ESRC TLRP Research Project

The Team

University of Gloucestershire
Mary Fuller  Project Director. Professor of Education
Jan Georgeson Research Assistant
Mick Healey Professor of Geography
Katie Kelly Research Assistant
Gillian Oddy Administrator
Hazel Roberts - Research Assistant

University of Edinburgh
Sheila Riddell Professor of Inclusion and Diversity
Elisabet Weedon Research Fellow

Lancaster University
Moira Peelo Co-ordinator of the Student Learning Development Centre

University of Central Lancashire
Alan Hurst Professor of Education

Former members
University of Gloucestershire
Andrew Bradley  Research Fellow (January — August 2004)
Charlie Panting Associate Researcher (January 2005 - October 2006) 
Maha Shuayb Research Assistant (May - August 2006)
Alison Wilde Research Fellow (September 2004 - January 2005)

Lancaster University
Terry Wareham Centre for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (January 2004 - December 2005)
Linda Piggott Research Fellow (March 2004 - September 2005)

Advisory Panel

Paul Brown
University of Dundee, Director, SHEFC-funded Scottish Disability Team

Professor Sally Brown
Pro Vice Chancellor Leeds Metropolitan University, formerly Director of Membership Services, Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

Professor Richard Harris
Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana

Professor Dai Hounsell
Co- Director of ESRC-TLRP project 'Enhancing Teaching and Learning' University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Jenni Knox
Policy Director, Skill: National Bureau for Students with Disabilities

Professor Barrie O'Connor   
Deputy Head of School for Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University, Australia

Professor Brenda Smith
Associate Director of the Higher Education Academy Programmes Division

Disabled students nominated by SKILL

Biography

Professor Mary Fuller, Project Director

Current research interests:

• Enhancing the educational experiences and outcomes of disabled students in higher education
• Teaching, learning and assessment in higher education
• Inclusion in education (school and higher education)
• Examining the PhD
• Education of girls

Earlier research:

• Adolescent identity formation (minority ethnic groups)
• Development of multiracial/antiracist education policies
• Teaching of science in areas of social deprivation
• Education of gifted pupils

Indicitive Publications
M Fuller, M Healey, A Bradley and T Hall (in press, 2004) Barriers to learning: a systematic study of the experience of disabled students in one university, Studies in Higher Education

P Dooley and M Fuller (2003) 'Use and ornament: girls in former boys' independent schools'. In G Walford (ed.) British Private Schools. London: Frank Cass/Woburn Press

A Pill, S Ryan and M Fuller (2001) Who dares develops. Innovations in Education and TrainingInternational, 38 (1) 54-62

P Denicolo, M Fuller and C Boulter (1999) 'The higher degree viva - a case of constructive alternativism'. In J Fisher and D Savage (eds) Beyond Experimentation into Meaning. Farnborough: EPCA

LTSN (Learning & Teaching Support Network) Reserach Briefing - Seeking parity of learning experience, 2003. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources.asp?process=full_record§ion=generic&id=310

Jan Georgeson
Jan graduated from Oxford University in 1980 with a BA in Experimental Psychology and worked on research projects on reading and visual perception. She was awarded a PGCE from Bristol Polytechnic in 1984 and subsequently taught children with special educational needs in a range of secondary, primary and preschool settings.  Jan worked on the Effective Early Learning project at Worcester from 1993 to 1998 and in1996 she trained as a Registered Nursery Inspector of educational provision in the non-maintained sector.  She carried out a range of small research projects at Birmingham University from 1995 onwards and in 2006 completed an EdD in Educational Disadvantage and Special Educational Needs.  Jan’s research is influenced by sociocultural and activity theory and current interests include organisational structure, interactional style and approaches to pedagogy.

Professor Mick Healey
Mick Healey has published 50 articles and books in the field of economic geography. He has also written over 50 papers and books about learning and teaching in higher education. His current research interests are:

• developing the scholarship of learning and teaching
• linking research and teaching
• an international study of Kolb's learning styles and concepts of learning among geographers
• developing an inclusive curriculum for disabled students
• raising pedagogic research capacity through involvement of academics in GEES in research into fieldwork.

