The Department of Education at Sussex is a community of researchers, learners and teachers engaged fully in every aspect of education, both in the UK and internationally.
Located within the School of Education and Social Work, the Department of Education offers an extensive programme of study for all those interested in education. See Undergraduate study, Postgraduate study and Initial Teacher Education for details of the courses we run in these areas - some of which offer distance learning opportunities.
We host three research centres:
- The Centre for International Education (CIE)
- The Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER)
- The Centre for Inquiry and Research in Cognition, Learning and Teaching in Sussex (CIRCLETS)
... and co-host a fourth (with the Department of Social Work and Social Care):
The Department of Education is ranked 7th in the Times Good University Guide 2012, and the School of Education and Social Work is the only School at Sussex to have both its Departments ranked in the Guide's top 10 (Social Work is ranked 3rd).
You will find us to be a warm, caring community of scholars who pride ourselves on the quality of the courses we offer and of the research we undertake, and also on our commitment to - and depth of involvement with - our students, policy-makers and professionals.
BERA & EERA 2013
This year, the annual British Educational Research Association (BERA) conference is taking place at the University of Sussex from 3-5 September. Several members of faculty from the Department of Education will attend and present papers, including Head of School, Professor Brian Hudson, who will present: Developing Mathematical Thinking in the Primary Classroom: Liberating teachers and students as learners of mathematics. Additionally, Lecturer, Dr Louise Gazelely, will present: Reducing Inequalities in Rates of School Exclusion: A study of the issues for policy and practice and Dr Simon Thompson, Senior Lecturer and Director of Initial Teacher Education, will present What Do The Masses Think? Exploring contemporary attitudes towards schools, teachers and pupils through the Mass Observation Project.
Professor Brian Hudson will also present Butterflies and Moths in the Amazon: Developing mathematical thinking through the rainforest at the European Educational Research Association (EERA) conference in Istanbul from 10-13 September.
ESRC Grant Success
Dr Linda Morrice, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for the Doctor of Education - with colleagues Dr Mike Collyer (Geography) and Professor Rupert Brown (Psychology) - has been awarded ESRC funding for their research project Optimising refugee resettlement in the UK: A comparative analysis. The project will be a longitudinal, multi-method study exploring the integration outcomes for resettled refugees in three UK locations: Brighton, Greater Manchester and Norwich. The project will run for 30 months from the start of September 2013.
Kazakhstan Partnership
Head of Department, Professor Colleen McLaughlin, has been the catalyst behind an exciting partnership opportunity with the Kazakh government which is working with her and colleagues to build and develop standards of education nationally. To that end, it is investing in UK higher education institutions - one of which is the University of Sussex - to support and train groups of teachers to the required standard.
The Department of Education has already successfully hosted a group of 80 Kazakhs at Sussex in the first week of July for a leadership development course. Another group of 20+ are expected to follow in 2014 to study for the Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE).