Centre for Global Learning (GLEA)

Welcome to the March 2021 edition of Coventry University's

Centre for Global Learning (GLEA) Newsletter

We'll be sharing the latest news from across the centre, including project updates, researcher in the spotlight, forthcoming events and publications.

Transforming Curricula through Internationalisation and virtual exchanges (iKudu project)

The iKudu project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, has been conceptualised to develop a contextualised South African concept of Internationalisation of the Curriculum (IoC), which integrates Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) virtual exchanges. The concept will allow the South African partner universities to become the country's leading higher education institutions in IoC, curriculum transformation, and COIL virtual exchanges.

Curriculum decolonisation is understood to be a central aspect of curriculum transformation. COIL virtual exchanges will provide an alternative to physical mobility, which cannot be implemented on a broad basis in South Africa, due to the country’s socioeconomic realities. At the heart of the project is staff capacity development, as it will produce a group of trained teaching staff who will have access to an international and local pool of knowledge, skills, and expertise in the relevant areas.

A recent focus on iKUDU has been on preliminary reporting of internationalisation practices across each of the partners with particular focus on COIL. A number of online interviews and focus group discussions have been conducted with colleagues representing different roles and responsibilities as part of internationalisation of the curriculum across the Coventry University group (which took place during October- November 2020). We are currently bringing these perspectives together to be shared locally and with the wider iKudu consortium partners as part of our exchange of practice and to appreciate each institution’s local progress in terms of policy development, IoC, including Internationalisation at Home and COIL.

Additionally, Coventry colleagues are planning for the next phase of partnership work with the Consortium to engage South African academics and students in COIL exchanges due to take place later this academic year. The consortium partners have also submitted abstracts to present at IVEC (the largest and most prominent conference event on virtual exchange).

For further news and updates please visit our website: or contact Professor Katherine Wimpenny or Dr Alun DeWinter.

New Projects Awarded

UK-ASEAN Partnerships and Exchanges Research (UK-ASEAN PER)

Principal Investigator: Dr Que Anh Dang

Co-Investigators: Professor Katherine Wimpenny, Professor Lynn Clouder

GLEA will be leading the ‘UK-ASEAN Partnerships and Exchanges Research’ Project which is funded by the British Council (£250,000). Over the next 18 months, the project will study a range of UK transnational education (TNE) arrangements and research collaborations between the UK and 15 East Asian countries and territories including the ten countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan, South Korea, Hongkong and Taiwan.

Combining British and Asian perspectives and theoretical resources from international relations and HE research fields, this mixed-method study explore the following overarching questions:

1)    What model of partnerships and types of UK TNE and collaborative research have been prioritised to date and how do they compare across East Asian countries?

2)    How and by whom are quality and inclusion in partnerships defined and implemented?

3)    How do the current UK-East Asia partnerships serve to inform future initiatives?

4)    Which actors, ideas and principles will form and drive UK-ASEAN regional partnerships in a post-Brexit and post-pandemic era?

The project is organised into three inter-connected work packages consisting of some 20 researchers and experts from Coventry university, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Lingnan University in Hongkong, Fukuyama City University in Japan, Xi’an Jaotong Liverpool University in China, Southeast Asian Ministry of Education Organisation (SEAMEO), Centre for Vocational and Technical Education and Training (VOCTECH) in Brunei Darussalam, the ASEAN University Network in Thailand, and the Asia-Europe Foundation in Singapore.

Colleagues of the UK-ASEAN Project at MS Teams virtual Kickoff meeting - March 2021

An Educational Evaluation of Digital Upskilling Programmes – a collaboration with the Institute of Coding

Funded by the Institute of Coding (IoC), a joint venture between Coventry University and other Universities across England, this project aims at providing an educational evaluation of the IoC’s digital upskilling programmes, their impact in terms of re-framing employability skills in the post-pandemic age, the pedagogies involved, and the approaches to broadening access.

