Education and Professional Development Research Festival 2017
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 13:51:00 BST
The School of Education and Professional Development recently hosted a Research Festival that offered a celebratory and engaging opportunity for students on the BA(Hons) Education and Professional Development course to present their final year research which served to extend their horizons and for some, result in potential publication.
The festival is a unique and innovative part of the course design, offering the opportunity to share and learn from peers, each an expert in their own field. By sharing their research, the students’ are not only able to disseminate their findings, but it also allows a sharing of creative and innovative responses to real world questions.
The festival was attended by over 50 people, and included a range of first years, alumni, NQT’s, mentors, workplace managers and tutors with 28 of the students presenting their research. The opening address was introduced by Consortium Director David Powell and was followed by a keynote lecture entitled ‘Who Cares Wins? Gender, Identity and Employment in Contemporary Education’delivered by Professor Robin Simmons, Professor of Education.
The External Examiner for the course has been supportive in attending the event each year as this is not normally part of Externals' duties. This year he remarked that, "it was even better this year' and has followed it up with a glowing report on the impact of the research studies on students" practice in their work contexts. Students had the benefit of critical discussions on the content of the studies with the External examiner and with their peers' work based mentors and managers in the dialogues held between sessions.
Two of the students presenting, both studying the BA(Hons) Education & Professional Development course part-time, have recently won awards within their field. Mr Gavin Knox recently won the ‘Extraordinary Teacher and Educator award 2016 within his workplace and is now an Advanced Practitioner alongside his teaching duties. “The course has been the best thing for my career; it is really through this BA course that my confidence and knowledge has grown that has enabled me to take on this new role.”
The second award was won by Paula Cullen who received the Northern Power Women 2017 award. “I will be encouraging more women to achieve these kinds of awards and since undertaking my Major Study it has been the greatest experience as we are now looking to develop such awards for the Humber region.”
