University of Brighton 2013 studentships closed for applications at 4pm on Thursday 11 April 2013
If you have submitted an application but do not hear from us within 3 weeks, regretfully you have not been successful with your application. The 2013 studentship have attracted an unprecedented number of quality applications and competition is understandably strong. The University of Brighton will offer research studentships in 2014 and will again welcome applications.
Interviews for shortlisted candidates will take place between 7 and 17 May 2013. All those invited to interview will be informed of the outcome by 12 June 2013
If you have a question regarding your application please contact our Doctoral College on +44 01273 642915 or doctoralcollegedean@brighton.ac.uk
Research Collaboration and Cooperation: Narrative Study, Pedagogy and Learning
- Based in the Faculty of Education and Sport
- Supervisors:Professor Ivor Goodson, Dr Tim Rudd, Professor Avril Loveless
Application deadline is 4pm, 11th April 2013
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The studentship will study and extend the innovative work on narrative learning and pedagogy that is a key research focus in the Education Research Centre. The project will focus on forms of collaboration and cooperation in learning communities, with a particular interest in cooperative pedagogies.
It is underpinned by the following questions:
• What are the research strategies and methodologies that focus on and sponsor collaboration and cooperation in learning communities?
• How do research centres develop partnerships and networks which focus on and sponsor collaboration and cooperation in learning communities?
• How might ongoing work on narrative learning and narrative pedagogy develop collaborative and cooperative areas?
• How can narrative methods be employed in studying cooperative schools and research partnerships?
The context of the project is in the research partnerships between a University School of Education and partner schools and colleges. It shapes a distinctive identity for the University in a changing landscape of education partnerships and models of professional development. These changes raise challenges for the professional identities, boundaries, pedagogies and narratives of educators in different settings. Fieldwork will be conducted with participants in universities, schools and colleges in the UK, informed by networks in Latin America and the Netherlands. The theoretical framework for the doctoral scholarship will be informed by the world-leading scholarship and expertise of the supervisory team in the field of narrative learning, pedagogy, theory and leadership, and participatory and cooperative learning networks with new technologies. There is also convergence with the work of the wider research team in the Education Research Centre working in the themes of Narrative, Voice and Identity; Pedagogy and Curriculum; Professional Life and Work; and International Education and Development.
Narrative Learning reviews the strategies by which peoples’ narratives work as sites for learning and social engagement and are both an individual and collective cooperative enterprise. Moreover narrative learning is an under-used site for professional development and professional collaboration. In Narrative Pedagogy the individual and collaborative employment of narratives in ‘pedagogic encounters’ whether formal or informal, are explored, focusing especially on narrative learning through and within relationships and collaborative encounters. Such work has shown how by transforming memories and understanding narrative, groups and communities can be helped to change the way they interact and co-exist within a society.’ Work on Developing Narrative Theory has also shown how people often develop a ‘theory of context’ about their life experiences and how they define ‘life themes’ which provide them with the means to build social projects which involve collaboration and cooperation.
New work in the Education Research Centre focuses on a range of themes relating to collaboration and cooperation. We are working with the Cooperative College in Manchester to develop research on schools run by the Cooperative Movement. The particular concern is to define and delineate a ‘cooperative pedagogy’ on which the mission of the schools could be focussed. Likewise the RIAIPE III project (2011-2013) focuses on social injustice in higher education in Latin America and involves collaborative research across twelve countries and eighteen universities.
The Education Research Centre has a long track record of large research projects focussing on narrative methods and collaborative and participatory methods. The doctoral studentship will develop the collaborative potential of narrative methods, narrative learning and narrative pedagogy in the context of partnerships for professional development. The successful candidate will need to draw upon experience of qualitative research approaches and be open to developing expertise in narrative and participatory innovations.
