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December

Birmingham Royal Ballet and University of Birmingham celebrate ten year partnership

On December 14th at the Ikon Gallery Birmingham an event was held to celebrate the tenth year of partnership between the School of Education and Birmingham Royal Ballet. In September 1997 the first cohort of professional dancers from The Company embarked on a customised post experience degree programme. The design enabled flexibility of awards, length of study and the chance for dancers to study and retain their full-time positions in The Company. The event marked the success of three cohorts of graduates in 2000, 2004 and 2007. A special tribute publication contains the history and impact of this collaboration. It marks a very special enterprise for the City of Birmingham, Company and University that will retain a unique position in the world history of partnerships between higher education and the professional dance world.

In the published tribute twenty-three dancers speak of the changes higher education made to their lives. While some are still performing in the city the international nature of Birmingham Royal Ballet has ensured that many have moved to second careers throughout the world including Australia, Florida, Texas, Austria and Germany. Course leader Dr Tansin Benn said:

“ … it was a fitting moment to celebrate achievements to date in an ongoing and developing partnership. The demands of early vocational training for ballet dancers to realise a place in the profession require a dedication and application that ensures traditional routes into and through higher education are denied. The achievements of the Birmingham Royal Ballet dancers are testimony to the importance of welcoming such highly skilled professionals into Universities and of the benefits of partnership that enable provision to be tailored around the lives and needs of previously excluded groups.”

BRB MA graduates Laetitia Lo Sardo, Pearl Chesterman, Marion Rainer, Jenny Murphy with Deputy Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet Desmond Kelly - Honorary Dr of Letters - 12th December 2007

November

11 MILLION Takeover Day

More than 5000 children and young people visited over 400 organizations across England for 11 MILLION Takeover Day on Friday November 23. The School of Education invited four pupils (Hailey Watson, Sarah Khan, Rowan Lennard, Gabriella Stringer) and their teacher Kayan Parker from Swanshurst School. The group carried out assessment and spelling techniques with Barbara Pavey and then explored some of the wider dimensions of university life with visits to Winterbourne Gardens and the Barber Institute.

After lunch the pupils spent an hour with the school's e-Learning Team, exploring and evaluating the WebCT the online learning environment, and tools such as discussions and chat. This was followed by an interesting discussion about Web 2.0 (sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Bebo) and the pupils experience of the Internet in general and e-Learning in particular.

Laura Day Ashley has been awarded a British Academy grant for the project entitled: "A study of Indian influences on progressive education in Britain during the early 20th century and their subsequent impact". The award is for two honours and is for the sum of £6105 for expenditures associated with archival research.

Stephen Gorard has been awarded a QCA grant of £434,000 for 11 months from October 2007. This is to create a nationally representative database of education and training pathways in schools and colleges for students from the age of 14. This will form the baseline for an evaluation in subsequent years of the 2008 14 - 19 Reforms. Chris Corcoran, Richard Pring, and the universities of Newcastle, Oxford Brookes and Southampton are also involved.

October

Helen Lees, postgraduate education researcher at the School of Education, featured in the TES from Friday October 26 in the "Comment" column with "Adults have the right to be free from child abuse".

Congratulations to Dr Sarah Parsons for being appointed Vice Chair of the Arts and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee.

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The launch of the new Research Centre ACER launch was a well-attended success

The launch of the Autism Centre for Research and Education (ACER) took place on 4 October 2007 at the School of Education. Members of the ACER team, including Prof Rita Jordan, Dr Gelnys Jones, Dr Mitzi Waltz, Karen Guldberg and Andrea MacLeod, presented information about their current research and the Centre’s direction at a well-attended half-day conference.

The ACER launch was followed by Prof Jordan’s Gulliford lecture.

The event was sponsored in part by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, with the Autism team picking up the remaining costs.

ACER will strengthen and unite the different research and teaching components of the Autism Team and enhance its research profile, income and activities. It will also provide clear and accessible information on the range and depth of activities and highlight the significant expertise in ASD within the Team.

ACER will be unique in the UK, as the only Centre which has extensive research expertise on educational interventions, and knowledge and experience of provision across health, social services, education and the voluntary and independent sectors for both children and adults with ASD. It is the only Centre that offers such a wide range of teaching in terms of modes of delivery, student numbers and academic level.  ACER is also the only Centre worldwide to set up a Research Advisory Group comprised of adults with autistic spectrum disorders as well as consulting carers and other stakeholders.

