Lyudmila Nurse is an Honorary Research Fellow. A sociologist with over 30 years’ experience of research in education, culture, identities, and international social and policy development consultancy work. Dr Lyudmila Nurse’s research include international comparative studies of social mobility and education, identities and belonging, comparative inter-generational studies of identities, ethnic minorities and migrants, parenting, well-being of families with children and young people, application of advanced methods of qualitative, biographical, mixed methods and arts-based research.
She was Research Fellow and Co-Investigator at the Department of Education and previously held post-doctoral and visiting fellowships at universities of Edinburgh, Warwick, City (London) and was an Honorary Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes University. She also has extensive expertise in European comparative research and development consultancy in social and youth policy of countries of Eastern Europe. She is a co-editor of the Policy Press (Bristol) book series: Advances in Biographical Research. She is a co-founder and a research director of the Oxford XXI think tank. Lyudmila is currently Coordinator/Chair of the Research Network 03 ‘Biographical Perspectives on European Societies’ of the European Sociological Association (ESA), a member of the ESA Council of Research Networks and of the Cultural, Scientific and Medical Advisory Board of Music Mind Spirit Trust.
At the Department of Education she works in collaboration with Dr Ian Thompson and Professor Harry Daniels associating with the Socio-Cultural and Activity Theory Group. She was a Co-Investigator in AHRC-funded project Cultural Artefacts and Belonging: A comparative case study of displaced and refugee young people and families in Ukraine led by the Department of Education (2021-2022). In 2017-2019 as Research fellow in the Department of Education she worked with Professor Edward Melhuish and Professor Jaqueline Barnes in the EC H2020 project: Inclusive Education and Social Support to Tackle Inequalities in Society (ISOTIS) in which she led a comparative qualitative study of mothers with pre-school and primary school children from low-income families in two metropolitan areas of England: Greater London and North West England. She also coordinated comparative qualitative study of mothers from low-income families, families with immigrant background and ethnic minority background in ten EU countries: Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Portugal.
Research interests are:
- Theoretical approaches to cultural identities and belonging
- Social mobility and inclusive education
- Migration studies (educational migration; forced migration)
- Individual and families’ strategies in tackling impact of inequalities
- Parenting cultures
- Cultural identities and music
- Advanced qualitative, biographical, ethnographic and art-based methods
Publications
Books
- Nurse, L., Moran, L. and Sidiropulu-Janku, K. (editors) (forthcoming 2023) Biographical Research and the Meanings of Mothering: Life Choices, Identities and Methods. Bristol: Policy Press
Journal Special Issues:
- Guest co-editor with Professor Edward Melhuish of the Special Issue: Comparative Perspectives on Educational Inequalities in Europe of the Contemporary Social Science, Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences (2021) Volume 16, Issue 4 (2021), 417-522. https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rsoc21/16/4?nav=tocList
Book chapters:
- Nurse, L., Sidiropulu-Janku, K., Obrovska, J., Gajek, K., & J.Mbiatong. (2022)
The place of religious and non-religious values and beliefs in identities of mothers of young children: Methodological approach and empirical evidence from the European countries. In: Kuusisto, A. (editor): The Routledge International Handbook of the Place of Religion in Early Childhood Education. Routledge
- Nurse, L. and Robertson, C. (2021) The Art of Communication in the Socially Distanced Environment. In: Brown, A., Carbon, F., Chambers, B., Coomes, M., Coudenys, W., Rogers, J., Weyer, D. and M. Wilson (editors) Re-Imagining the Tower of Babel. Luxembourg: University of Luxembourg, pp 137-141.
- Nurse, L. (2020). Construction of Schooling Time as Part of Mothers’ Identities. In: Schilling and O’Neill (eds). Frontiers in Time Research-Einfuhrung in die interdisziplinare Zeitforschung. Springer VS, 287-310. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-658-31252-7_13
- Nurse, L, & O’Neill, M (two editions: 2018, 2019). Biographical Research in the UK: profiles and perspectives in: Lutz, H., Schiebel, M. and E. Tuider (editors) Handbuch Biographieforschung. Springer VS.
