Welcome to the latest news from the
Centre for Global Learning: Education and Attainment
'Research that Informs, Transforms and Influences Global Education’
News from Intercultural Engagement and Global Education Theme
Our theme has been incredibly busy over the last few months, working on projects whilst bidding for new opportunities and creating valuable network links with other universities. Here is an overview of what we have been up to over the 2019 / 2020 winter period:
Activity Spotlight: Decolonisation Sandpit
On Thursday 16th January, GLEA hosted a networking and ideas generating day with colleagues from The Hague (Netherlands), UFES (Brazil), The Open University (UK) and UCLL (Belgium). This highly successful session focussed on knowledge sharing around concepts such as online learning, virtual exchange and the decolonisation of Higher Education. It is hoped that the concepts and ideas discussed as part of the day will lead to fruitful research collaborations in the future.
New Bids
Two large-scale grants have been submitted by the Intercultural Engagement and Global Education Theme and we hope to be able to share further information on these soon. ECOCOIL, a project submitted by Arinola Adefila and Luca Morinia, is a particularly exciting prospect, with an international consortium of six universities seeking to work together to produce and disseminate knowledge related to the problems of the ecological crisis and climate change.
Meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dyslexia and other Specific Learning Differences
All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG) are formally constituted cross-party interest and advocacy groups, formed by parliamentarians, seeking through evidence gathering and engagement, to advance long-term, cross-party issues. The APPG for Dyslexia and Specific Learning Differences is Chaired by Sharon Hodgson MP, with Lord Addington providing a link to the House of Lords. Kate Blundell and Angela Thompson, both PhD candidates in the Research Centre for Global Learning Education and Attainment at Coventry University, were invited to the latest meeting, February 24th 2020; reconstituting the group for this Parliament, and to hear from two MPs on their lived experiences with dyslexia. In the previous year, the group gathered evidence from a variety of experts to produce three reports on the Human Cost of Dyslexia, and The Impact of Dyslexia on the Education System. Angela contributed to the latter report about attainment outcomes, using Department for Education data. During the meeting, Angela’s contribution was acknowledged by Lord Addington.
The presentations from both speakers were emotive and thought provoking, as were questions and observations from the entitled audience, all of whom had relevant and wide-ranging expert knowledge. The first speaker, Janet Daby MP, told the Group how she had faced challenges throughout her education, particularly with writing, yet only received a diagnosis whilst studying for a master’s degree. Also, how for her constituents in Lewisham East, the difficulty in accessing assessment and support was felt to be a significant barrier to achievement, in addition to the social barriers faced by many. The second speaker, Peter Kyle MP, having come to recent repute after discussing his dyslexia openly, gave useful insight into the importance of resilience and mentorship, having been mentored for many years by Anita Roddick DBE, founder of the Body Shop. Peter’s story made a powerful case for the need for continued access to education and appropriate support for individuals with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD).
Post meeting, Kate was approached by a representative from Hampshire police, interested in understanding more about Kate’s role on the SpLD Test Evaluation Committee, and the function of the SpLD Assessment Standards Committee in extending good practice relating to diagnostic assessment of SpLD. Angela was able to have useful conversation with two charity support workers from Lewisham East, discussing in particular, the perception of the diagnosis of dyslexia amongst the Afro-Caribbean community within the constituency, and how a better understanding of cultural factors is needed. For both Kate and Angela, involvement with the APPG was a fantastic opportunity to gain further insight into how democratic debate is constructed.
Angela Thompson and Kate Blundell
Researcher in the Spotlight
Jackie Shanley
I am a part time PhD student in my 2nd year and a full time lecturer in physiotherapy, here at Coventry University. For many years, a large part of my teaching role has been supporting international students in their transition to study in the UK and also in adapting to work in the UK healthcare system. I became aware of some of the challenges faced by students from different cultural backgrounds during such an intensive course and the need for international students to be offered equitable opportunities for success alongside home students. This sparked my interest in carrying out my own research with the ultimate goal of addressing this inequity in experience and attainment. My research aims to explore the experiences of international physiotherapy students as they develop into professional practitioners during their three-year degree. The findings will inform the development of physiotherapy education.
