GLEA Newsletter December 2018
Welcome to the latest news from the
Centre for Global Learning: Education and Attainment
'Research that Informs, Transforms and Influences Global Education’
GLEA announces its first PhD award dedicated to the memory of Ian King
In June this year, GLEA announced its first call to support fees for a part-time student working with Coventry University Students Union to facilitate research into equity and attainment for students. It was agreed to name the award after Ian King, whose memory and lifetime of work was spent dedicated to supporting students. His achievements, with other colleagues of the day, included such ideas as the development of NUS Extra, the use and development of student staff, the joint representation of the movement on a number of national committees addressing current issues such as student binge drinking, and the overall professionalisation of Students unions.
Starting as a student officer at Stirling University (where he met his future wife Rebecca), he was actively involved in creating a voice for students rights. As general manager of a number of Students Unions, he developed with others a practical philosophy, which would address many of the financial issues students face, improving the administrative and recruitment processes associated with students studying for a degree and the general professionalisation of the student movement as a whole. In his capacity as Chief Executive of NUSSL, he mentored many student officers, was a trustee, and worked with a number of higher education institutions. He won a Lifetime Contribution Award in 2010, before sadly passing away after a long battle with ill health in 2012.
Grace Cappy, Governance and Policy Manager at Coventry University Students was successful in starting her PhD in September 2018, which aims to identify and address the barriers of LGBT+ students, and what can help them succeed in a Higher Education environment.
When discussing the PhD topic, Grace spoke passionately of the work she undertakes at the Student Union, and how they are working hard to develop student’s skills and confidence in a number of ways. This PhD will contribute to that aim in developing a toolkit that is designed to enable Universities to support LGBT+ students and staff, not only here at Coventry University but across the sector.
Rebecca King said of the new award: “
‘Throughout his career Ian always prioritised students; they were his officers and members and he believed that being a student was a unique opportunity of gaining wider experience. He would absorb ideas and adapt them to benefit and drive this overall experience and the student movement as a whole. This award is therefore a perfect and extremely fitting way of honouring Ian. I know that he would be both touched and honoured - as am I and our daughter Amy.’
Rebecca hopes that these opportunities will run repeatedly, so that Universities continue to put students at the heart of everything they do. She continues the passion she and Ian shared to help people, by volunteering at a local kitchen providing free meals for the homeless and those that need them. GLEA hopes that by funding this important research, we can have real impact on ensuring we are supporting our students in the most appropriate ways.
Collaboration between GLEA and the Centre for Postdigital Cultures
Professor Lynn Clouder
This August I had the privilege of visiting Chile to attend the final in-country conference at the end of the MUSE Erasmus+ funded project with my colleagues, Jacqueline Cawston and Sarah Merry, from the Centre for Postdigital Cultures. MUSE focused on improving support for students with disabilities in Latin America, including during their transition into employment. The partner countries were Argentina, Chile and Mexico. The conference was held in Vina del Mar, which is located in the Valparaíso Region of Chile, a 2-hour bus journey from the capital Santiago. Vina del Mar is Chile’s fourth largest city. Sitting on the coast - its name means ‘Vineyard of the Sea’ and it is a popular holiday resort.
The first day of the visit was devoted to a national Roundtable event with speakers and panel discussions. The following two-day programme was designed to present the project findings to a national audience of policy makers, senior managers of higher education institutions and academics, raising the profile of students with disabilities and their rights to a university education and their aspirations to contribute to the economy through employment.
The programme was packed and many of the sessions were inspirational. There is nothing like visiting another country, and another culture, and meeting new people who have the passion to drive forward an agenda like this one, which in many ways makes me feel that the UK still has a lot to learn about inclusion. Projects come and go and sustainability can be problematic but the ideals underpinning MUSE were definitely embedded from senior leadership levels to grassroots, which I think is crucial to ongoing support and success.
