DIRECTOR’S WELCOME

Our research is centred around three themes which demonstrate our focus on learning across the life-course: Language, Cognition and Development; Economy, Policy and Society; and Pedagogy, Learning and Knowledge. Within each theme, we have centres and research groups focusing on particular aspects of education. The diverse community of researchers from all career stages – including early career researchers and senior academics as well as visiting scholars – contributes to the inclusive, collaborative and innovative research culture of the Department. Our research is world-leading in its interdisciplinary character and impactful in reaching out to relevant stakeholders such as policy makers and practitioners.

Some indicators of our proactive research culture are recent successes in securing funding for research and development around emerging challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Our Athena SWAN Bronze Award speaks to how seriously the Department takes the principles of diversity and inclusion, irrespective of any aspect of our staff’s, researchers’ and students’ identities. Indeed, it is such representation in diversity that ensures the quality of our research by demanding robust mechanisms to critically check our ideas against different viewpoints, theoretical orientations and methodological approaches. Our research aims include not only contributions to new knowledge and impact on educational policy and practice, but also the use of educational research for activism towards social justice reform and progress.

Professor Sibel Erduran, Director of Research