Category: Uncategorised

Tuesday 4th June 2024 – 4:30pm-5:30pm // free and online // Eventbrite registration required for non-UWE colleagues

---

By Malcolm Richards – Senior Lecturer in Education, School of Education and Childhood

The fourth in an exciting series of collaborations by Network for Black Studies in Education, in collaboration with UWE ECRG, Bristol Caribbean Kitchen, Bookbag (Exeter), and Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School (Leicester).

Registration:

• For UWE students (MA/EdD/PhD) or UWE staff, please email Malcolm Richards directly for information and registration: malcolm.richards@uwe.ac.uk
• For non-UWE colleagues, please register for the event on Eventbrite: Culture Club: Words, Sight and Sounds w.Dr. Ryan Hanley (Uni of Exeter) Tickets, Tue 4 Jun 2024 at 16:30 | Eventbrite

Overview

Culture Club: Words, Sight and Sounds remixes traditional book club formats, using digital sources to encourage a creative learning space for teachers, student teachers, community educators, and academics. We are specifically interested in developing deeper understandings of the wide-ranging area of Black Studies scholarship, and its relevance to local-global contemporary education.

Our guest discussant

We are delighted to welcome as our guest, Dr Ryan Hanley (University of Exeter, Exeter, UK).

Ryan Hanley is a Senior Lecturer (Education and Research) and historian of race and slavery in modern Britain, with particular interests in the contributions and perspectives of people of African descent and the intersection of race and class, from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Ryan is one of two historians to be awarded both the Alexander Prize and Whitfield Book Prize from the Royal Historical Society. In 2023, he was awarded a Phillip Leverhulme Prize for his work on Black British histories.

How it works:

Ryan has selected THREE digital resources inspired by Words, Sights, and Sounds, for us to respond with. These stimuli are freely available from digital sources, with URL links provided on registration. 

Event structure:

·       Introduction Malcolm Richards (UWE Bristol)

·       Presentation of WORD, SIGHT and SOUNDS by Dr Ryan Hanley

·       Opening reflections

·       Community dialogue with connections to wider Black Studies scholarship

·       Closing words with Dr Ryan Hanley

Please note after the session we remain online for 30mins to hold space as an act of community care.

Event recording

Where possible, we will record our key discussant presentation. This recording will be made freely available on the Network for Black Studies virtual campus (independent website launching in 2024) – with full credits and acknowledgements applied.

Playlist

Culture Club: Words Sights and Sounds has a Spotify playlist co-curated by our community participants. Please find link here:

Future dates:

·       Ass. Professor Obianuju Juliet Bushi (University of Windsor, Canada) – Volume. 5 – (Tuesday 9 July 2024)

More information:

 If you would like to hear any more about joining the Network for Black Studies in Education with UWE, or our future events, please contact Malcolm Richards malcolm.richards@uwe.ac.uk

Thanks:

Culture Club: Words, Sights and Sounds is a series of exciting collaborations by the Network for Black Studies in Education, with Bristol Caribbean Kitchen, Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School (Leicester, UK), UWE ECRG Equity in Education, and our growing connections with local-global community organisations.

By Dr Tim Clark, ECRG Strand Leader as featured on the SRHE News Blog

---

All doctoral students in the UK are expected to navigate periodic, typically annual, progress reviews as part of their studies (QAA, 2020). Depending on the stage, and the individual institutional regulations, these often play a role in determining confirmation of doctoral status and/or continuation of studies. Given that there were just over 100,000 doctoral students registered in the UK in 2021 (HESA, 2022), it could therefore be argued that the progress review is a relatively prominent, and potentially high stakes, example of higher education assessment.  However, despite this potential significance, guidance relating to doctoral progress reviews is fairly sparse, institutional processes and terminology reflect considerable variations in approach, empirical research to inform design is extremely limited (Dowle, 2023) and perhaps most importantly, the purpose of these reviews is often unclear or contested. 

At the heart of this lack of clarity appears to be a tension surrounding the frequent positioning of progress reviews as primarily institutional tools for managing key performance indicators relating to continuation and completion, as opposed to primarily pedagogical tools for supporting individual students learning (Smith McGloin, 2021). Interestingly however, there is currently very little research regarding effectiveness or practice in relation to either of these aspects. Yet, there is growing evidence to support an argument that this lack of clarity regarding purpose may frequently represent a key limitation in terms of engagement and value (Smith McGloin, 2021, Sillence, 2023; Dowle, 2023). As Bartlett and Eacersall (2019) highlight, the common question is ‘why do I have to do this?’