This evaluation project explores the IoC’s agile shifts between Intent, Implementation and Impact, and endeavours to build an integrated approach to qualitative, light-touch, and long-term evaluation that can at the same time provide depth and work on a large scale.

For further information contact Dr Luca Morini and Steve Raven

Research Enriched Learning

Dr Alun DeWinter is acting as the Research Enriched Learning (previously referred to as Research Informed Teaching) broker for GLEA. As part of an institution-wide initiative, new ways of bringing researchers into teaching and learning are being identified so that researchers can share their experience, knowledge and insights to staff and students across Coventry University.

Alun is currently meeting with brokers from across the faculties and other research centres to identify synergies between GLEA research and teaching and learning content, with a growing number of ideas in the pipeline to help embed the research enriched learning agenda. Current examples of activity include GLEA staff delivering research methodology workshops via the doctoral college, delivering of workshops to undergraduate dissertation students and opening up events such as research seminars and showcase activities so that the campus can engage with the range of research GLEA is undertaking.

Although it is still early days for Research Enriched Learning, there are many exciting ideas being discussed for the future, including different approaches to undergraduate and postgraduate thesis supervision, PhD student showcase opportunities and closer working relationships across the campus.

Postgraduate Researcher in the Spotlight

As a mathematics educator, my research aims to improve the attainment, enjoyment, teaching, and learning of mathematics at all levels. My research to date has predominantly focused on working with students in higher education.

I have improved the proof comprehension skills of mathematics students through a technique called self-explanation training (see Hodds, Alcock, and Inglis, 2014) and have further used this technique to improve the mathematical understanding of non-mathematicians.

In particular, I have recently focused on nursing students and improving their mathematical skills for drug calculations with my work helping to improve pass rates in nursing courses at Coventry University from 75% to over 92% (see Hodds, 2020a). To achieve this, I also focused on improving nursing student engagement with sigma. Many non-mathematicians are unlikely to realise the amount of, and level of, mathematics on their course when they begin their degrees. They are also more likely to suffer from maths anxiety and have low mathematical resilience. By engaging with sigma, anxiety can be reduced, and resilience can be increased but getting students through the door can often be the most challenging task.

Therefore, I am supervising a PhD student within GLEA, Farhana Lunat, investigating engagement with sigma and implementing interventions that increase engagement from underrepresented groups. My second PhD student, Holly Gilbert, is looking at what mathematics and statistics support will look like in the “new normal” once we are through the pandemic. Our recent work has shown that students around the world have engaged less with online support, and staff have found it difficult to provide the “gold standard” service that was provided in face-to-face maths and stats support provisions. Holly will investigate what best practice will be in the new normal, taking into account both staff and student views.

My future work will start to look more at school level mathematics. I am keen to investigate the effects of the pandemic on mathematical understanding and attainment, determining how best to support those who have been most affected. Using eye-tracking technology, we can see how experts and novices read online materials, helping to develop the best pedagogical practice for online learning in mathematics. Furthermore, I believe self-explanation training can really improve attainment for students who could fail GCSE mathematics, or may fall short of obtaining the top level 8/9 grade. I have already obtained a small grant from the IMA (Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications) to run a pilot study on this when schools re-open.

Mathematics has a role to play in every subject but expertise in other areas can also inform and improve the education provided to people when studying mathematics. I am therefore looking forward to working with colleagues in GLEA on some exciting and challenging research over the coming years. I also look forward to combining our skills, informing each other’s work, engaging with different perspectives and new ideas, and improving knowledge in educational research.