For more information about ACER, see: www.webautism.bham.ac.uk

August

Children Speak Out In Groundbreaking Epilepsy Research

Children are calling for a better understanding of epilepsy within mainstream schools, claims an innovative report by researchers at the School of Education, Birmingham University. Supported by the charity Epilepsy Action, the ‘Understanding of epilepsy by children with, or without, epilepsy’ report  looks at how children think and feel about epilepsy.

The research found that most children with epilepsy have a clear understanding of the condition. However, the findings also indicate that children want teachers and classmates, along with other adults around them, to gain more knowledge about epilepsy. Children feel that adults would be better placed to support their epilepsy if they openly discussed the condition and listened to the views of children.

Although the research showed that children with epilepsy do worry about the stigma surrounding the condition, it also found children without epilepsy to be overwhelmingly sympathetic towards children with epilepsy. In addition, children without epilepsy would like to know more about the condition and what they should do if a classmate has a seizure.

When asked about their ambitions and aspirations for the future, it was found that the majority of children with epilepsy have a positive outlook. One child replied: “I hope that there is a better understanding of epilepsy . . . so other children with the condition can lead normal lives and everyone around them will understand their condition!”

Professor Ann Lewis, who led the research, says: “The predominant message from the report is that children want accurate and helpful information about epilepsy to be available and discussed in school and other social groups. In addition, children want this information to be provided through mainstream contexts such as TV programmes, the Internet, celebrity spokespeople and magazines. If this is carried out, then children with epilepsy are more likely to make the most of their schooling and experience wider social inclusion.”

The report offers practical recommendations for how schools in particular can take responsibility for increasing the awareness of epilepsy amongst children, e.g. adopting a whole-school policy to support people with epilepsy.

Epilepsy Action believes that if communities were more proactive about raising awareness of epilepsy, this would greatly help children and young people who are living with the condition to feel like the valued members of society that, in reality, they are.

The full report, including additional recommendations, has been published by Epilepsy Action and is available for viewing at www.epilepsy.org.uk/research.

Lewis A, Parsons S, Smith P. Understanding of epilepsy by children with or without epilepsy. Epilepsy Action 2007.

This research was carried out between April 2006 and March 2007. It encompassed two overlapping sets of data collection (informed by a literature review): (1) an e survey of 44 self-selected children and young people with epilepsy and  (2) interviews (mainly individual) in mainstream schools with (i) 22 children/young people with epilepsy and (ii) 22 classmates (matched, by age, gender and broad ability level with  child with epilepsy).

July

Congratulations to Gary Thomas, Natasha Macnab and Oliver Mason (English dept) on winning the Society of Educational Studies Major Grant Award 2007 for a project on "Engagement with reported research in different areas of publication peer review: consequences for teaching and learning in Higher Education."

June

Congratulations to Laura Day Ashley for being awarded the British Academy grant for a historical study of Indian influences on progressive education in Britain.

The British Academy, established by Royal Charter in 1902, is the national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It is an independent, self-governing fellowship of more than 800 scholars, elected for distinction and achievement in one or more branches of the academic disciplines that make up the humanities and social sciences.

Professor Clive Harber was a keynote speaker at the UNESCO Expert Meeting "Stopping Violence in Schools:  What Works?" in Paris on 29 June 2007

Congratulations to Professor Rita Jordan, Head of Autism Studies, for being awarded an OBE  (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2007 Queen’s Birthday Honours,  for services to special needs education.

The Order of the British Empire recognises distinguished service to the arts and sciences, public services outside the Civil Service and work with charitable and welfare organisations of all kinds.

Graduate School Poster & Networking Conference, 12th June 2007

Postgraduate Researchers Get Their Message Across

The 12th June saw more than eighty PhD students from all disciplines within the University presenting their research in poster form to judges, fellow students and visitors in a marquee in Chancellor’s Court.  Hosted by the Graduate School, each poster was judged according to content, visual impact and the student’s ability to explain their work to a non-specialist audience.  Posters were divided for judging into the three Deaneries and within each one winner and two runners up prizes were awarded. 

In the Social Sciences and Humanities Deanery Aydan Suphi and Robert Eden from the School of Education were both awarded the runners up prizes.