- Nurse, L., (2013). Biographical approach in the Study of Identities of Ethnic Minorities in Eastern Europe. In: Mrozowicki, A. and Turk, J.D. (editors) Realist Biography and European policy: An Innovative Approach to European Policy Studies. Leuven: Leuven University Press, Belgium.
- Nurse, L.& E.Sik (2011) Identity and music. Identity of place and cultural identities of generations. In: Axford, B. and Huggins, R. ( editors) Cultures and/of globalisation, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, p. 171-201
Peer reviewed journal articles:
- Nurse, L. and Robertson, C. (forthcoming 2022) Hearing and Feeling the Music in Every Step: Musical Walks and Biographical Experience of Lockdown. Irish Journal of Sociology
- Nurse, L. and Melhuish, E. (2021). Comparative perspectives on educational inequalities in Europe: an overview of the old and emergent inequalities from a bottom-up perspective in: Contemporary Social Science, Volume 16, 2021 – Issue 4, 417-431. https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2021.1948095
- Nurse, L. (2016). Identities and a sense of belonging: young Lithuanians and Latvians from ethnic minorities. INTER., Vol., No 12, pp 21-33. http://jour.isras.ru/index.php/inter/article/view/4009
- Nurse, L., Gibson, A., and Surányi, R. (2016). Media Consumption and Self-Identification: Hungarian and Slovak case study, in: Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group. Volume 23, Number 6, pp. 705-724.
- Nurse, L., Sik, E. (2012). Zene és identitás, in: Pro Minoritate, 2012 tél., Budapest, pp. 3-39 (In Hungarian)
- Nurse, L (2012). A zene szerepe a magyarországi szlovákok etnikai identitásában in: Pro Minoritate, 2012 tél., Budapest, pp.40-57 (In Hungarian)
- Nurse, L. (2011). Music in the identities of Ethnic Slovaks in Hungary. In: Slovak Journal of Political Sciences, Volume 11,No3, pp. 249-266, Trnava: The Institute of Social Sciences, University of SS Cyril and Methodius.
International reports:
- Broekhuizen, M., Wolf, K., Francot, R., Moser, T., Pastori, G., Nurse, L., Melhuish, E. & P. Leseman (2019) (Editors). Resources, experiences, and support needs of families in disadvantaged communities.INTEGRATIVE REPORT D 2.5 https://www.isotis.org/en/publications/resources-experiences-and-support-needs-of-families-in- disadvantaged-communities
- United Nations World Youth Report, 2003. Consultant.
- Breen, P. J., Shionnemann, M-E., L. Nurse,L., Azzopardi,A., Lagree, J-C.& P. Lauritzen (2003) Youth Policy in Lithuania. Report by an international group of experts appointed by the Council of Europe. Council of Europe Publishing
- Helsingius, U., du Bois-Reymond, M., Nurse, L., Chan, V., Machado Pais, J. & D. Trestieni Ion. (2001) Youth Policy in Romania. Report by an international groups of Experts appointed by the Council of Europe. Council of Europe Publishing.
Jim obtained a BA in Modern History and a MA in European History from University College London, followed by a MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Birkbeck College London. After this, he completed a PGCE in Secondary History and a MEd in Researching Practice at the University of Cambridge. He was awarded a PhD in Education from UCL. His doctoral research focused on the relationship between academic and school history, particularly in relation to literacy in secondary history curriculum design.
Jim taught and mentored in a number of state secondary schools and sixth form colleges. He was also a part of the Ofsted History Subject Working Group which provided advice on the new inspection framework’s development and implementation. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Historical Association and acted as Associate Editor for the HA’s professional journal Teaching History.
Jim’s research interests focus on history curriculum design, particularly literacy in history education, the relationships between academic and school history, and the interplay between overview and depth in history curricula.
Publications
• Carroll, J. E. (2022). ‘Terms and conditions: using metaphor to highlight causal processes with Year 13‘. Teaching History, 187, pp.40-49.
• Carroll, J. E. (2021). ‘Retheorising national assessment of the narrative mode for historical causal explanation in England’. History Education Research Journal, 18 (2), pp.148–65.