Visits like this one has to include some cultural highlights. We spent one of our evenings on a surprise activity on the seafront, but wearing blackout googles and using walking poles to simulate visual impairment and navigating a route over sand, cobbles and pavements, which was a sobering experience. Then the Rector of Universidad Vina del Mar, Sr. Carlos Isaac Palyi hosted the conference dinner at which many of the delegates sang. Music and dance is very much part of Latin American culture - we had previously learned to dance the Milonga, (a type of tango but faster) during a visit to Argentina in 2017. This visit ended with an official reception with music by Mundos Reunidos, a well know group of highly talented Chilean musicians. The warmth of the project partners in Latin America is wonderful and their passion for their work is infectious such that we are planning a follow on project. But there are several pre-requisites for a return trip: improve my Spanish, practice singing, and remember to pack some dancing shoes!
Professor Lynn Clouder
Highlights from Equity and Attainment Theme
The equity and attainment theme addresses whether all students have equal access to quality education. Coventry University Group, with its global reach, has made significant progress in reducing the participation gap, in terms of access for students from ethnic minority groups. The next level is to ensure equity of opportunity for its diverse body of staff and students.
The Office for Students part-funded DRIVER project, led by GLEA staff, is monitoring whether interventions to support equality of opportunity are having an impact. The team are currently assessing whether a new pro-active system of student phone calls made by the University’s Student Engagement Centre provides more equitable access to support. GLEA is also working with three other Midlands universities and their partner ‘feeder’ colleges on jointly assessing a range of measures to help students to transition into higher education.
Initial findings of the DRIVER project is being presented to the Society for Research into Higher Education in December (5-7). This presentation reviewed all of the project’s interventions according to a framework that identifies what barriers and drivers underpin change.
The barriers and drivers most frequently tackled across the whole project are around improving knowledge and skills, making changes to the student environment or provision of new resources, measures to increase student capacity to successfully navigate university systems and enhancing students’ sense of belonging. The final phase of the project will assess which initiatives are most successful.
Student Feedback
Despite advances in teaching and learning, and in expectations around the university experience, student feedback in higher education continues to focus on fulfilling basic needs. GLEA team members Sandeep Gakhal and Caroline Wilson have examined feedback gathered by the student surveys team at Coventry.
Contacts: Dr Caroline Wilson & Sandeep Gakhal
Highlights from Intercultural Engagement and Global Education Theme
A focus on some of our project work and partnership work over the last month
Visiting Professor visit and research partnerships
On the 22nd November, we welcomed Jos Beelen, Professor of Global Learning, from The Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Hague, and Visiting Professor of GLEA to continue our project partnership work around publications, grant applications, scholarly exchange visits and seminars.
During the day we enjoyed an Online International Learning (OIL) seminar presented by Jos, with another colleague Eva Haug, OIL coordinator, Coordinator of Internationalisation Faculty of Business, Lecturer in Intercultural Competence, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS). Eva took time out of her busy agenda whilst visiting colleagues at Coventry to talk about the first OIL project between students in Amsterdam and Coventry, to how they have upscaled their provision to now offer OIL experiences to 800 students annually. The seminar was well attended, with rich discussion and supported in collaboration with colleagues from CGE.
New Projects
We were pleased to be awarded one of the internal Cross-Centre International and Interdisciplinary Pilot Projects from the Doctoral College. This international study, actively involving doctoral and early career researchers, will explore Chinese students’ motivation, expectation and experiences of studying on a TNE programme provided by Coventry University (Cov Uni) at two major Chinese partner universities: Southwest University of Political Science and Law and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. It will examine students’ preferred learning approaches in relation to Anglo-Sino pedagogies including how issues such as social background, gender, and prior educational experiences intersect and impact learning experiences. Further, the perspectives of Coventry University and Chinese academics will be explored, in relation to intercultural teaching and learning. We are currently seeking to recruit a PhD student to work with us on the project.
To find out more about the role, please send your queries along with your CV to Professor Katherine Wimpenny k.wimpenny@coventry.ac.uk
We have had a busy month in terms of our ongoing project work
Enhancing Engineering Education Project (EEEP)
This month we have been preparing a survey tool to use with staff and students at WSU to capture baseline data about teaching and learning on the engineering courses to inform our next stage partner workshops planned for February 2019.
We have also been looking at the course curriculum of both WSU and Coventry Engineering programmes to understand similarities and differences.