Aydan Suphi: Developing Collaborative Working Between Speech and Language Therapists and Teaching Staff in a Special School

Speech and language therapists (SLTs) who work with children with communication difficulties, are usually employed by the National Health Service but frequently work within school settings. Potential conflicts in the working relationship between SLTs and teaching staff are well documented in the literature. My research study is based in a school for children with special educational needs where historically the relationship between the school and the speech and language therapy service has been problematic. I aim to examine the tensions within a small team of staff at the school comprising teaching staff and a SLT. By reflecting back my findings to the team, I aim to facilitate collaborative learning and improved joint working within the team. My study is based on Activity Theory which has been used extensively by Engestrom  (1987) to facilitate collaborative learning in various work settings. (Click on the poster to enlarge)

References

Engestrom, Y. (1987), Learning by Expanding: An Activity-theoretical Approach to Developmental Research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit

Robert Eden: The Student Experience in Higher Education through the eyes of entrants with vocational qualifications

I am researching the student experience in Higher Education of young people who have entered with vocational (non-standard) qualifications. Although student experience has been researched quite extensively, the experience of this particular group of students has not been explored to the same extent. It is my intention, by using interviews to portray the experience from this group of young people. I will also be determining whether the various discourses of social class, ethnicity and gender have any significant impact upon this experience. (Click on the poster to enlarge)

May

Congratulations to Ian Grosvenor on the award of a £270K grant from the AHRC under the Knowledge Transfer Fellowship Scheme for a project entitled 'Birmingham stories: from communities of interpretation to communities of understanding'. This is a major achievement and the School will pay for the employment of a postdoctoral researcher as well as the time of Ian and Dr Andy Green (Birmingham City) over two years.

BUiD graduation

Tansin Benn represented the University of Birmingham at the first graduation in the British University in Dubai on Monday May 14th 2007. The majority of students graduating with MEd degrees in Special Needs and International Management, came through the Institute of Education.  The School of Education, Birmingham has worked in partnership with the Institute of Education at BUiD for the last three years and is hoping to expand this involvement.

Tansin receiving a plaque from BUiD Chancellor, HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum with BUiD's new Vice-Chancellor Dr Abdullah Alshamsi on her right.

Graduates, staff and families.

April

Congratulations to Tansin Benn on winning a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. Tansin's project is entitled 'Women in Oman: Education, Training and Teaching'.  Leverhulme Fellowships support world class scholarship and competition for them is fierce. The award is for Tansin's time in undertaking her research and is for £30K from January to June 2008.

Lost in translation!

Dr Jodi Tommerdahl, clinical linguistics lecturer in the School of Education, and her husband Andrew Verity, work on the translation to English from French of the film Persepolis, which was due to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last month.

An animated political film about Iran, based on the best-selling book by Iranian author Majane Strapi, the production stars Kirsten Dunst in the lead role with Catherine Deneuve as her mother.

Jodi, who studied for her PhD at the University of Paris – Sorbonne, and Andrew, a civil engineer who was raised in Paris and is bilingual, were asked to undertake the translation for the English version of the film by its producer, Marc-Antoine Roberts, a close friend. ‘He knew he could count on us to do a good job quickly on a small budget,’ explains Jodi. ‘We didn’t think it would end up with us going to Cannes. It’s a special movie.’

A decade of Asian dance

Asian dance expert Chitraleka Bolar is celebrating her tenth anniversary as Artist in Residence at the School of Education.

The professional dancer-turned teacher, choreographer and lecturer - whose passion for her art began at the age of five, while at school in Kerala, near her native Kasaragod in India - became the first recognised teacher of Asian dance in Birmingham after moving to the UK with her husband in 1978.

‘There were very few people around doing Asian dance in Britain at that time so I’m quite proud to be able to say I was instrumental in helping it to develop,’ says Chitraleka, a mother of two, who set up her original classes at the Hindu temple in Handsworth and later moved to the Midland Art Centre (MAC) in Cannon Hill Park, Edgbaston.

‘Very few people understood the value of dance in our culture then and to convince people that it was worth running an Asian dance class I had to put on free demonstrations,’ she remembers. ‘Of course, as soon as people realised I was serious, saw the dancing and were given the forms to fill in, we were inundated. At one meeting, 38 of the 100 people present signed up straight away.’

Today, a decade after taking up her residency at Birmingham, she works extensively throughout the UK, specialising in the classical South Asian dance genres of Bharatanatym and Kathak, as well as cutting-edge contemporary styles.

The Chitraleka Dance Company, is renowned nationally and internationally, and has toured nine UK productions, including the highly successful The Story of C, based on the Primo Levi story of the history of an atom of carbon from his book The Periodic Table.

The company’s latest production, Stardust to Flesh, which is expected to have its research and development programme this autumn and a national tour in spring 2008, continues the current vogue for marrying science and art. It has, Chitraleka says, a religious education element which echoes the pre-Darwinian evolutionary teaching of ancient Indian mythology.