My Director of Studies is Professor Katherine Wimpenny, who has guided me through the development of my research question and research design.
As a student in GLEA, I have been inspired by the enthusiastic team who have a wealth of experience in my area of study and in January 2020, I was delighted to represent GLEA in the postgraduate researcher of the year awards at the CU Research Hootenanny. Well, when I say delighted, I mean I was delighted to represent GLEA, but actually taking part was pretty stressful! I was presenting alongside seven fantastic PGRs from research centres across the university, whose areas of research included sustainable land management, women’s health and data security. The winner of the PGR of the Year Award was Molly Browne from the Centre of Arts, Memory and Communities for her fascinating work exploring how nature based activities can help people living with dementia.
New Projects
iKudu: Transforming Curricula with virtual exchanges
Funder: EU
Launched in December 2019, Katherine Wimpenny and Alun DeWinter are involved in this project, which aims to develop Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) with South African partners, with a focus on decolonisation of the curriculum within five historically disadvantaged universities. This is a unique project in that it is being led by South African universities, rather than a European institution. Katherine and Alun are involved with two work groups in the project. Further information on iKudu can be found here: For further information. Please contact Professor Katherine Wimpenny for further information
Researcher Links Workshop Grant
Funder: British Council
Arinola Adefila was recently awarded a British Council Research Links Workshop grant to run 2TV – Transforming Trajectories of Vulnerability. The workshop brings together 40 transdisciplinary researchers across the UK and Brazil to discuss challenges relating to transformative practice in education and public policy for vulnerable communities in Brazil. 2TV will examine structural, contextual and policy barriers, which limit all forms of educational achievement in Brazil.
Applications to join the workshop open on 5th March 2020. Seventeen (17) places each are available for Early Career Researchers from each country. Please contact Dr Arinola Adefila for further information.
Transforming Staff Doctoral Research
Funder: Department of Higher Education and Training
Funded through University Capacity Development Programme (UCDP) South Africa, Transforming Staff Doctoral Research is a collaboration with the Walter Sisulu University and the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Within CU, led by Prof. Katherine Wimpenny, the project involves colleagues collaborating across GLEA and at Doctoral College. The purpose of the project is to contribute to the increase in the number of permanent academic and professional staff members at South African higher education institutions (SAHEIs) who are qualified at doctoral level. There will be opportunity for staff at CU to engage as part of this staff doctoral study project. Please contact Professor Katherine Wimpenny for further information.
Minorities on Campus: Discrimination, equality and politics of nationalism in Indian Higher Education
Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council
This project explores the intersectional campus in India. Examining the tensions around perceived hierarchies of religion, ethnicity and gender, the project aims to develop sustained collaboration to explore welfare and student rights on Indian campuses; this includes the consideration of the potential impact of inclusive narratives, both conceptual and lived, of Higher Education in India. Led by the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Alun DeWinter has been bought on as an advisor to this project. For further information on this project, please contact Dr Alun DeWinter
A Community-Centred Educational Model for developing Social Resilience (ACES): Playfulness towards an inclusive, safe and resilient society.
Funder: UKRI-GCRF Education as a Driver of Development Research Grant
ACES, led by Prof. Sylvester Arnab, in Post Digital Cultures, aims to investigate transformative education towards developing social resilience through the lens and practices of playful pedagogy and frugal methodology. ACES is a cross institutional and international collaboration involving GLEA, International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship, with the overseas partners: Malaysia Sarawak University, Muhammadiyah University of Ponorogo and Hanoi University of Science and Technology.