Recent Publications and References:

Hodds, M. (2020a). Supporting nursing students’ mathematical understanding. MSOR Connections, 18(3), 23-29. https://doi.org/10.21100/msor.v18i3.1079

Hodds, M. (2020b). A report into the changes in Mathematics and Statistics support practices due to Covid-19. A report for the sigma National Network for Excellence in Mathematics and Statistics Support. Available from: http://www.sigma-network.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Report-into-the-changes-in-Maths-and-Stats-Support-practice-during-Covid-19.pdf (Last Accessed: 25th February 2021)

Hodds, M., Shao, J., and Lawson, D. (2020). Changes in student entry competencies 2001-2017. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2020.1849836

Hodds, M., Alcock, L., and Inglis, M. (2014). Self-explanation training improves proof comprehension. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education. 45(1), 62-101.  https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.45.1.0062

Congratulations

A warm welcome to our new Faculty Research Associates

GLEA are pleased to welcome eight new Faculty Research Associates, who aside from their faculty and department-based activities, will be working with GLEA for either one or two days per week on their research plans. It is great to have such valued colleagues working with us and to help our themes evolve and gain in strength.

Development, Engagement and Attainment

Dr Sarah Critten Assistant Professor (Academic)

Dr Beate Grawemeyer Lecturer in Computer Science

Dr Mark Hodds Mathematics Support Lecturer

Dr Xue Zhou Assistant Professor (Academic)

Global Learning: Education without Boundaries

Professor Marina Orsini-Jones Professor in Education Practice

Gender, Equality and Diversity

Dr Saba Hussain Lecturer in Sociology

Educational Leadership and Policy

Dr Rami Ayoubi Curriculum Lead (Associate Professor - Academic)

Dr Andy Coleman Assistant Professor

Programmes update

GLEA are pleased to welcome 15 new postgraduate researchers (PGRs) onto the structured online PhD in Global Education this academic year, which makes a total cohort of 25. Applications will shortly be open for September 2021, and there will be several online webinars for prospective students to find out more information.

Together with our full-time and part-time students that are based physically in Coventry, and our dual award collaboration with Aarhus University in Denmark, we have had some useful discussions in our informal monthly discussion about the top tips for students studying for a PhD, and also some reflections on the process. For further information please contact Prof Megan Crawford

Transforming Staff Doctoral Research Programme launched!

On 17th February and following our Year 0 programme which ran October – Dec 2020, we launched Year 1 of the 4-year dual award and welcomed 14 staff doctorate candidates who will join the full programme.

The initiative is part of a Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) funding partnership with the British Council United Kingdom – South Africa, which aims to increase in the number of permanent academic and professional staff members at South African higher education institutions who are qualified at doctoral level. ‘Transforming Staff Doctoral Research’ is a collaboration between GLEA and colleagues at the Doctoral College and Centre for Research Capability, with Walter Sisulu University and the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Students will look forward to upcoming events delivered by staff across the three university partners, will include the ‘Launch Plan Write’ session in March followed by a set of workshops focused on ‘Critical Engagement with the Literature’ which will run across March and into April. We acknowledge the valuable assistance of Dr Siân Alsop, Dr Helen Breadmore and Dr Dimitar Angelov in supporting the content and resources for these workshops, drawing on GLEA’s PhD in Global Education and the work of Coventry’s Centre for Academic Writing.

For further information about the programme please contact Professor Katherine Wimpenny.

Postgraduate researchers that have recently joined GLEA

Patricia Bluteau from HLS who is starting her PhD by Publication Dr Virginia King as Director of Studies (DoS), with Dr Rosie Kneafsey (School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health, Coventry University).

Natalya Steane, studying on the Standard route Cotutelle PhD with Aarhus University, Denmark, with Prof Lynn Clouder as DoS, Dr Susan Wright (Aarhus) and Dr Que Anh Dang

Rakeya Shah, studying on the COVID studentship with Dr Arinola Adefila as DOS and Dr Gurnam Singh.