As a relatively new doctoral supervisor and examiner, with a research interest in doctoral pedagogy, in the context of these tensions, I sought to use a pedagogical lens to explore a small group of doctoral students’ experiences of navigating their progress review. My intention for this blog is to share some learning from this work, with a more detailed recent paper reporting on the study also available here (Clark, 2023).  

Methods and Approach

This research took place in one post-1992 UK university, where progress assessment consisted of submission of a written report, followed by an oral examination or review (depending on the stage). These progress assessments are undertaken by academic staff with appropriate expertise, who are independent of the supervision team. This was a small-scale study, involving six doctoral students, who were all studying within the humanities or social sciences. Students were interviewed using a semi-structured narrative ‘event-focused’ (Jackman et al, 2022) approach, to generate a rich narrative relating to their experience of navigating through the progress review as a learning event.

In line with the pedagogical focus, the concept of ‘assessment for learning’ was adopted as a theoretical framework (Wiliam, 2011). Narratives were then analysed using an iterative ‘visit and revisit’ (Srivastava and Hopwood, 2009) approach. This involved initially developing short vignettes to consider students’ individual experiences before moving between the research question, data and theoretical framework to consider key themes and ideas. 

Findings

The study identified that the students understood their doctoral progress reviews as having significant potential for supporting their learning and development, but that specific aspects of the process were understood to be particularly important. Three key understandings arose from this: firstly, that the oral ‘dialogic’ component of the assessment was seen as most valuable in developing thinking, secondly, that progress reviews offered the potential to reframe and disrupt existing thinking relating to their studies, and finally, that progress reviews have the potential to play an important role in developing a sense of autonomy, permission and motivation. 

In terms of design and practice, the value of the dialogic aspect of the assessment was seen as being in its potential to extend thinking through the assessor, as a methodological and disciplinary ‘expert’, introducing invitational, coaching format, questions to provoke reflection and provide opportunities to justify and explore research decisions. When this approach was taken, students recalled moments where they were able to make ‘breakthroughs’ in their thinking or where they later realised that the discussion was significant in shaping their future research decisions. Alongside this, a respectful and supportive approach was viewed as important in enhancing psychological safety and creating a sense of ownership and permission in relation to their work:

“I think having that almost like mentoring, which is like a mini mentoring or mini coaching session, in these examination spots is just really helpful” 

“I’m pootling along and it’s going okay and now this bombshell’s just dropped, but it was helpful because, yeah, absolutely it completely shifted it.”

“It’s my study… as long as I can justify academically and back it up. Why I’ve chosen to do what I’ve done then that’s okay.”  

Implications

Clearly this is a small-scale study, with a relatively narrow disciplinary focus, however its value is intended to lie in its potential to provoke consideration of progress reviews as tools for teaching, learning and researcher development, rather than to assert any generalisable understanding for practice. 

This consideration may include questions which are relevant for research leaders, supervisors and assessors/examiners, and for doctoral students. Most notably: is there a shared understanding of the purpose of doctoral progress reviews and why we ‘have’ to do it? And how does this purpose inform design, practice and related training within our institutions? 

Within this study it was evident that in this context the role of dialogic assessment was significant, and given the additional resource required to protect or introduce such an approach, this may be an aspect which warrants further exploration and investigation to support decision making. In addition, it also framed the perceived value of the careful construction of questions, which invite and encourage reflection and learning, as opposed to seeking solely to ‘test’ this. 

Dr Timothy Clark is Director of Research and Enterprise for the School of Education at the University of the West of England, Bristol. His research focuses on aspects of doctoral pedagogy and researcher development. 

By Will Grant – Associate Director of Postgraduate Study in the School of Arts, UWE Bristol.

Linked closely with the Pedagogy strand of the ECRG.

---

The teaching profession practices in an increasingly fragmented landscape, with school profiles and processes diversified though the marketising instruments of recent policy developments. In a market, the individual teacher can be conceptualised as a competitor – aiming for classroom results and career advancement not alongside colleagues, but against them. Arguably, within this context, neoliberal instruments of surveillance and accountability have fuelled a narrow focus on measurable educational metrics, and created a sector defined by performative action (Atkinson 2018; Ball 2013). One unfortunate parallel development in the profession has been a rapid rise in personal burnout and faculty churn (Ofsted 2019), a paradigm echoed in teacher education, where a recruitment crisis exacerbates the pressure already placed on school leaders.  