Indicative Publications

Healey M (2000) Developing the scholarship of teaching through the disciplines. Higher Education Research and Development 19 (2) 169-189

Healey M (2001) Developing learning partnerships through the disciplines. Research and Development in Higher Education 24, 42-50

Hall T, Healey M and Harrison M (2002) Disabled students and fieldwork: from exclusion to inclusion. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 27 (2) 213-231

Healey M and Jenkins A (2003) Academic development through the disciplines. In Macdonald R and Eggins H (eds) The Scholarship of Academic Development. Milton Keynes, Open University Press (forthcoming)

Both Mary Fuller and Mick Healey are active in a number of disability and learning projects:

• 2000-01 Learning support for disabled students undertaking fieldwork and related activities HEFCE Improving Provision for Disabled Students' Fund: £51,500. (Geography Discipline Network). M Healey, Director, and others. http://www.glos.ac.uk/gdn
• 2001-2003 The teaching and learning experience of disabled students Scholarship of Learning and Teaching Fund, University of Gloucestershire: £16,000. M Fuller, Director, M Healey and T Hall.
• 2003-05 Developing an inclusive curriculum for disabled students: the case of geography, earth and environmental sciences. HEFCE Improving Provision for Disabled Students' Fund. £147,513 (Geography Discipline Network) M Healey, Director, and others.
• 2003-05 Disability CPD: continuing professional development for staff involved in the learning and teaching of disabled students HEFCE Improving Provision for Disabled Students' Fund: £94,465 P Gravestock, Director, M Fuller, M Healey and others.

Professor Alan Hurst
His teaching focuses on special education, disability and the sociology of education. He is a trustee and past Chair of Skill: National Bureau for Students with Disabilities and has convened its Higher Education Working Party for many years. He has worked with the funding councils in England and Wales, the QAA for Higher Education, the ILT and the Learning and Teaching Subject Network (LTSN) Generic Centre to develop policy and provision for disabled students, including a close involvement with the Teachability project sponsored by the Scottish HEFC. Current interests: promoting inclusive learning and teaching; evaluating the quality of policy and provision.

Moira Peelo
Moira is Co-ordinator of the Student Learning Development Centre (SLDC). Since 1984 Moira has worked in the University helping students to develop effective, personal learning strategies in response to the demands of their courses. She has combined this with being a social science researcher - the most recent project was examining newspaper representations of homicide.  In 2004 Moira was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship and will use her prize money to research postgraduate supervision.

Linda Piggott
Research Fellow for Lancaster University and The University of Central Lancashire. Within the project she has particular interest in the transition from school/FE to university. She was a special needs teacher in Birmingham and Leeds before moving on to teach sociology in Further Education for ten years. More recently she has been the course co-ordinator for the BA Community Justice (Probation Studies) at Lancaster University. Currently she teaches a course on learning disability to social work students, and two criminology courses on the criminology degree. Research interests include barriers to employment for people with disabilities and the problem of empowerment in social work practice.

Professor Sheila Riddell
Professor of Inclusion and Diversity. She was an English teacher in a comprehensive school before doing a PhD in gender and subject choice at Bristol University. She worked on projects on special educational needs; disability; and gender and education policy, including an investigation of the transitional experiences of young people with recorded special educational needs. Formerly Director of the Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research established in 1997, which undertakes inter-disciplinary research in the field of disability, with particular focus on education and training, employment and health and social care. She has a remit to develop teaching and research in social aspects of disability.

Maha Shuayb
Maha graduated from the Lebanese University with a BSc in Sociology in 2000 and has a Med in Guidance and Counselling in Education from Newcastle University. She went on to study for an MPhil degree in Educational Research at the University of Cambridge and graduated in 2002. Maha graduated with a PhD degree in Education from the University of Cambridge in 2005. She has conducted research on a variety of topics such as students’ psychological, personal, and vocational needs at universities in Lebanon post the civil war. Maha has also piloted a new research theory ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ as a method for developing organisations. She has also researched citizenship education in Lebanon and the aims and goals of the new curriculum and their social and political impacts.

Terry Wareham
Director, Centre for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching. Lectured on post-compulsory teaching development programmes and was staff development officer at Milton Keynes College before moving to Lancaster. Leads and supports developments in student learning, teaching development, learning technologies and wider staff development; responsible for co-ordinating Lancaster's learning, teaching and assessment strategy; member of its committee on Equal Opportunities and Teaching and Learning. She has contributed to the Geography Development Network projects in the areas of small group teaching, key skills for students and a web resource for fieldwork with disabled students. She wrote and co-edited Failing Students in Higher Education. Has interests in how higher education teachers develop understanding and skills in teaching their students, particularly how they respond to students' barriers to learning.