‘I try to find elements which enhance the current curriculum, we are, after all, an educational company.’ Meanwhile, she continues to lecture to a wide variety of students of dance, including running a full day’s workshop on Sundays, held at the nearby King Edward VI Handsworth School. ‘Being here has given me a different perspective on my own art form,’ she says. ‘It’s made me think about it and ask what it can offer people as well as how accessible it is, although it is a high art form’.

Chitraleka relishes the links she has with dance companies in India, where she is still regularly invited to participate in dance festivals. ‘We took ‘C’ to India, performing in Chennai and Bangalore. At one high school we did three back-to-back performances in a day, for some 7,000 children.’ In initiatives funded by Arts Council England and Birmingham City Council, Chitraleka spends much of her time involved in outreach work and nurturing young dancers. Almost ten years ago, she set up a youth dance company in which young people are encouraged to explore and develop their dance skills and perform short pieces.

She also chairs the South Asian Dance Faculty of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance.

February

Congratulations to Graham Chorlton

Graham Chorlton won the prize for a 'work in oil' submitted to Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery [BMAG] Open Show Exhibition 2007. The judges were unanimous in choosing Graham's painting for the prize. The Exhibition is at BMAG's Gas Hall.

January

Senior Professor becomes Fellow

Hywel Thomas, from the School of Education, has been made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners for his work in developing the curriculum for training GPs. Hywel began working with a team at the College in 2003, which was starting to work on the UK's first curriculum for training general practitioners. He provided expert assistance in submitting the curriculum to the Postgraduate Medical Education Training Board (PMETB). As a result, the curriculum was granted approval by the board in September 2006.

Series of research projects into the experiences of disabled pupils and their families

Issues concerning the education of children with special needs or disabilities have rarely been out of the news in recent months. A team from the School of Education (Ann Lewis, Sarah Parsons, Christopher Robertson, Ian Davison and Jean Ellins) have completed (2004-7) a series of research projects into the experiences of disabled pupils and their families which sheds light on this controversial area.

This innovative work, funded by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC), paid particular attention to the voices of disabled children and young people and has attracted the attention of policy-makers across Great Britain. The DRC are planning high profile launches of the findings in London, Cardiff and Edinburgh (Spring 2007).

Phase 1 focused on piloting sampling and methods to hear the views of 37 disabled children and young people and eight families across a wide spectrum of disabilities, ages and needs. This research also provided pointers to substantive issues such as the paucity of community support for some disabled children and factors influencing key periods of transition in young people's lives.

Phase 2 built on this work and encompassed three strands. The first strand was a survey of parents and carers, with particular reference to disabled children or children with special needs (1776 responses, covering six main regions of England, Scotland and Wales, of which around 35% were from parents of children with disabilities, special educational needs or difficulties). This questionnaire was supplemented with an e-survey of parents/ carers focusing on community support for disabled children.

The second strand of phase 2 concerned the involvement of several consultation groups of disabled people who provided both formative advice about the project and feedback about emerging findings.

The third strand of phase 2 comprised in-depth individual (36 children/young people with disabilities and/or special needs) and group (3 groups) case studies. These case studies, from four of the six regions involved in the parent survey (2 above), were GB-wide. All three strands from the second phase of the research considered five main themes: independence and autonomy; ambition and aspirations; knowledge and assertion of rights; experience of accessible/inaccessible educational environments; and attitudes and behaviours. Phase 1 and parent survey reports are available *.

Further research reports will be available in due course through the School of Education and Disability Rights Commission /CEHR websites.

* Lewis, A., Davison, I., Ellins, J., Parsons, S and Robertson, C. (2006). Survey of parents and carers of disabled children and young people in Great Britain. Research report to Disability Rights Commission, June 2006. Birmingham: University of Birmingham, School of Education.

Lewis, A., Robertson, C., & Parsons, S. (2005). Experiences of Disabled Students and their Families. Phase 1. Research report to Disability Rights Commission, June 2005. Birmingham: University of Birmingham, School of Education.

Lewis, A., Niblett, L., Parsons, S., Robertson, C. and Sharpe, J. (2006) Advisory Groups of Disabled Children and Young People with Reference to Experiences of Disabled Children and their Families (Phase 2). Research report to Disability Rights Commission, August 2006. Birmingham: University of Birmingham, School of Education.

Lewis, A., Parsons, S. and Robertson, C. (2006) Experiences of disabled students and their families - Phase 2.. Final research report to the Disability Rights Commission, October 2006, Birmingham: University of Birmingham, School of Education.