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Postgraduate Researchers in Education (PRIE) 2006
Manchester Metropolitan University, All Saints Building, Manchester, Saturday 10 June 2006
The PRIE 2006 conference was a regional collaborative event hosted and led by the Education and Social Research Institute and the Research Office at Manchester Metropolitan University, along with Postgrad Talent NW the NW Hub of the UK GRAD Programme. Sponsorship partners included academic publishers McGraw-Hill.
The event attracted around 55 delegates from 8 of the region's Higher Education Institutions, and some from beyond the NW area. We were particularly pleased to welcome a delegate from our Australian associate partner Monash University.
See the programme for the day.
Keynote Presentation
Dr Helen Colley, senior researcher within the Education and Social Research Institute at MMU, stepped in to give a keynote presentation which highlighted some of the career decisions which are likely to be faced by postgraduate educational researchers. Dr Colley highlighted recent research on work place learning as applied to contract researchers within the Higher Education Academy.
Dr Helen Colley provided cover at short notice for the scheduled speaker Prof Lorna Unwin of the Institute of Education, the University of London, who was unfortunately unable to attend on the day of the conference due to circumstances beyond her control.
Researcher Presentations
The PRIE conference continued with the postgraduate delegates giving 10 minutes talks either about their research or their experience of completing postgraduate research. Two parallel sessions were run with four separate talk groups.
In each of the four talk sessions delegates were asked to vote for the best presentation in each group, and the winners were awarded book token prizes.
Winners of the book tokens were:
Group 1 - Higher Education Management and Future Developments
Michael Quigley, University of Salford.
Using a systems dynamics methodology to predict higher
education manpower.
Group 2 - Inclusion
Gwadabe Wada Kurawa, The University of Manchester.
Understanding of the pupil's rights to education.
Group 3 - Virtual Learning Environments and Image-Based Research
Steven Naylor, Manchester Metropolitan University.
New technology and innovation in art and design education
Group 4 - Student Experiences and Widening Participation
Jill McCarthy, Manchester Metropolitan University.
Challenging encounters along the way.
Conference workshops
A - What can you do with a postgraduate degree in educational
research
Jane Artess, Higher Education Careers Service Unit (HECSU)
A former senior lecturer in guidance and education, Jane now manages research for a large, national charitable
trust. She gave hints and tips about research-related careers outside the academy.
B - Writing for publication, hints and tips on how to get published
Prof Peter Gilroy, Editor of The International
Journal of Education for Teaching.
This workshop drew on the experience of both writing for and editing an international journal and provided
information that budding authors would find useful in placing their papers.
C - Managing your PhD supervisor
Adrian West, University of Liverpool
In this session we looked at the things that people enjoy about working with their supervisor, and the things
that they don't. The supervisory relationship is frequently a very live issue for people doing a Ph.D.
This session focused on what you would like to be different, looked at a concrete way of working with that -
based on the work of the psychologist Marshall Rosenberg. When things are not going as we would like, we tend to
interpret the situation in terms of the wrongness of other people's behaviour - or our own. For example "they
should give clearer guidance" and so on. Seeing it this way reduces the likelihood of the person we see as 'wrong'
helping us - because it invites a defensive response. But other ways of looking at the situation are more
effective at getting our needs met, and closer to the truth. In the session we tried this out to see if we could
find a way of communicating what you want, that makes it easier and more enjoyable for the other person to
help.
D - Educational management and policy making
Marilyn Eccles, Director for Urban Education, Manchester City Council and
MMU
Marilyn Eccles is the Director for Urban Education for Manchester City Council and is the Leader of the Centre
for Urban Education at MMU. Her role is to work in collaboration with MMU colleagues to seek opportunities for
benefiting the students of MMU and the community of Manchester. In this workshop Marilyn considered the role
research has to play in policy making and offered hints and tip to those wishing to become involved in
developing educational policy.
E - Contract Research
John Hockey, University of Gloucester.
John has done a number of projects on contract research careers, of which his most recent research was reported
by the Times Higher Education Supplement. He talked about the nature of a career as a contract researcher, and
discussed some of the pragmatic issues.
F - Adapting research methodologies to young people's creative use of new technology
Guy Merchant, Sheffield Hallam University.
Guy shared the research methods he has used in his innovative work on 'digikids', 'cool dudes' and 'teenagers
in cyberspace'. This workshop looked at how can we access and analyse data generated in weblogs, e-mails,
internet chatrooms, etc.
G - How to do inclusive research
Prof Bridget
Somekh, MMU
Bridget is Editor of the international journal Educational Action Research and a leading national and
international expert in this field. She has declared herself 'incapable of designing a research project that
does not involve teachers and pupils as participants'. This workshop looked at how researchers can ensure that
their work is inclusive and how to encourage participation.
H - Dissemination of research - communicate your work
Dr Kathryn Ecclestone, Nottingham University
Kathryn is a former Deputy Director of the ESRC's Teaching and Learning Research Programme. She has written
for the TES, and has wide expertise in disseminating research and encouraging debates on education through the
media as well as with policy-maker. This workshop looked at how those educational researchers just starting a
research career might get their work noticed for the right reasons in the right places.
Postgrad Talent NW is supported by the NW Regional Hub of the Research Councils’ UK GRAD Programme.
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