Dr Elisabet Weedon
Research Fellow in the Centre for Research in Education Inclusion and Diversity. She is a psychology graduate with a primary and HE teaching qualification. Her PhD explored children's understanding of arithmetic; however, more recently she has focused on the way students in higher education learn. She has lectured in developmental psychology and social science. She has also been involved in developing resources that will support students' development of reflective abilities and materials to support personal development portfolios. Recent research projects have examined the impact of online learning - this has included working on cross institution collaborative projects. She has written a number of papers stemming from these activities. Within the team she has a particular interest in dyslexia.

Dr Alison Wilde
Research Fellow in the Department of Education. She has worked with disabled people in a variety of social educational and health sectors, before lecturing (sociology, social policy, gender and disability studies undergraduate courses) and researching at Bradford College. Early research projects included investigation of children's leisure facilities, young people's 'capacity building' projects and an assessment of clothing services/technology for disabled people. Building upon involvements with Disability Arts projects and interests carried forward from an M.A in Cultural Studies, PhD work investigated attitudes towards disability and impairments and their relationships to identity and wider socio-cultural resources, through an examination of popular media and audience performances. Alongside a continuing interest in disability, impairment and identity in the media, the arts, and education, has a specific research interest in investigating psycho-emotional concerns within wider discursive and material contexts.

Dr Andrew Bradley
Andrew Bradley is a Lecturer in Events Management and Sports Tourism at the University of Gloucestershire. He has a research interest in the increasing importance of events as a mechanism of place marketing and the integration of sport and tourism. His publications relate to the learning experiences of disabled students, the understanding that the undergraduates in the field of geography have of their discipline, and student learning styles.

Katie Kelly
Katie’s first degree was gained reading Women’s Studies with Politics and Society at the University of Gloucestershire. During her studies she developed particular interests in social policy, feminist research methods and education. After graduation she worked for Rethink, as a Community Mental Health Worker in supported housing and a Team Leader in day services. In day services she was involved in setting up a Young Person’s Support Group, based in the principles of early intervention and recovery, allowing people aged between eighteen and twenty-five to develop a mutually supportive environment. Katie is undertaking a PhD at the University of Gloucestershire and her current PhD research has been influenced by both her own academic and professional history, combined with her own personal commitment to inclusive education and reducing the stigma surrounding mental health problems.

Charlie Panting
Charlie became a researcher within the Centre for Behaviour Studies at the University of Gloucestershire in 1998 and has since worked on several research projects including Effects Of Broadcast TV On Behaviour Of 3- to 12- Year Olds On The Island Of St Helena (ESRC funded), ‘Primary Children’s Use of Mobile Phones: Usage and Abusage’ and ‘Bullying in Gloucestershire Secondary Schools’. Charlie’s responsibilities include qualitative and quantitative research methods, incorporating data design and analysis, sampling techniques and statistical generation. She regularly uses the computer packages SPSS and NVivo. Additionally, she is an Associate lecturer for the Open University and a lecturer at the University of Gloucestershire. She is also a PhD student at the University of Warwick undertaking research on Globalisation, Citizenship and Identity on the island of St Helena. Charlie used to work for the National Centre for Social Research where she conducted interviews for the largest social research institute in the UK in areas including crime, health, education, childcare, housing, sexual attitudes, family income and social security.

Hazel Roberts
Hazel worked as a personal assistant at Independent Living Keighley (ILK), a disability rights organisation, during her 'gap year' prior to university and was a member of ILK's Management Committee from 2000-2002. Hazel graduated from Oxford University in 2003 with a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. She subsequently worked as an Equal Opportunities Administrator at Herefordshire College of Technology in a role focussing on the insitution's implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act. Hazel also worked as an Economic Research Officer at Gloucestershire County Council from 2004-2005. She is undertaking a PhD (attached to the ESRC/TLRP research project) entitled 'The Role of Support Workers in the Learning of Disabled Students in Higher Education'

Enhancing the quality and outcomes of disabled students' learning in higher education