JOVITAL
With regards to JOVITAL, a recent monitoring visit has been conducted to confirm the project relevance to the needs of the partner country and in line with Jordanian Ministry of Higher Education priorities and plan for eLearning. The project activities implemented so far are in line with the proposal and organized to meet the objectives. This includes the baseline Needs Analysis Report, prepared by Coventry University, which is informing the next stage training workshops to support capacity building for academics working in the Jordanian HEIs. Importantly the project partners are also discussing how to elaborate practical ways to reach the refugees and disadvantaged students in remote areas of Jordan through the developed eLearning (virtual) activities.
EduHack.eu
This EU project, lead in Coventry by Dr Daniel Villar-Onrubia, DMLL, in collaboration with Professor Katherine Wimpenny and Dr Luca Morini, GLEA, had a project partner meeting in Malta last month to review the launch and dissemination plan for the online course, the creation of an EduHack.eu network, the contents of the EduHack.eu Toolbox and the course accreditation process. The meeting was most productive with partners enjoying dedicated time to focus on the review and refinement of project activities.
Back on campus Dr Daniel Villar-Onrubia (DMLL) has been particularly busy sharing the project work with colleagues on campus including gathering ideas about the focus for Coventry University’s EduHackathon.
Professor Katherine Wimpenny, Theme Lead Intercultural Engagement and Global Education
Researcher in the Spotlight
Professor Megan Crawford
Megan joined GLEA in August 2018 to lead the development of programmes and doctoral study in the field of Higher Education.
We asked Megan to tell us about her areas of interest and hopes for the centre.
My career has developed from primary schools, where I was a Deputy Headteacher to HE teaching and research. When my first child was small I left schools and worked part time as a university administrator at the Open University (OU). Following my Masters, I became a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at the OU. I then become a Senior Lecturer at Warwick, finished my Ph.D., and looked after the Education Research Students. I then worked at University Central London Institute of Education, where I was acting Dean of the Doctoral College, developed an online Masters and then ran the EdD. I then worked at Oxford Brookes and Cambridge, where I was a Reader, and Deputy Head in charge of PG programmes. I have just returned from Devon where I was Director of the Plymouth Institute of Education (70 staff), and Professor of Educational Leadership and Professional Learning. My particular teaching interest is Postgraduate programmes, and in particular, the needs of the part time student. I have worked on many research projects for the Department for Education on aspects of leadership in schools, from governors to CPD. I have written over 50 articles and book chapters on both practice and theory, two sole authored books, and many edited books, which sounds like a lot when I write it down! My particular research interests are the emotions of leadership and the development of education policy (schools and HE), as well as how professional develop their identities. I am also interested in how academics develop and have worked with colleagues on their professional practice in all my roles. As a volunteer, I have been a governor of six schools, and set up three new primary and one new secondary schools in Milton Keynes from scratch. I am currently Chair of a Multi Academy Trust in Milton Keynes which runs six schools, primary, secondary and an all through. In 2009 I was governor of the year for the East of England, but failed to win the national prize - I have a splendid statue though, which I will bring in when we have real offices. Outside all the above, my hobby is family history and I started long before the internet with documents, and I do undertake research for people when I have time. My husband is a nurse, and still (equity wise) when he says ‘We’re a doctor and a nurse’, people ask me where I nurse! Our two sons are in their twenties. In GLEA I hope to bring all of the above to bear on a fluid suite of PG programmes, which highlights our Research Centre strengths and allows a pathway to support those, who like me, want to do PG work whilst working full time.
Professor Megan Crawford
Other News
Congratulations
Congratulations to Dr Caroline Wilson who was successful in securing a Senior Research Fellow position within GLEA. Well done Caroline!
Recent Publications
Bartle, C. & Wilson, C. 2 Jul 2018 EduLearn 2018 Proceedings. IATED Academy, Vol. (in press), p. (in press)
Is students' qualitative feedback changing, now it is online?
Gakhal, S. & Wilson, C. 30 Oct 2018 In : Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. (In-Press), p. (In-Press)
#3CityLink: Disrupting Learning Through a Translocal Art Pedagogy Exchange Project
Wimpenny, K., Knowles, R. V., Ramsey, C. & Speculand, J. 28 Aug 2018 (Accepted/In press) In : The International Journal of Art & Design Education. (In-Press), p. (In-Press)