In 2022/23, recognising this wider context as problematic and frustrated with the genericism of nationally imposed ITE curricular directive, colleagues across four university led ITE programmes co-organised the National Art and Design Initial Teacher Education (NADITE) conference. The premise was promotion of authentic inter-institutional collegiality among student art teachers, such that they recognise and replicate the benefits of community practices on entry to the profession. In contrast to individualistic conceptions of professional success, research suggests that collegiality within the teaching profession might have much positive impact. This includes facilitating knowledge share and creation, improved personal wellbeing, and establishing disciplinary connectivity (Shah 2012).   

As a curriculum component on the Art and Design ITE programmes of UWE, Goldsmiths, Bath Spa, and the University of Brighton, the NADITE conference was organised to take place in-person at the National Gallery, London. Alongside a diverse itinerary of innovative student presentations this facilitated engagement with the world class collections and expertise of our hosts. Time was ringfenced for informal dialogue across student cohorts, and very high rates of participation were ensured through travel bursaries – funded by UWE’s pedagogic project fund and the generosity of the National Gallery.  

A small-scale evaluation of the conference delegates’ experiences, employing fundamental qualitative description (QD) (Kim et al. 2018), produced very positive findings. Students overwhelmingly felt that the event had been of value to their progression as an ITE student (95%), that the event had increased their confidence about joining the profession (87%), and that they were excited about joining, and perhaps contributing towards, the wider subject community in Art and Design education (93%). Among the descriptive themes that predominated were concepts of assurance, diversity, resilience, and a sense of belonging. While the contrapuntal benefits of collegiality in a neoliberal age are perhaps obtainable by all student teachers, prospective art teachers have more to gain than most from wide and agentic disciplinary collegiality. In a political and theoretical landscape disproportionately hostile to the arts (Adams 2013; Zafirakou 2018), it was particularly interesting, and encouraging, to see strong notions of ‘comradery’, ‘solidarity’ and ‘cooperation’ repeated throughout participants’ responses. 

Whether of vocational benefit when working across a large multi-academy trust, i.e., within the emergent expectations of neoliberal orthodoxy, or as a means of ‘assurance’ for critical artistic communities who advocate for alternative futures, post-conference I am more certain than ever – for the professional art teacher, collegiality counts. 

References 

Adams, J. (2013) The Artful Dodger: Creative Resistance to Neoliberalism in Education, in Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 242–255.  

Atkinson, D. (2018) Art, disobedience, and ethics: the adventure of pedagogy. Palgrave Macmillan. 

Kim, H., Sefcik, J., Bradway, C. (2017) Characteristics of Qualitative Descriptive Studies: A Systematic Review, in Research in Nursing & Health, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 23-42. 

Ofsted (2019) Teacher well-being at work in schools and further education providers. Ofsted: London. 

Shah, M. (2012) The importance and benefits of teacher collegiality in schools – a literature review, in Procedia, vol. 46, pp. 1242-1246. 

Zafirakou, A. (2018) Art in schools – no longer a priority?, in The Arts Society, online resource available here:
https://theartssociety.org/arts-news-features/art-schools-%E2%80%93-no-longer-priority [last accessed October 2023]. 

By Malcolm Richards – Senior Lecturer in Education, School of Education and Childhood

---

Tuesday 30 January 2024 – 4:30pm-5:30pm // free and online // Eventbrite registration required for non-UWE colleagues.

The second in an exciting series of collaborations by Network for Black Studies in Education, in collaboration with UWE ECRG, Bristol Caribbean Kitchen, Bookbag (Exeter), and Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School (Leicester).

Overview

Culture Club: Words, Sight and Sounds remixes traditional book club formats, using digital sources to encourage a creative learning space for teachers, student teachers, community educators, and academics. We are specifically interested in developing deeper understandings of the wide-ranging area of Black Studies scholarship, and its relevance to local-global contemporary education.

Our guest discussant

We are delighted to welcome as our guest, Dr Josie Gill (University of Bristol, Bristol, UK). 