Online PhD in Global Education

Brian McMullan studying on PhD in Global Education with Dr Luca Morini as DoS and Professor Gurnam Singh

Ruth Kituku studying on the PhD in Global Education with Dr Arinola Adefila as DoS and  Professor Megan Crawford

Emzi Frater studying on the PhD in Global Education with Dr Carlo Tramontano as DoS and Dr Que Anh Dang and Dr Rami Ayoubi

Jane Irani studying on the PhD in Global Education with Dr Sian Alsop as DoS and Professor Megan Crawford

Philippa Steele studying on the PhD in Global Education with Dr Helen Breadmore as Dos and Dr Xue Zhou

Lucy Bishop studying on the PhD in Global Education with Dr Helen Breadmore as Dos and Dr Julia Carroll

Upcoming GLEA events

We welcome you to register for our upcoming events:

Seminar 26th March 12.00 pm - 1.00 pm: The importance of mathematics and statistics as evidenced in institutionally-written regulatory documents with Professor Duncan Lawson MBE

Professor Duncan Lawson, MBE, will be presenting a seminar as part of the Centre for Global Learning’s seminar series on the importance of mathematics and statistics support as evidenced in institutionally-written regulatory documents.

Institution-level mathematics and statistics support is a relatively recent innovation in higher education in the UK, having been first introduced around 30 years ago. Since then there has been a growing body of scholarship and research in this area, almost exclusively carried out by practitioners. Publications have focused on identifying good practice, evaluating the effectiveness of mathematics and statistics support provision and surveying the extent of provision across the sector.

The work presented here takes a different approach to establishing the importance of mathematics and statistics support. It takes as its evidence base a series of institutionally-written regulatory documents, namely

• the institutional submissions required for the TEF;
• the access agreements required by the Office for Fair Access;
• the access and participation plans required by the Office for Students.

Register your attendance  here

Webinar: PhD studentship in The impact of feedback practices, modes, and student background: Voicing the student perspective. PhD Opportunity Q&A Session

Coventry University is inviting applications from suitably-qualified graduates for a fully funded PhD studentship at the Centre for Global Learning (GLEA), for a September 2021 start.

Dr Siân Alsop will be hosting four Q&A sessions for those who would like to find out more about the project prior to applying, on the following days:

• 21 April 2021: 10am to 11am (BST time)
• 21 April 2021: 5pm to 6pm (BST time)
• 14 June 2021: 10am to 11am (BST time)
• 14 June 2021: 5pm to 6pm (BST time)

Register your attendance here

Webinar: Online, Part-time PhD in Global Education. PhD Opportunity Q&A Session

Coventry University is inviting applications from suitably-qualified graduates for a PhD in Global Education at the Centre for Global Learning (GLEA), for a September 2021 start.

Professor Megan Crawford, GLEA Programme Lead, will be hosting two Q&A webinar sessions for those who would like to find out more about the programme prior to applying, on the following days:

• Monday 17 May - 9am to 10am
• Wednesday 14 July - 5pm to 6pm

Register your attendance here

Recent Publications

Beelen, J., Wimpenny, K., & Rubin, J. (2021). Internationalisation in the classroom and questions of congruence: embedding COIL in an internationalised curriculum. In, Paul G. Nixon, Vanessa P. Dennen & Rajash Rawal (Eds). Reshaping International Teaching and Learning: Universities in the Information Age. London Routledge: Elspeth Jones’ Routledge series (Forthcoming)

Billot, J., King, V., Clouder, L., & Smith, J. (2021). Borderlanders: Academic staff being and becoming doctoral students. Teaching in Higher Education – Special Issue Working in the borderlands: Critical perspectives on doctoral education.[Advanced online]. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1891408

Jacobs, L., Wimpenny, K., Mitchell, L-M., Beelen, J., Hagenmeier, C., Hodges, M. et al. (2021). Adapting a capacity development in higher education project: Doing, being and becoming Virtual collaboration, Perspectives in Education (African Journals Online) https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie (forthcoming - March 2021)

Liu, D., Wimpenny, K.  DeWinter, A., & Harrison, P. (2021). Students’ Perceptions and Experiences of Teaching and Learning in Transnational Higher Education in China. Teaching in Higher Education (Forthcoming)

