The two ESRC quota awards are offered on a competitive basis via application and references. Applicants who do not already hold a relevant Masters degree which meets the ESRC guidelines for research training normally apply for a 1 year Masters course plus a 3 year PhD. Applicants who already meet the ESRC guidelines for research training can apply for a 3 year PhD. The ESRC grant will cover the tuition fees plus maintenance payments (maintenance applies to UK residents only). All information on ESRC guidelines for research training, eligibility for awards and fee and maintenance information can be found on the ESRC website.

Research activity at Birmingham has gained consistently high scores in successive Research Assessment Exercises. In RAE 2008, 80% of the work of the School of Education was rated as of international quality, and the School is placed as one of the top ten departments in the UK (using the HEFCE power index).

The School of Education is organised into research groups and research centres, which are outlined below.

Applications are welcome from candidates wishing to study in any of these areas and you may contact any of the contact names given for the research groups for informal discussion.

Research groups

Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs (Contact Professor Ann Lewis)

• methods and methodology;
• human development;
• policy analysis;
• curricular innovation / evaluation

Governance, Management and Leadership (Contact Professor Hywel Thomas)

• educational leaders and their development;
• participation and democracy in education;
• re-modelling the education workforce;
• the use of ICT in the management of education;
• developing active citizens.

Knowledge, Culture and Diversity (Contact Professor Ian Grosvenor)

• the making of professional knowledges and practices;
• cultural issues and diversity in education and society;
• diversity of experience: gender, culture, class, ‘race’ and disability;
• histories of education and children;
• knowledge and cultural practices in sports education.

Languages, Discourses and Society (Contact Professor Angela Creese)

• multlingualism
• academic writing
• early literacy
• language, gender and sexuality
• speech and language difficulties
• second language learning and teaching

Professional Learning and Pedagogy (Contact Professor David Hartley)

•  the improvement of pedagogical practice in formal and informal settings;
• pedagogical training and curriculum development in both primary and secondary education, especially in relation to science education, geography, religious education and mathematics education;
• the analysis of both teacher education and the health-related professions (especially medicine and dentistry);
• inter-professional education;
• inter-agency working for those in the education, health and social services.

Race Equality Diversity (special interest group) (Contact Dr Paul Warmington)

• Race, ethnicity and education
• Theories of race, racialisation and racism
• Multicultural and anti-racist education
• Intersections between race and other educational inequalities

Our research interests are further defined by our Research Centres:

• Autism Centre for Education and Research (ACER) This research centre, which sits within a framework of research within the School on disability, diversity and inclusion, focuses on research and teaching on education and care for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
  
• Centre for International Education and Research (CIER) The Centre aims to further the study of education across a range of international contexts and to supply a base for research into education which is comparative and international in nature.
  
• Centre for Research in Medical and Dental Education (CRMDE) - The Centre  was established in 2000 as a partnership between the West Midlands Postgraduate Deanery and the School of Education, University of Birmingham. Since the establishment of the Centre, work has been undertaken on a wide range of research projects, with about 12 current at any one time.
  
• Centre for Research into Organisations and Pedagogy (CROP) - The Centre offers a forum to debate and develop social and cultural approaches to pedagogy in academic, educational and work-based settings.  CROP’s work will contribute to re-thinking notions of pedagogy from a range of critical perspectives that address cultural, social and political dimensions within contemporary organisations. 
  
• Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Histories of Education and Childhood (DOMUS) - DOMUS is a collaborative cluster of historians working within the School of Education on the social, political and cultural histories of schooling, education and childhood with an interest in interdisciplinary collaboration and the development of a new historiography around education, schooling and childhood.
  
• The Centre for Research on Multilingualism of/within Social and Institutional Contexts (MOSAIC) - The Centre has been created to provide a forum for the development of new, interdisciplinary lines of enquiry related to bilingualism/multilingualism, multilingual literacy, bilingual education, second language learning and contemporary discourses about linguistic and cultural diversity.
  
• Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) - The School of Education has produced internationally recognised research and teaching programmes through the Research Centre for the Education of the Visually Handicapped (RCEVH) and the course tutors. In Autumn 2001 these two broad functions were formally brought together under a single centre – the Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR). The Centre is part of a broader Sensory Team and works directly with colleagues in the fields of Deafness and Hearing Impairment, and Deafblindness / Multi-sensory Impairment.

Applying

Applications should be made on a University of Birmingham form. All applications must include a 1,000 word research proposal.

Further details and application forms are available from:

Helen Joinson
Student Research Office
School of Education
The University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham B15 2TT

Telephone: 0121 414 4847
Email: H.E.Joinson@bham.ac.uk

Please ensure that you make it clear that this application should be considered for an ESRC quota award.