Josie is Associate Professor of Black British Writing at University of Bristol. Her work in contemporary literature, Black British, Caribbean and African American writing focuses on where and how literary and scientific ideas intersect with regards to questions of race. Josie’s most recent book “Biofictions: Race, Genetics and the Contemporary Novel” was published by Bloomsbury in 2020.

How it works:

Dr Josie Gill has selected THREE digital resources inspired by Words, Sights, and Sounds, for us to respond with. These stimuli are freely available from digital sources, with URL links provided on registration. Attendees will have up to four weeks to engage and reflect with the resources.

Event structure:

On the day, Dr Josie Gill will offer a presentation titled “Three Encounters with Science”, and connections to wider scholarship.

·       Introduction with Amy Saleh (UWE Bristol)

·       Three Encounters with Science with Dr Josie Gill

·       Opening reflections

·       Community dialogue with connections to wider Black Studies scholarship

·       Closing words with Dr Josie Gill

Registration:

For UWE students (MA/EdD/PhD) or UWE staff, please email Malcolm Richards directly for information and registration: malcolm.richards@uwe.ac.uk

For non-UWE colleagues, please register for the event on Eventbrite: Culture Club: Words, Sight and Sounds Vol. 2 w/ Dr Josie Gill (Bristol) Tickets, Tue 30 Jan 2024 at 16:30 | Eventbrite

Save the date:

·       Dr Rita Gayle (University of Birmingham, UK) – Volume. 3 – (Tuesday 19 March 2024)

·       Dr Ryan Hanley (University of Exeter, UK) – Volume. 4 – (Tuesday 28 May 2024)

·       Ass. Professor Obianuju Juliet Bushi (University of Windsor, Canada) – Volume. 5 – (Tuesday 9 July 2024)

Thanks:

Culture Club: Words, Sights and Sounds is a series of exciting collaborations by the Network for Black Studies in Education, with Bristol Caribbean Kitchen, Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School (Leicester, UK), UWE ECRG Equity in Education, and our growing connections with local-global community organisations.

If you would like to hear any more about joining the Network for Black Studies in Education with UWE, or this event, please contact Malcolm Richards malcolm.richards@uwe.ac.uk.

---

The project – now officially branded as ‘Lit. Legacies’ – has come a long way since my last blog post in July 2023! We are excited to announce the launch event for our 6-week scheme of work on Chinonyerem Odimba’s play ‘Princess & The Hustler’!

The launch will take place on Wednesday 31^st January 2024 (6 – 8pm) at Fairfield High School in Bristol, featuring:

• the premiere of our promotional video;
• a range of speakers, including a poetry performance by Muneera Pilgrim;
• a raffle/chance to win copies of the play text;
• a Caribbean food buffet!

To secure a ticket to our celebration of Black British literature, cultures, and communities, please visit this link: 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lit-legacies-launch-teaching-princess-the-hustler-tickets-788923490397?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

We hope to see you there!

Amy Saleh, Cashan Campbell, Tanisha Hicks-Beresford and DeMarco Ryans.

About Suzannah Harniman

Until around 10 years ago, I was employed as a Registered Veterinary Nurse in a veterinary hospital where I worked mostly with horses. Whilst in this role, was responsible for mentoring student veterinary nurses and it was this which sparked my interest in teaching. 

In 2014, I relocated to rural Gloucestershire and joined the Veterinary Nursing team at Hartpury University where I am now a Senior Lecturer and Programme Manager. Since joining the team at Hartpury I have the opportunity to gain various qualifications, including the one I am most proud of which is my MA Education, with distinction, from UWE Bristol. It is my experiences of preparing my dissertation project for publication that I am going to share. 

My experience of preparing my dissertation research for publication 

I decided that I wanted to share the findings of my research because educational research relating specifically to veterinary nursing is very limited. There was also no previous published research that I was aware of which applied a theory of motivation to analyse the choices that students make. 

After deciding to publish my work the first thing I needed to consider was which journal I should send it to. I settled on the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education because it is the only veterinary journal that focuses specifically on educational research and the readers are likely to be fellow veterinary educators. 

Before getting started on preparing my manuscript, I read the author guidance, provided by the journal, and made three discoveries. The first was that the preferred word limit was 4000 words (my dissertation was 20,000 words), the second was that the journal required Vancouver referencing (the referencing style of my dissertation was UWE Harvard), and the third was that the journal’s preference was that manuscripts were written in the third person (my dissertation was written in the first person). My thoughts were that these issues were going to be time consuming to work through. 