The project constitutes a multifaceted, innovative pedagogical model combining an experiential pedagogical approach, a novel programme of activities (including the ‘lab’ methodology as a pedagogic tool), and the rigorous associated research and evaluation protocol for capturing impact. The consortium will specifically study the impact of such an experiential and participatory pedagogical model on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Please contact Professor Katherine Wimpenny for further information.
Enabling students with neurodiversity in Argentina and Mexico
Group photo featuring ENTENDER project partners from Coventry University's Centre for Global Learning: Education and Attainment, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Greece and Italy.
The Centre for Global Learning: Education and Attainment (GLEA) launched their Enabling Students with Neurodiversity (ENTENDER) project by welcoming partners from across the globe to Coventry University between 4 and 7 February 2020.
Neurodiversity is an umbrella term for conditions that are traditionally considered neurologically atypical, and can include Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Dyscalculia, Autistic Spectrum and Tourette’s Syndrome.
Research suggests that people with these conditions are often marginalised and as a consequence can be at a disadvantage both socially and economically. This can result in low self-esteem and lead to underachievement, low employment and dependency.
The project aims to address this by working with schools, parents, universities and employers in the Latin America region to introduce interventions that will support students to have positive experiences, promote their strengths and succeed in higher education and beyond. It will also look to support neurodiverse students by enhancing teachers’ understanding of ways in which to adapt learning spaces and teaching approaches to be more inclusive. Partners will share, develop and embed existing good practice between institutions, nationally and internationally.
At the kick off meeting earlier this month, project partners from Spain, Greece, Italy, Argentina and Mexico visited GLEA at Coventry University to participate in a good practice visit aimed to highlight the positive work currently being undertaken in this area. This included workshops delivered by the disabilities team at Coventry University, student speakers from Coventry University Students’ Union, a visit to the library, and a talk delivered by one of GLEA’s PhD students, Kate Blundell.
Bringing the visit to a close, external speakers from Cappfinity, SEND Group and the British Dyslexia Association shared different approaches and practice for partners to consider using across their institutions.
Partners from Argentina and Mexico followed onto the University of Turin in Italy to continue their good practice visit, before going back to their home institutions to collect baseline data on practice in their local areas.
A website is currently being designed by one of the work package leads to disseminate project updates and progress, and will be available very soon.
ENTENDER is an ERASMUS+ project involving nine universities across Europe, Argentina and Mexico. Led by Coventry University’s Professor Lynn Clouder, it will run between 15 January 2020 and 31 December 2022 – find out more.
Conference Activities
In early February, Siân Alsop attended The 9th International Conference on Writing Analytics, held at the University of South Florida. This international event brought together experts in writing analytics from within and beyond academia to discuss 'expanding the body of knowledge in writing analytics'. Siân presented findings from a pilot study investigating relationships between written feedback and ethnic attainment disparity in UK HE, undertaken with colleagues from Coventry University and the University of Oslo (see publications). This paper builds on previous work that differentiated the nature of the written feedback based on the background of the student recipient (Alsop and Gardner 2019) and forms part of a larger project that uses corpus linguistic approaches to investigate attainment gaps in UK HE.
In December, Alun DeWinter, Peter Harrison and Dan Liu, our project partner from GDUFS, China, presented on the initial findings of the TNHE China project at the SHRE conference in Wales. The presentation, titled ‘Enhancing Transnational Higher Education (TNHE) Programmes: Understanding Student Motivations, Satisfaction and Attainment in Anglo-Sino Transnational Education TNHE Programmes’ was delivered to delegates from around the globe. It is hoped that this will be one of a series of conference papers looking at TNHE delivery in China, with one publication submitted and one in preparation.
Peter Harrison, Dr Dan Liu, Dr Alun DeWinter
Congratulations
Following a year-long course, Lynn Clouder, Alun DeWinter & Megan Crawford have all passed the CMI accredited Coaching and Mentoring certificate. This has been an interesting and rewarding course and Lynn, Alun & Megan hope to incorporate elements of the coach-mentoring approach into their daily work and supervision activities.