Liu, D., DeWinter, A., Harrison, P.& Wimpenny, K.  (2021). Enhancing Transnational Education (TNE) Programmes: Understanding Student Motivations, Satisfaction and Attainment in Anglo-Sino programmes. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education (Forthcoming)

Mitchell, L-M., Klamer, R., Jacobs, L., Wimpenny, K. & Hagenmeier, C. (2021). Rethinking internationalisation between South Africa and Europe to use existing diversity as a source for new partnerships and internationalisation for all, Forum EAIE (Forthcoming)

Morini, L. (2021). ‘You Can Deny Seriousness, But You Can’t Deny Play’: Emergent Resistance to Purposive Games. In Culture at Play: How Video Games Influence and Replicate Our World (pp. 130-139). Brill Rodopi. 

Morini, L. (2021) Education as Bulwark of Uselessness. In Friend, C. (Ed.), Hybrid Teaching -   Pedagogy, People, Politics. (pp. 143-151). Washington DC: Hybrid Pedagogy Inc.

Wimpenny, K. Hagenmeier, C., Jones, L. & Beelen. J. (2021). Decolonisation through inclusive virtual collaboration. University World News. Africa.

Mousa, M. Massoud, H. and Ayoubi, R.M. (accepted, in press 2021) “Contexts of organisational learning in developing countries: the role of training programmes in Egyptian public banks”, Personnel Review.  (Q2, 2*ABS, Emerald, indexed by Scopus).  

Mousa, M. Ayoubi, R. M. and Massoud, H. (accepted, in press 2021) “Why him not me? Inclusive/exclusive talent identification in public academic context”, International Journal of Public Administration. (Q2, 2*ABS, T&F, indexed by Scopus).  

Mousa, M. Ayoubi, R.M. Massoud. H.K. and Chaouali, W. (accepted, in press 2021) “Workplace fun, organizational inclusion and meaningful work: an empirical study", Public Organization Review. (Q1, 2*ABS, Springer, indexed by Scopus). 

Prof Suzanne Clisby edited a Special Issue with Dr Jimmy Turner drawing together articles arising from GlobalGRACE scholars, activists and wider networks and disseminated in a journal specifically selected for its Global South reach and readership: 

2020 (with Turner) Creative Community Activism in Global Contexts, Studies on Home & Community Science, Special Issue Editor, 14(1-2): 1-6.  DOI: 10.31901/24566780.2020/14.1-2.343 

and in the same Special Issue, Suzanne Clisby co-authored with Dr Tanzina Choudhury the following article arising from the GlobalGRCE research working with female construction workers in Bangladesh:

2020 (with Choudhury) Creative Activism, Creating Pleasure: The Power of Emotion in Participatory Research, Studies on Home & Community Science, Special Issue, 14(1):43-56. DOI: 10.31901/24566780.2020/14.1-2.347 

Dr Saba Hussain"Introduction to Right-wing Populism(s) and HE" for British Journal for Education Research. (Accepted for April 2021 issue). Co-authored Book proposal for Routledge "Juggling many balls: Immigrant Academic Mothers" (TBC) in response to CfP for Routledge Book Series – Post-COVID World: Academics, Politics and Society

Hussain, Saba (2020): BhalSuwali, BhalGhor: Muslim families pursuing cultural authorization in contemporary Assam, Gender and Education,

Hussain, S (2019) Contemporary Muslim Girlhoods in India: A Study of Social Justice, Identity and Agency in Assam Routledge: London (Research in Gender and Society).

Presentations

DeWinter, A., Adefila, A., & Wimpenny, K. (2021). Internationalization of formal curriculum

Global Learning in the post-COVID world – The role of internationalised online collaboration in promoting decolonised, accessible education. MED2IaH, Université de Montpellier, France. 16.02.2021