I focused first on the word count issue and made the decision to focus only on my first two research questions, I didn’t feel I could do my findings justice if I included all three and I also had other plans for the findings of my final research question. I started by dramatically cutting the literature review down to around 600 words. I then worked on switching the tense to the third person and removing the information relating to the third research question. Once I had done this, I was still significantly over the word count and had to do some heavy editing without losing the essence of my research. I found this hard because of the effort I had put in to when writing my dissertation, but I kept in mind my desire to share my findings and got on with it. 

Once I was happy with the content of my manuscript, I researched how to do Vancouver referencing and started on the task of reformatting my references, which didn’t take quite as long as I thought it would which was helpful. On reflection, it would have been even quicker to have used reference management software. 

It was then the exam period at work and I had no time to work on my manuscript for a quite a few weeks. Once I had finished my marking, I had a chat with a colleague who is an experienced researcher. She made some useful suggestions. I then carefully proof read my work.

Next I contacted my dissertation supervisor and sent him my manuscript. He gave me some helpful feedback and was supportive of my plan to publish my work. 

The next step was to submit my work. This was relatively simple and I received a polite email from the editor thanking me for submitting my manuscript. I then waited nervously for around a month before receiving my peer reviews. When my peer reviews arrived in my inbox I was pleased to see that my manuscript had been recommended for publication, by both reviewers, with minimal suggested amendments. One of the suggested amendments was to change my title, and to start with I wasn’t sure how I felt about changing my title. However, once I had a think about it, it did make sense to update it and the new title did better reflect the project with just the first two research questions. I was given a month to complete my amendments and resubmit my manuscript. 

Not long after I submitted my revised manuscript, I received a proof copy to review. I pointed out a few amendments and sent it back. 

I wasn’t sure exactly when my article would be published and a few weeks later I received a message from a colleague congratulating me for my publication. I then had a look at my published article. I was pleased to have been through the process and to have shared my findings. 

By Terra Glowach (UWE Bristol), Malcolm Richards (UWE Bristol), and Rafael Mitchell (University of Bristol) – as published by The Conversation

There is a major shortage of new teachers in England, and this includes teachers from ethnic minority backgrounds. Research from 2020 found that 46% of schools in England had no Black or ethnic minority teaching staff at all. 

But the treatment of ethnic minority staff in schools raises ethical concerns about recruiting them into a workplace which puts significant burdens on their mental health.

The 2022 Teacher Wellbeing Index found that 59% of teachers were considering leaving the profession as a result of its impact on their mental health and wellbeing. But ethnic minority teachers also experience additional pressures.

UK charity Education Support has published a recent report on the mental health and wellbeing of ethnic minority teachers, based on focus groups held with 26 teachers. The report finds that, while ethnic minority teachers experience many of the same pressures as their white colleagues, these are further compounded by racism. 

Ethnic minority teachers face racist stereotyping. One senior member of staff quoted in the report recounts that “On my first day as an NQT [newly qualified teacher] I arrived at school in a suit and tie only to be directed to the kitchen by a member of staff rather than the main hall.” 

A 2016 survey by teachers’ union NASUWT found that 31% of Black and ethnic minority teachers had experienced discrimination in their workplace. 

‘White spaces’

The challenges that ethnic minority teachers experience are also broader than individual acts of racism. Schools can be “white spaces” – social environments where being white is the norm, and where people of colour are viewed as inferior or even threatening outsiders. 

A 2019 report commissioned by the National Union of Teachers (now part of the National Education Union) found that teachers from ethnic minority backgrounds were given responsibility over areas such as behaviour rather than extra intellectual roles, and that some Black teachers in particular felt that they were viewed as “aggressive” if they challenged decisions. 

But teachers from ethnic minority backgrounds are vital for UK schools. They provide both white and ethnic minority students with important role models. They improve students’ educational attainment. When many young Black students feel that the biggest barrier they face in school is their teachers’ perceptions of them, the importance of Black teachers is clear. 

Lack of teachers

Under-representation of Black teachers in schools across the UK has been disproportionately low for decades. Recent government data shows that despite Black people making up 4.6% of the working age population, only 2.5% of teachers are Black. White people constitute 79.7% of the working age population, but 90.3% of teaching staff and 96% of headteachers. 

The government has made commitments to diversify the education workforce. At the same time, though, it has been criticised for minimising the impact of institutional racism on the lives of people in the UK. In the Education Support report, most of the teachers said they would not recommend the profession to family or friends.

