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Dr Ben Knight – ECRG Pedagogy Strand Leader

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On Monday 5^th June 2023, Dr Mark Hardman of UCL and Dr Lindsay Hetherington of the University of Exeter delivered a fascinating lunchtime research seminar focusing on ‘New Materialist’ ways of thinking about classrooms and teachers. Their aim was to show how theory can be used to inspire research into teaching practice. Drawing on examples from their own projects using a ‘material dialogic’ theoretical framework, Mark and Lindsay helped us explore different perspectives on teaching and learning practice. 

Participants were invited to consider how ‘material dialogic’ concepts aligned with their own research interests and contexts. The event prompted much fruitful discussion between Education & Childhood colleagues and provided a valuable space for reflection on theory and practice.

Feedback from the event was very positive, with PGCE Secondary Programme Leader Will Grant commenting:

“It was good to have some mental stimulation during a day of administrative chores! More opportunity, and expectation, that colleagues involve themselves in activities such as this can only be of benefit to the ITE team.”

Professor Jane Andrews also commented:

“I just wanted to say thank you for organising such a great seminar session today. I thought both speakers were really excellent and very engaging and the format for the event was really great too. Please pass on my thanks to the speakers and I’d love to attend more events like this one!”

Thanks to everyone who attended in person and online. More ECRG Pedagogy Strand events are planned for the 2023-24 academic year so please look out for announcements.

Mr Malcolm Richards, Malcolm.Richards@uwe.ac.uk.

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Equity in Education 2023 seeks to build on recent ECRG events and highlight the outstanding research and teaching in equity in education across UWE, and with our partners. This conference is taking place on Thursday 6th July 2023 between 09:00-17:30 The conference is hosted online using UWE Teams online platform.

This a FREE event but registration is necessary. Click on this link for details. Links to sessions will be sent to all registered colleagues on Wednesday 5^th July 2023 before 4pm.

Equity in Education Conference Programme 2023

Time	DESCRIPTIONS
WELCOME   9.00AM-9.15AM	Welcome, introductions and housekeeping with Malcolm Richards (UWE)
Session 1 9.15AM-10.00am	ECRG In Conversation: Professor Richard Waller (Professor of Education and Social justice) in conversation with Dr Verity Jones (Associate Professor in Sustainable Education), and Dr Alpesh Maisuria (Associate Professor in Critical Education).   Colleagues will be discussing the following question: How can research contribute to more inclusive, diverse, equitable and just communities and societies?
SESSION 2 10.00am – 10.30am	Professor Richard Waller (UWE) Class and gendered inequalities in higher education: Some findings from the Paired Peers study
SESSION 3:   10.30am-11.30am	Postgraduate student panel and Q & A Rachael Pryor Virtual schools and inequality in Bristol Anna Burchfiel Radical Access: Rethinking Undergraduate university admissions in England to tackle social inequalities Paula Fieldhouse I could never do maths at school! How the intergenerational transmission of Maths Anxiety contributes to educational inequality and what can be done about it.
SESSION 4   11.30am-12.30am	Student voice and active participation Dr Ben Knight and Dr Marcus Witt (UWE) Personality-Sensitive Pedagogies: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Small Group Interactions Among 9-10 Year Olds Ella Rees (UWE) Lessons learnt from a campus climate survey at a Post-92 UK University for sexual and gender-based violence
SESSION 5:   12.30am-1.30pm	Creative methods and equitable pedagogies Luci Gorell Barnes and Dr Tessa Podpadec (UWE) Creative arts methods and methodologies Dr Jane Carter (UWE) Influencer research: Reading, school libraries and reading across Bristol’s Somali community (pre-recording) Will Grant (UWE)A reflection on dialogic diving boards and decolonising school art: The African mask project.
1.30pm-2.00pm	LUNCH
SESSION 6   2.00pm-3.00pm	Language, literature, performance, and expression in education (pre-recording) Amy Saleh (UWE) Teaching the Princess and the Hustler Tanisha Hicks-Beresford and Emma Thomas (UWE) Black Joy in the Curriculum Beyond Face Theatre Company Language, literature, and performance in education
SESSION 7   3.00pm-3.30pm	Neurodiversity, teaching, and teacher education Jamie Whelan and Kalpa Ghelani (pre-recording)
SESSION 8   3.30pm-4.30pm	Race, racism, and leadership in Bristol schools Claire Stewart-Hall (Leeds Beckett University) How whiteness functions through school leadership in the city of Bristol Justin Vafadari and Dr Sarah Whitehouse (both UWE) REST Project Bristol Alex Brown and Terra Glowach (UWE) Racism, counter stories from black teachers and school leadership in Bristol schools
SESSION 9   4.30pm-5.15pm	Black Educators Book Club: Bristol Hosted by Camille London-Miyo (Stephen Lawrence Research Centre) and Malcolm Richards (UWE) with Lisa Panford (Queen Mary University), Amy Saleh and Terra Glowach (both UWE)   Pre-reading for this session: (open source) Link: Making spaces for collaborative action and learning: Reflections on teacher-led decolonising initiatives from a professional learning network in England?
SESSION 10 5.15pm-5.30pm	Closing remarks and next steps with Malcolm Richards (UWE)

