and treatment of errors, and the potential impact on learning opportunities for students.

The need for a temporal turn in educational organisations

Dr Phil Wood (Reader, Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln)

Tuesday 19 March 12.45-2.00 D105 (15 University Road)

The management of modern educational organisations, in the maintained schools, FE and HE sectors, appears to be in increasing disarray, from the acute recruitment and retention crisis in schools, through overwork and exploitation of staff in FE and HE, to the financialization of the whole education sector. In this talk I will sketch out how I think two factors play an important role in this continued shift. Firstly, educational research has followed a damaging course by focusing on 'leadership and management' rather than organisational sciences leading to a fragmentation of issues which can more usefully be understood through an organisational lens. Secondly, consideration of many of the most pressing issues demonstrate a distinct lack of focus on the complexities of time and the temporal. I will use two examples, focusing on organisational rhythms and workload, to illustrate why I think a temporal turn and a focus on organisations is important in finding new ways of thinking about educational issues and creating more sustainable contexts within the sector.

Exploring Creative Approaches to Qualitative Researching

Dr Laura Guihen

Research Seminar: Tuesday 5 March 2019 (12:45-14:00) in ED008, 107-111 Princess Road East

This session will report on a National Centre for Research Methods funded training course I attended in November on the theme of Creative Approaches to Qualitative Researching. I will share what I learned about creative methods both as an approach, and as a means of generating social science research data. I will investigate some of the practical and ethical issues in using creative methods. I will then explore some creative forms of dissemination.