MAKING CONNECTIONS
The Centre for Teaching and Learning Research (CTLR) is engaged with education in all its pedagogical and social complexity. The interests of members span local, national and international contexts and a range of formal and informal settings, running from Early Years to Higher Education and including Initial Teacher Education. Consistent with this, we aim to foster the development of more holistic, contextualised and systemic understandings of education in all its many forms.
The Centre's strapline is Making Connections, reflecting its focus on bringing research, theory, policy and practice together with a view to promoting positive change. Each year we host an Annual Change Event that brings researchers, students and stakeholders together to promote understanding of how more equitable and inclusive approaches to teaching and learning might be achieved. We are also actively engaged in the development of locally-based practitioner researchers, hosting two conferences.
Recent Past Event:
Understanding and shaping alternative provision in England: What has research done? What else might it do?
With Dr Jodie Pennacchia, The University of Birmingham
Thursday 29 February, 5-4pm, Online
Despite existing for decades, alternative provision has only recently entered the policy spotlight in England. The accompany evidence base – both academic and carried out by sector bodies and think tanks– is growing, and subsequently shaping what is and is not known and emphasised about the sector. Although a complex process, this knowledge base plays a role in how policy and practice in and around the alternative provision sector are being discussed and directed. Against this backdrop, Jodie will use this presentation as an opportunity to explore a number of questions, problems and possibilities about the way alternative provision is and could be shaped and understood through research. As well as suggesting some areas or approaches she sees as important for future work, Jodie is keen to hear from participants about what else they would want to see from research on and with the alternative provision sector, how current research gaps and trends are impacting their work, and if the sector faces any particular challenges in undertaking and using research to inform practice.
Dr Jodie Pennacchia is a Research Fellow in the Education Equity Initiative at The University of Birmingham. Jodie’s research on educational inequality and disadvantage spans sectors and pathways, with a particular focus on the offer for learners excluded from/not following a ‘traditional’, linear or high-status educational trajectory. Jodie is a founding member of the Alternative Provision Research Network, a collective of academics and practitioners with an interest in the social justice issues pertinent to the alternative provision sector and its research base.
Join online: Zoom link!