However, the Education Support report also found that feeling isolated was a major factor in ethnic minority teachers’ wellbeing. So it is no surprise that these teachers are more likely to stay in schools which have more staff from ethnic minority backgrounds, who may provide a supportive network. 

Supportive networks of Black ethnic minority and anti-racist teachers can develop more inclusive practices in schools. Examples of this practice include the National Education Union’s Anti-Racist Charter, which offers staff help in tackling racism, as does the London Borough of Lambeth’s anti-racist framework. 

The Halo Code provides schools with guidelines to stop the hair discrimination Black students may experience. Teacher-led efforts to develop an anti-racist curriculum can help all teachers address racism in schools. There are also more localised efforts, such as the campaign led by teacher Aisha Thomas to increase the number of Black teachers in Bristol. 

Engaging in anti-racist work is necessary for improving spaces where ethnic minority teachers work – and where future teachers learn. But this work is often in addition to teachers’ regular workload, and it can be arduous.

School leaders must reflect on their duty of care, so they are ready to respond when ethnic minority teachers experience racism in school. Active solidarity should not be the responsibility of Black and ethnic minority teachers only, but of all staff.

As Autumn stretches across the UK, many trees, once green and vibrant, now begin to turn into a kaleidoscope of reds, oranges and browns. But how many of these lovely trees can you name and does it matter? Paul Hawken (1993) suggested that the average Western adult would be able to recognise over 1000 brands and logos yet be able to identify fewer than ten local, indigenous plants. As the new term starts at UWE Bristol and we welcome our students with outdoor learning experiences, how many will know a horse chestnut from an oak, a silver birch from a sycamore? How many will identify a dandelion, nettle or celandine? From past experience I know my expectations are now low. Amprazis & Papadopoulou (2020) remind us that this a lack of awareness matters. At this point in the climate and ecological emergency the neglect of plants is impeding our ability to meet Sustainable Development Goals (2015) and researchers in ECRG are exploring research methods and pedagogies that look to support this. 

Since the early 20^th century biologists have noted the lack of interest in plants and their neglect in education (e.g., Ganong (1906), Wandersee and Schussler (2001)) – defining this phenomenon as plant blindness. Since then, one challenge for educational practitioners and researchers has been to investigate the causes of a lack of plant awareness and to reform pedagogies for plants. Once you’ve spotted the lack of plants then the human and nonhuman animal bias that besieges our everyday is hard to unspot. Gagliano et al. (2017) reported that between 2010-2015 journals such as Nature and Science published half the number of articles about plants when compared to those of animals. Plants are secondary to their animal counterparts, but people are working to rebalance this. 

I was recently invited to the University of Vienna’s International Research Symposium which focussed on methodologies for investigating and fostering plant awareness.   The symposium offered an exciting insight into international perspectives about plant awareness, comparing assessment tools and studies of evidence based practice and innovation for teaching and learning. In my own work I attempt to broaden the discussion of plant blindness which is apparent within so many texts, movies and games for younger readers. In our recent article in Children’s Literature in Education, myself and former UWE PGCE student Catherine Macleod (Jones and Macleod, 2022) argue for the inclusion of plant representations and discussions of plants relating to children’s fiction. In addition, I’ve been working with ECRG’s Tessa Podpadec, Kalpa Ghelani, Ros Steward, Jake Bacon, and David Satenstein to explore how craft involving plants can be used to explore these themes and Bristol’s Sustainable Department Store (Sparks)  to develop workshops for schools that all begin with a plant – we will be reporting on these projects over the coming months. In the meantime, I will enjoy the changing colours of the seasons and continue to be aware of our planty companions. 

---

Check out Verity’s article: 

Jones, V., MacLeod, C. Why Children Need to Read About Plants at a Time of Climate Change. Child Lit Educ (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-022-09511-x

---

References:

Alexandros Amprazis & Penelope Papadopoulou (2020) Plant blindness: a faddish research interest or a substantive impediment to achieve sustainable development goals?, Environmental Education Research, 26:8, 1065-1087SDGs 2015

Ganong, W. F. (1906). The erroneous physiology of the element of text-books. School Science and Mathematics, 6(4), 297–302.

Paul Hawken. 1993. The Ecology of Commerce: a declaration of sustainability. New York, Harper Collins. 