Hosted by Education and Childhood Research Group (ECRG), this online event offers participants an opportunity to meet with others who share interests and to discuss their work, develop connections and possibilities that will encourage knowledge production and collaboration in the future.

This conference is suitable for anyone interested in or working on equity’ issues in educational and other contexts. We particularly welcome students and student-teachers from our respective institutions, alongside educators in schools, education unions and community education institutions across the UK, as well as colleagues from overseas.

For enquiries please contact Malcolm Richards via email on malcolm.richards@uwe.ac.uk

In this article Katrina Diamond, a Senior Lecturer in Education and Childhood at UWE, writes about an evidence-based mindfulness intervention, with primary aged children, based on the book “My Magical Garden” by Jacqui Gray and Terri Allen (2008).

The number of adults, and children, with mental health issues, stress, anxiety and fatigue is stark (Baker, 2021, Pitchforth et al., 2019).

Having experienced a serious illness five years ago I became very aware of mindfulness and meditation practices and the benefits of these holistic practices for health and wellbeing- not least the de-activation of the stress response (Selye, 1946; Neylan, 1998; McLaughlin et al., 2015)

Mindfulness has a growing evidence base (Kabat-Zinn, 2017; Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group, 2015) for utilisation in educational settings (Hyland 2014; Vickery and Dorjee, 2016; Schonert-Reichl et al., 2015) as a means of managing stressful elements of school life. The lack of opportunity for creativity in the school curriculum currently and a lack of time for wellbeing and pastoral care, exacerbated by the unprecedented impact on education from a global pandemic, has placed children under increasing pressure, in an educational environment dominated by an instrumental curriculum in a neo-liberal landscape (Graham et al., 2011; Ball, 2016; Keddie, 2016).

The study involved researching an evidence-based mindfulness intervention in the form of a book entitled “My Magical Garden” (Gray and Allen, 2008).

I was lucky enough to meet the author of the book – Jacqui Gray – at a networking event and have been inviting her to my classes to introduce My Magical Garden to as many people as possible, ever since. Jacqui is passionate about her work with children and young people and her strapline is “every child has the right to confidence”. I agree, and with so many of our children currently lacking this due to many factors-not least the enforced isolation throughout the pandemic- it is more important than ever (Loades et al., 2020; Urbina- Garcia, 2021; Irwin et al., 2022)

Jacqui and I undertook a 6-month trial with a primary school in Essex during and after lockdown- using the Magical Garden as a means of reintegrating the children back into school when the pressures of the curriculum were dominating

The focus was on supporting children through two lockdowns, resulting from the pandemic, who were struggling with self- regulation and demonstrating behaviour that frequently resulted in exclusions from the classroom. The study also sought to support teachers and learners by offering a practical intervention that would help to manage the interrelationships between teacher- learner relationships and self-regulation by developing those relationships through support for learners with managing their own behaviour in the classroom and wider school environment generally (Cadima et al., 2016).

The book employs a combination of mindfulness and guided visualisation techniques, encouraging the children to use their imaginations to build their garden, choosing the people, animals, natural features and objects they wish to take in with them and then exploring “the magic that happens” as a result (Gray and Allen, 2008).

This article looks into the psychological and physiological processes involved in the acts of mindfulness and guided imagery and seeks to show the importance of children’s self-efficacy, (Bandura, 1977, 1986) introducing them to their own internal, self-regulation toolkit, that they can use whenever the world is too difficult for them.