Welcome
New PhD students
A warm welcome to our new intake of students who began their PhD study with GLEA in January 2020
Kathryn Cawley will carry out a study entitled: Developing the effectiveness of spelling teaching in mainstream classrooms in order to improve outcomes for all learners. They will be supervised by Professor Julia Carroll, Dr Helen Breadmore and Dr Sarah Critten.
Sam Grant will carry out a study entitled: Uncontrollable Behaviour: Questioning Perceptions of Neurodiversity Within State Provisions. They will be supervised by Professor Lynn Clouder, Mr Ken Fero and Professor Katherine Wimpenny.
Carolyn Hay will carry out a study entitled: Occupational Therapy Apprenticeships: an exploration of a new pathway to professional registration. They will be supervised by Professor Lynn Clouder, Dr Louise Sewell and Dr Sarah Roe.
Rosida Rakhmawati Muhammad is funded by the Indonesian Government and will carry out a study entitled: Ethnomathematics: geometric exploration of tapis lampung in teaching mathematics. They will be supervised by Professor Duncan Lawson, Dr Fazana Aslam and Professor Megan Crawford.
Recent Publications
Adefila, A. Broughan, C. Phimister, D. Opie, J. (2019) Developing an autonomous-support culture in Higher Education for disabled students. Disability and Health Journal
Adefila, A., Graham, S. Patel, A. (2019) Fast and Slow: Using Spritz for academic study? In Technology, Knowledge and Learning. (In-press)
Clouder, L., Karakus, M., Cinotti, A., Ferreyra, M.V., Amador Fierros, G., Rojo, P., Higher Education. Neurodiversity in Higher Education: A Narrative Synthesis
Crawford, M., Maxwell, B., Coldron, J. & Simkins, T., 4 Mar 2020, Local Authorities as actors in the emerging ‘school-led’ system in England In : Educational Review. (In-Press)
Mohamad F., Morini, L., Lynn, J. and Arnab, S. (2019) Game-based learning to teach Higher Order thinking in Rural Schools - Case studies in Sarawak Borneo. IxD&A (Interaction Design and Architecture (s)) Journal, Summer (41). pp. 78-86.
Paciello, M., Tramontano, C., Nocentini, A., Fida, R. & Menesini, E., 1 Feb 2020, The Role of Traditional and Online Moral Disengagement on Cyberbullying: Do Externalising Problems Make Any Difference? In : Computers in Human Behavior. 103, p. 190-198 9 p.
Wimpenny, K., Nascimbeni, F., Affouneh, S., Almakari, A., Mayo, I., Aymen, E., (2019) Using Open Education Practices across the Mediterranean for Intercultural Curriculum Development in Higher Education, Teaching in Higher Education (accepted)
Wimpenny, K., Beelen, J., & King, V. (2019) Academic development to support the internationalization of the curriculum (IoC): A qualitative research synthesis. International Journal of Academic Development
Wimpenny, K, & Barron, V. (2019). Socially committed practice: issues of authenticity in arts related research, In J. Quaresma (Ed) Research in the arts // new trajectories of authenticity: Authenticity, polymathy and dissimulation. Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses: Lisboa. pp.57 - 80.
Wimpenny, K. Affouneh, S., Stefanelli, C. , Almakari, A., Tweissi, A., Abdel Naby, H. & Tawfik, S. (2020) OpenMed breaking boundaries and building bridges across our knowledge-sharing communities” In, Dianne Conrad and Paul Prinsloo (Eds.) Open(ing) Education: Theory and Practice, BRILL: SENSE, Leiden: Boston Chapter 11. pp 253 – 276.
Wimpenny, K. & Orsini-Jones, M. (2020) Innovation in Collaborative Online International Learning: A Holistic Blend, In D. Burgos (Ed)Trilogy: Radical Solutions in Higher Education: Innovative Changes for Recurrent Challenges. SPRINGER: Singapore (Forthcoming)