• Carroll, J. E. (2020). ‘Whose genres? Establishing curricular goals for students’ historical writing in England’ Teaching History (HTANSW), 52 (2), pp. 17-20
• Carroll, J.E. (2019). ‘Epistemic explanations for divergent evolution in discourses regarding students’ extended historical writing in England’. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 51 (1), pp.100-120
• Carroll, J. E. (2018). ‘Couching counterfactuals in knowledge when explaining the Salem witch trials with Year 13’. Teaching History, 172, pp.18-29
• Carroll, J. E. (2017). ‘From divergent evolution to witting cross-fertilisation: the need for more inter-discursive communication regarding students’ extended historical writing’. Curriculum Journal, 28 (4), pp.504-523
• Carroll, J. E. (2017). ‘From ‘double vision’ to panorama: using history of memory to bridge ‘event space’ when exploring interpretations of Nazi popularity with Year 13′. Teaching History, 168, pp.24-36
• Carroll, J. E. (2017). ‘I feel if I say this in my essay it’s not going to be as strong’: multi-voicedness, ‘oral rehearsal’ and Year 13 students’ written arguments’. Teaching History, 167, pp.8-16
• Carroll, J. E. (2016). ‘Grammar. Nazis. Does the grammatical ‘release the conceptual’? Teaching History, 163, pp.8-16
• Carroll, J. E. (2016). ‘Exploring historical ‘frameworks’ as a curriculum goal: a case study examining students’ notions of historical significance when using millennia-wide time scales’. Curriculum Journal, 27 (4), pp.454-478
• Carroll, J. E. (2016). ‘The whole point of the thing: how nominalisation might develop students’ written causal arguments’ Teaching History, 162, pp.16-24
Jiayi Li is a doctoral student in the Department of Education. Her research interests encompass macro-level education policy, students’ self-formation and political identity development in the context of international higher education.
Prior to her DPhil studies at Oxford, Jiayi worked as a research assistant with the Rees Centre on policy mapping and local authority data analytics projects in the UK (PI: Professor Leon Feinstein). Jiayi holds a MSc degree in Comparative and International Education from University of Oxford and a BA degree (double major) with high honours in Educational Studies and Economics from Colgate University.
Her current doctoral research explores how international students from ambiguous territories (Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau) develop civic consciousness and political identity in Chinese universities with “Chinese characteristics”.
Anding Shi is a Dphil student in higher education at the department of Education and St. Antony’s College. Her doctoral research is fully funded by China Scholarship Council.
Anding’s doctoral research focuses on the policy reform of academic publishing in China and its impact on doctoral education. She also has strong interests in academic profession and the internationalization of higher education.
Prior to coming to Oxford, Anding completed her master’s degree in Comparative Education at the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University. She also studied as an exchange student in the Faculty of Education and Culture at Tampere University.
Haoran obtained a bachelor’s degree in Education Studies at University College London. After that, she completed her master’s degree in Early Childhood Education at Columbia University.
Publications
- Luo, H., Yang, W., & Zeng, Y. (2022). A video-based approach to investigating intentional teaching of mathematics in Chinese kindergartens. Teaching And Teacher Education, 114, 103716. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2022.103716
- Yang, W., Luo, H., & Su, J. (2022). Towards inclusiveness and sustainability of robot programming in early childhood: Child engagement, learning outcomes and teacher perception. British Journal Of Educational Technology, 53(6), 1486-1510. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13266
Gift Sonkqayi is a doctoral student in the department. He is fully funded by the Clarendon Scholarship and Brasenose college.
He is mainly interested in all things concerning the epistemology of decolonising the university space within and beyond the South African context.
Kason is a Titular Clarendon Scholar, a Hong Kong Jockey Club Oxford Graduate Scholar and a DPhil student at Department of Education, University of Oxford. He is currently a MSc tutor (Science Stream) in Learning and Teaching.