The link between mindfulness and guided visualisation, self- regulation and the stress response is physiological and involves the stimulation of the vagal nerve (Tracey, 2002). The vagal nerve runs between the brain stem and the abdomen and reaches out to all of our major organs along the way. It is instrumental in the regulation of the autonomic nervous system, in particular, in keeping us in the parasympathetic, “rest and digest” nervous system and a more optimal learning state, than the sympathetic or “fight, flight or freeze” system responsible for the stress response in times of danger (Kelye, 1956; Tracey, 2002). When this is activated, the stress signals impair prefrontal cortex functioning, where all of our self-regulatory and inhibitory skills reside, as in that moment, survival is all that matters. The vagal nerve does this through the release of the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin is the “love” hormone, playing a key role in childbirth but also possessing powerful anti- stress effects (Moberg and Petersson, 2022; Porges, 1998). The higher our vagal tone, the more oxytocin we release, the more empathetic we are, the greater our self-regulation and the more socially competent we become (Erath and Tu, 2015). The vagus nerve is like a muscle- regular daily exercising of this through deep breathing, guided visualisation and meditation, and connections with loved ones and peers, will increase vagal tone (Gerritson and Band, 2018). Importantly, in terms of schooling, high quality interactions between the teacher and the learner, particularly socially disadvantaged learners, promote the development of higher cognitive and self-regulatory skills, which calls into question the efficacy and impact of digital or virtual lessons, employed throughout the pandemic, in the development of vagal tone (Kok et al., 2013; Cadima et al., 2015; Urbina- Garcia, 2020).

The intervention took place over six-months in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic and enforced school closures. The intervention was conducted online with a trauma-informed primary school in Essex involving 31, Year 4 learners- 15 girls and 16 boys- the pastoral and wellbeing lead teacher, their classroom teacher and a group of parents. A second year 4 group not receiving the intervention acted as a control group. Initial workshops with the children, teaching and pastoral team and parents, were delivered by the author of “My Magical Garden” training them on the techniques used in the delivery of the intervention. The teachers and parents then reproduced the techniques with the children, regularly over a 6-month period and increasingly as a means of reintegrating the children into the school environment after the second lockdown.

Research methods to ascertain the impact of the intervention involved interviews with the pastoral lead and the class teacher, over 6 months, using a list of questions that explored the use and success of “My Magical Garden” and aligned with the school’s objectives. The final focus group engaged all the children in the class receiving the intervention, in a remote, one hour, zoom question and answer session, to ascertain their feelings around their use of “My Magical Garden”.

Thematic analysis (Clarke and Braun, 2017) elicited key themes across the research questions and focus groups and concluded that children, parents and teachers felt that “My Magical Garden” is a tool that helps to reduce anxiety, promote self-regulation, increase productivity and provide a safe place for children away from the pressures of school and the curriculum. “My Magical Garden” enabled the children to engage actively with their own imagination and creativity to navigate their school and home lives. From the teachers’ perspectives, the development of positive relationships, help with behavioural issues experienced within the group, and the resulting zero exclusion rate, proved to be invaluable. 

References

Baker, C. (2021). NHS key statistics: England, October (2019). House of Commons Library. [Online] available at; https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06988/SN06988.pdf accessed 20^th Feb 2022.

Ball, S.J. (2016.) Neoliberal education? Confronting the slouching beast. Policy Futures in Education, 14(8), pp.1046-1059.

Bandura, A. (1977) Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavior change. Psychological Review. 84. 191-215.

Bandura, A. (1986) Social foundations of thought and action: social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Cadima, J., Verschueren, K., Leal, T. and Guedes, C. (2016). Classroom interactions, dyadic teacher–child relationships, and self–regulation in socially disadvantaged young children. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 44(1), pp.7-17.

Clarke, V and Braun, V. (2017) Thematic analysis, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12:3, 297-298

Erath, S.A. and Tu, K.M. (2014). Peer stress in preadolescence: Linking physiological and coping responses with social competence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 24(4), pp.757-771.

Gerritsen, R., & Band, G. (2018). Breath of Life: The Respiratory Vagal Stimulation Model of Contemplative Activity. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 12, 397. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00397

Graham, A., Phelps, R., Maddison, C. and Fitzgerald, R. (2011). Supporting children’s mental health in schools: Teacher views. Teachers and Teaching, 17(4), pp.479-496.

Hyland, T. (2014) Mindfulness-based interventions and the affective domain of education, Educational Studies, 40:3, 277-291

Irwin, M., Lazarevic, B., Soled, D. and Adesman, A. (2022). The COVID-19 pandemic and its potential enduring impact on children. Current opinion in pediatrics, 34(1), p.107.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2017). Too early to tell: The potential impact and challenges-ethical and otherwise-inherent in the mainstreaming of dharma in an increasingly dystopian world. Mindfulness, 8, 1125–1135.