Wandersee J.H., Schussler E.E. (2001). Towards a theory of plant blindness. Plant Science Bulletin 47, 2–9

On Tuesday 7th November 2023, the Pedagogy Strand of the ECRG hosted a launch event for a new book by Dr Ben Knight.

The small theatre upstairs at the Alma Tavern was the venue for a book launch by a colleague from the School of Education @ UWE, Dr Ben Knight. Nearly all the seats in the theatre were taken for the book launch, which took the innovative format of ‘A Conversation With…’. This allowed the author to discuss the themes of the book entitled ‘Nurturing Teacher Judgement’ (the latest in a series called Critical Guides for Teacher Educators). After a fascinating introduction from the series editor, Ian Menter, questions were posed to Ben by Dr Paul Redford. These questions gave the author the opportunity to expand of some of the key themes from the book, but also wider implications for the teaching profession. An audience made up of colleagues, educators, teachers, and those interested in the field also got the opportunity to ask Ben questions about the book and his thoughts.

It proved to be a great introduction to the book, but also bringing the area of professional judgment to a wider audience, and was well received by those in attendance. An hour passed by far too quickly, and the general feeling of the audience was that the topic was so broad it could have carried on for much longer! Discussions carried on in the public area, allowing for networking and further musings on an important topic!

Tuesday 12 December 2023 – 4:30pm-5:30pm // free and online // Eventbrite registration required for non-UWE colleagues

An exciting collaboration between the Network for Black Studies in Education with UWE, Bristol Caribbean Kitchen, Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School (Leicester), and other community partners.

Overview

Culture Club: Words, Sight and Sounds remixes traditional book club formats, using digital sources to encourage a creative learning space for teachers, student teachers, community educators, and academics. We are specifically interested in developing deeper understandings of the wide-ranging area of Black Studies scholarship, and its relevance to local-global contemporary education.

Our guest discussant

We are blessed to welcome as our first guest, Professor Shawn-Naphtali Sobers (UWE: University of the West of England, Bristol, UK). 

Shawn is a Professor of Cultural Interdisciplinary Practice at UWE Bristol and Director of the Critical Race and Culture Research Group. He is also co-founder of Firstborn Creatives production company. Shawn’s work in film and photography is primarily people-based, rooted in personal narratives, hidden histories, and untold stories. His latest book “Black Everyday Lives, Material Culture & Narrative: Tings in de House” was published by Routledge in 2023.

How it works:

Professor Shawn-Naphtali Sobers has selected THREE digital resources inspired by Words, Sights, and Sounds, for us to respond with. These stimuli are freely available from digital sources, with URL links provided on registration. Attendees will have up to four weeks to engage and reflect with the resources.

Event structure:

On the day, Professor Shawn will offer a presentation of the artefacts, and his connections to themes of Black Studies scholarship.

• Introduction with Malcolm Richards (UWE Bristol)
• Presentation with Professor Shawn-Naphtali Sobers
• Opening reflections
• Community dialogue with connections to wider Black Studies scholarship
• Closing words with Professor Shawn-Naphtali Sobers

Registration:

For UWE students (MA/EdD/PhD) or UWE staff, please email Malcolm Richards directly for information and registration: malcolm.richards@uwe.ac.uk

For non-UWE colleagues, please register for the event on Eventbrite: Culture Club: Words, Sight and Sounds w/ Prof. Shawn-Naphtali Sobers (UWE) Tickets, Tue 12 Dec 2023 at 16:30 | Eventbrite

Save the date:

• Dr Josie Gill (University of Bristol, UK) – Volume. 2 – (Tuesday 30 January 2024)
• Dr Rita Gayle (University of Birmingham, UK) – Volume. 3 – (Tuesday 19 March 2024)
• Dr Ryan Hanley (University of Exeter, UK) – Volume. 4 – (Tuesday 28 May 2024)
• Ass. Professor Obianuju Juliet Bushi (University of Windsor, Canada) – Volume. 5 – (Tuesday 9 July 2024)

Thanks:

Culture Club: Words, Sights and Sounds is a series of exciting collaborations by the Network for Black Studies in Education, with Bristol Caribbean Kitchen, Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School (Leicester, UK), UWE ECRG Equity in Education, and our growing connections with local-global community organisations.

If you would like to hear any more about joining the Network for Black Studies in Education with UWE, or this event, please don’t hesitate to reach out.