He was awarded a distinction in both his PGCE/QTS at Durham University and MPhil in Educational Research at the University of Cambridge. His MPhil was fully funded by Doris-Zimmern HKU-Cambridge Hughes Hall Scholarship and received Raffan Prize In Education from Hughes Hall, the University of Cambridge.
Kason has extensive secondary teaching experience in state schools in England. He is an academic working in the field of nature of science, multimodal representations, visualization and reading and writing in science. His research has been published in a range of journals in the areas of science communication, public health and science education. These journals include Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Nature Portfolio), Studies in Science Education, Public Health, Transaction in GIS, Science and Education, Research in Science and Technological Education and International Journal of Science Education.
He is currently serving as an editorial board member of Research in Science and Technological Education. He is also a peer reviewer for a range of journals in the fields of science communication, science education, research method and applied linguistics such as Public Understanding of Science, Field Methods, Journal of Mixed Methods Research, Journal of Biological Education, Science and Education, Research in Science and Technological Education, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, and Asia-Pacific Educational Researcher.
Szilvi’s main research interest lies in student religiosity. She completed her BA in Theology in Budapest (summa cum laude). After working in a number of ministry and teaching settings, she completed her PGCE in Religious Education at the Department, followed by an MSc in Research Design and Methodology (distinction).
She has been working as a project manager on a large-scale science-religion project at the University of Oxford before starting her DPhil. Szilvi lives in Oxford with her husband and 3 children.
Darshini Nadarajan is a doctoral student whose research is centrally concerned with unpacking the notion of what it means to be a ‘proficient’ English language teacher in Malaysia and consequently, the discourses, practices, and identities that manifest from aspiring to be ‘proficient’.
Drawing upon epistemologies of the South and situating her study within the dynamism of education as a performative practice, her research is informed by sociological, linguistics, and anthropological lenses that aim to decolonise and indigenise knowledge along with developing theorisations that are aligned with such worldviews. Animating her research is a persistent curiosity in exploring the power and politics of education. In particular, her research dwells on scholarship that interrogates and problematises the production of knowledge and power within the intersection of gender, race and class
Darshini’s research interests are influenced by her rich and diverse educational experiences from the East and the West. Prior to coming to Oxford, she was a teacher educator for the Ministry of Education Malaysia where she trained in-service English language teachers, designed and developed face-to-face and blended language courses, edited policy blueprints, as well as wrote speeches for Ministers. Darshini graduated from Macquarie University, Australia with a B.Ed TESOL and was subsequently awarded a Fulbright scholarship where she majored in Creative Writing and American Literature at Michigan State University. She then read her Masters in both TESOL from the University of Nottingham; and Educational Leadership and Management from the National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan.
Selected Conference Presentations
Darshini, N. (2019). Translingual Tensions in In-Service Teacher Education in Malaysia. Paper presented at the English Teaching & Learning International Conference, Taiwan, 27-28 July.
Darshini, N. (2018). Portraits of Cinderellas: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Exploration of Identity and English Language Learning of Foreign Domestic Workers in Malaysia. Paper presented at the International Conference on TEFL and Applied Linguistics, Taiwan, 16-17 March.
Darshini, N. (2017). Hide! There’s a Zombie in School: Students’ Perceptions of Institutional Rules in an Urban Malaysian School. Paper presented at the Sociology of Education Conference, Taiwan, 5-6 May.
Darshini, N. (2016). What Do Parents Seek? Factors Influencing Malaysian Parents’ Decision to Enroll their Children in International Schools in Malaysia. Paper presented at the Hong Kong Comparative Education Conference, Hong Kong, 15-16 April.
Darshini, N. (2015). Fiction or Friction? Bringing the ‘Creative’ Back into Creative Writing. Paper presented at the RELC International Conference, Singapore, 13-15 March.
Darshini, N. (2015). From Michigan to Mekong: Lessons Learnt from a Technologically-Impaired Teacher. Paper presented at the CamTESOL International Conference, Cambodia, 28 February-1 March.
Darshini, N. (2014). Flipping Technology! How to Flip your Language Classroom with Minimal Hair Loss. Paper presented at the Fulbright Scholars’ Mid-Year Conference, United States of America, 11-15 December