Keddie, A (2016) Children of the market: performativity, neoliberal responsibilisation and the construction of student identities

Kok, B.E., Coffey, K.A., Cohn, M.A., Catalino, L.I., Vacharkulksemsuk, T., Algoe, S.B., Brantley, M. and Fredrickson, B.L., (2013). How positive emotions build physical health: Perceived positive social connections account for the upward spiral between positive emotions and vagal tone. Psychological science, 24(7), pp.1123-1132.

Loades, M.E., Chatburn, E., Higson-Sweeney, N., Reynolds, S., Shafran, R., Brigden, A., Linney, C., McManus, M.N., Borwick, C. and Crawley, E. (2020). Rapid systematic review: the impact of social isolation and loneliness on the mental health of children and adolescents in the context of COVID-19. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(11), pp.1218-1239.

McLaughlin, K.A., Sheridan, M.A., Tibu, F., Fox, N.A., Zeanah, C.H. and Nelson III, C.A. (2015.) Causal effects of the early caregiving environment on development of stress response systems in children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(18), pp.5637-5642.

McManus, S., Bebbington, P.E., Jenkins, R. and Brugha, T. (2016) Mental health and wellbeing in England: the adult psychiatric morbidity survey 2014. NHS digital.[Online] available at; https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20180328140249/http:/digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB21748 accessed 22nd Feb 2022

Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group. (2015). Mindful nation UK report (p. 82). The Mindfulness Initiative. Retrieved from http://themindfulnessinitiative.org.uk/publications/mind ful-nation-uk-report

Moberg, K.U. and Petersson, M. (2022). Physiological effects induced by stimulation of cutaneous sensory nerves, with a focus on oxytocin. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 43, pp.159-166.

Neylan, T.C. 1998. Hans Selye and the field of stress research. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 10(2), pp.230-230.

Pitchforth, J., Fahy, K., Ford, T., Wolpert, M., Viner, R.M. and Hargreaves, D.S., (2019). Mental health and well-being trends among children and young people in the UK, 1995–2014: analysis of repeated cross-sectional national health surveys. Psychological medicine, 49(8), pp.1275-1285.

Porges, S.W. (1998). Love: An emergent property of the mammalian autonomic nervous system. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 23(8), pp.837-861.

Rothì, D.M., Leavey, G. and Best, R. (2008) On the front-line: Teachers as active observers of pupils’ mental health. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(5), pp.1217-1231.

Selye, H. (1956). What is stress. Metabolism, 5(5), pp.525-530

Tracey, K.J. (2002) The inflammatory reflex. Nature 420: 853-859.

Urbina-Garcia, A. (2020). Young children’s mental health: Impact of social isolation during the COVID-19 lockdown and effective strategies.

Vickery, C.E. and Dorjee, D. (2016). Mindfulness training in primary schools decreases negative affect and increases meta-cognition in children. Frontiers in psychology, p.2025.

Katrina Diamond is currently a senior lecturer in Education and Early Childhood at UWE.

She has been involved in Education for 20 years, after an initial career travelling the world, with a background primarily in 14-19 education and adult learning, but focusing on Early Childhood more recently.

Her interests include positive psychology and its role in education and the field of psychoneuroimmunology and the mind-body connection.

In this blog Dr Tim Clark, Senior Lecturer in Education and Childhood at UWE discusses his research which focuses on exploring doctoral students’ perceptions of the influences on their methodological decision making.

It is not unusual for postgraduate researchers (PGRs) to encounter challenges with the selection and coherent application of a methodological approach in their research.

The process involves understanding and engaging with complex philosophical debates which inform research traditions and the selection of research methods. This often entails the first introduction to some new (and potentially intimidating!) terminology such as ontology, epistemology and axiology.

In simple terms, these are concerned with the philosophy and study of reality, knowledge and values respectively. Ultimately, the quest for PGR students is to successfully identify and explore their own assumptions in these areas and then to consider, and clearly explain, how these inform the practical decisions they make about their own research design.

This means addressing questions such as: to what extent do we believe that our experience of reality is limited to interpretation? And what forms of data can best help us to understand complex social phenomena? Different perspectives in these areas have led to the emergence of a range of research paradigms, each with different models, principles and understandings of the purpose of research about the social world.

The table below, which appears in Clark (2021), adapted from Lather (2006) is a useful starting point for PGR students who are interested in exploring the decision making ‘landscape’ for research in education, as is Cohen, Manion & Morrison’s (2018) chapter ‘The Nature of Inquiry’.   

Table 1: Paradigmatic Chart

Clark (2021), adapted from Lather (2006)

Through my experience as a Doctorate in Education student I became particularly interested in both the process of my own decision making and in the diverse range of understandings and assumptions which were emerging across the cohort I was part of. At the same time, I was aware that much of the literature which explored this appeared to rest on an assumption that doctoral students’ methodological assumptions and decision making may simply be the product of supervisor and institutional influence.

As I began to consider that this process may be significantly more complex, I commenced my own doctoral research which was focused on exploring doctoral students’ own perceptions of the influences on their methodological decision making.

Methodological Journeys

My study, which is explored in more detail in my recent paper ‘Methodological Becoming: Doctoral students’ perceptions of their methodological journeys’ (Clark, 2021), sought to conceptualise methodological assumptions and understanding as being part of a more complex, socially constructed journey of ‘methodological becoming’. Framed by paradigmatic understandings of methodology, the study used life history inquiry and collective biography to support in-depth conversations with nine doctoral researchers in social science disciplines. The conversations focused on the students’ developing methodological understanding in the context of their personal, professional and academic experiences.

A key finding of the study was that doctoral students’ methodological assumptions could be understood as a socially constructed product of both their life histories and academic experiences. Engaging with academic content relating to paradigmatic understandings of methodology was perceived as playing a vital role in ‘unlocking methodological consciousness’, providing students with the tools they felt they needed to reflect on and understand their assumptions in the context of this previous experience.

Many of the students framed their academic engagement with methodological ideas as then enabling them to better understand themselves as researchers; their philosophies and methodological viewpoints; and, significantly, to reflect on lifelong experiences which may have shaped these. Interestingly, references to these experiences included examples where students cited important experiences in their childhoods and schooling which, through the lens of methodological consciousness, they saw as being relevant to their current assumptions.

It is important to note though, that whatever our own methodological views, it is not necessarily the accuracy or generalisability of any of the doctoral researchers’ memories or stories themselves which offers the most significant learning here. I frequently argue that part of the value of this work is the insight the narratives provide into how students understand, and present their own methodological assumptions – and the potential these have for enhancing reflexivity and methodological coherence. In short, acknowledging and reflecting on the journey may help us to better understand our current position and assumptions. This self-reflection may also be seen as key to preparing for the epistemological diversity (Pallas, 2001) which exists in research communities.   

Becoming a Reflexive Researcher

The idea of being reflexive (self-aware) in our research can be complex, indeed how much of our own stories we share through our work may itself depend on the assumptions which underpin our work and the extent to which we see ourselves as part of our own work (Folkes, 2022). However, engaging in reflexive thinking about our research can help us to better understand our own position, and the positions held by others, and to continue to reflect on the consistent application of our ideas. It is often all too easy to separate different aspects of our work in our thinking and inadvertently introduce contradictions between the position we have explained and the individual decisions we take within the process of our research.  

From the perspective that identifying connections and engaging in reflexive thinking has value in supporting work at post graduate level, some of the following actions may be productive starting points to consider:

• Look to engage with readings which address paradigmatic understandings and epistemological diversity at an early stage in your studies.

• Attend lectures or webinars which explore different methodologies, both within your programme and through wider networks and groups.  

• Engage in dialogue with peers which involve articulating, justifying and listening to different methodological viewpoints.

• Consider keeping a reflexive journal and recording your own journey. How might your current position have been informed by your previous experiences?

If you are currently considering this aspect of your own work or if you are interested in reading more about the journeys of the students who were involved in the study, you can find further information in my recent paper (Clark, 2021) or my full doctoral thesis (Clark, 2017).

Dr Tim Clark is a Senior Lecturer in Education and Childhood and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). His qualifications include a Doctorate in Education, Post Graduate Certificate in Academic and Professional Practice, Early Years Teacher Status and BA (Hons) Early Years Education.

Prior to his appointment at UWE in 2019, Dr Clark spent 20 years working in the early education sector in the UK, including 12 years as Head of Early Education for a charity in Bristol.

Dr Clark’s doctoral research used a narrative methodology to explore doctoral students’ perceptions of their developing methodological understanding/identities.