International Collaboration
For a number of years, the Department of Educational Research has invited international speakers to visit the Department and to work with students and colleagues.
In 2023, the Department of Educational Research ran two online events that highlighted the extensive research work that our postgraduate students and researchers undertake internationally. With over 400 postgraduate students and researchers, and with a large and increasing number of doctoral alumni from across the world, the international dimension of this extensive research is something that we in the Department wish to share, raising awareness and possible connections for us all.
Celebrating International Collaboration 2023
With important perspectives offered by three international keynote speakers, we ran two online half-day conferences (on 5th December and 7th December 2023), where our postgraduate students, researchers and alumni talked about their work that offer international perspectives. The conferences focussed on themes that cross the boundary interests that have been identified by the three Research Centres within the Department:
- Organisational change, power, and actors of internationalisation
- Methodological and theoretical approaches through an international perspective
- International and educational contemporary challenges
You can view recordings of all the individual sessions via a playlist on our YouTube channel.
Recordings are available for the following speakers:
- Samia Chasi (Keynote speaker) - What are more sustainable, equitable and just internationalisation practices?
- Liz Dovrat - Meeting in the middle to sustain virtual exchange courses: The need for top-down & bottom-up collaboration
- Elizabeth Cook - Navigating theory & practice through design research: Transforming graduate employability
- Thomas Kral - Confronting English at a women’s college in the Indian periphery: Stories of agency, (dis)empowerment and decolonisation
- Krystian Szadkowski (Keynote speaker) - Internationalisation of universities - public good and the common good?
- Nneka St Rose - Reconciling storytelling in CGT. Reflections on the process of 'emergence' and theory generation in a study of home-schooling in Trinidad and Tobago
- Kamil Tilyabaev: Experiences of learning Uzbek as a second language in post-Soviet Uzbekistan affecting the extent of Uzbek language decolonisation at the emotional level
- Metrice Harris-Weedman - MENSCH-challenges of being identified as student members of marginalized groups
- Pamela Spiteri - Transforming the link between school, home and the community to tackle Early leaving from Education and Training
- Nermin Hammad - ChatGPT in Education: Employing the Power of AI Tool for Reshaping Traditional Approaches and Empowering Personalized Learning
Celebrating International Collaboration 2021
Between March and June 2021, the Department of Educational Research ran a series of online events, ‘Celebrating International Collaboration’, aimed at opening up discussion and debate about internationalisation and international collaboration. Sessions highlighted critical perspectives of concern and ways that the Department of Educational Research, through its Research Centres, is involved in and operates as a platform for international collaboration, and the importance it attaches to international collaboration. We see this as a platform for exploring in more depth how to move forward with international collaboration for the future.
During the first event in March, we gained perspectives and insights on international collaboration from our Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Steve Bradley, from a Principal Researcher at Vilnius University, Lithuania, Professor Valentina Dagienė, and from the Chancellor of the UPOU, The Philippines, Professor Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria.
View the event recording on the Educational Research YouTube channel or Lancaster eStream.
- Professor Steve Bradley, Deputy VC, Lancaster University, UK - What is internationalisation and international collaboration from a university perspective? Starts at 7:20
- Professor Valentina Dagiene, Principal Researcher, Vilnius University, Lithuania - What is internationalisation and international collaboration from an EU university perspective now that the UK has left the EU? Starts at 29:36
- Professor Melinda dP. Bandalaria, Chancellor, UPOU, The Philippines - What is internationalisation and international collaboration for a university 6,500 miles from the UK? Starts at 44:10
- Q&A session starts at 1:04:57
Events in April were run by the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning (CTEL), in May by the Centre for Social Justice and Wellbeing in Education (CSJWE), and in June by the Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation (CHERE). These events focused on examples and aspects of collaboration within the three Research Centres of the Department of Educational Research.
Recordings of events organised by the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning (CTEL) in April 2021
accordion
Recording of a live online event on 8th April 2021 hosted by the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning.
Speakers included current students and alumni from the PhD in E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning.
Recording of a live online discussion on 15 April 2021 hosted by the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning. The speakers were Maria Cutajar & Mike Johnson who are both graduates of the PhD in E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning.
Recording of a small-group discussion on 23 April 2021 hosted by the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning.
Recording of a live online discussion on 27 April 2021 hosted jointly by the Centre for Research in Digital Education, The British University in Dubai and the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning.
The special issue of Studies in Technology Enhanced Learning is online and open access.
International Visitors' Week archive
In 2020, we had planned to run an event, International Collaboration Week 2020, but due to the pandemic situation, we had to cancel this event.
International Visitors' Week archive accordion accordion
Our international visitors in 2019 were:
- Professor Alejandra Boni Aristizabal (La Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain);
- Professor Lynn Fendler (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA);
- Professor Anna Kosmutzky (Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany).
The theme of the one-day symposium on Wednesday 3rd July 2019 was: Research, teaching and learning across disciplinary frontiers.
Our international visitors in 2018 were:
- Prudence Carter, UC Berkeley, Graduate School of Education, USA;
- Therese Keane, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia;
- Shanthi Robertson, Institute for Culture & Society, Western Sydney University, Australia;
- Derron Wallace, Brandeis University, USA.
The theme of our one-day symposium during International Visitors' Week was "Borders and Boundaries: Debating the limits and possibilities of Education" and you can watch videos of presentations by Prudence Carter and Shanthi Robertson on our YouTube channel.
Our international visitors in 2017 were:
- Melinda dP. Bandalaria, University of the Philippines Open University;
- Cristyn Davies, University of Sydney, Australia;
- Julia Melkers, Georgia Tech University, USA;
- Kerry Robinson, Western Sydney University, Australia.
The theme of our one-day symposium during International Visitors' Week was "The Internationalisation of Education: Issues, debates and initiatives".
Our international visitors in 2016 were:
- Amanda Keddie, Deakin University, Australia
- Ole Smordal, University of Oslo, Norway
- Jeoren Huisman, Ghent University, Belgium
The theme of our one-day symposium during International Visitors' Week was "Changing education? Researching diversity and participation".
Amanda Keddie's keynote address: "The academies reform movement: possibilities and problematics for social justice"
Abstract: There is much contention, uncertainty and debate surrounding the academies movement in England. There is no doubt that this reform has radically changed the landscape of state-funded education in England. This presentation provides an overview of some of the key arguments both for and against academisation through a social justice lens. The presentation draws on case study research from three different schooling contexts to illustrate some of the possibilities and problematics for social justice that have been generated by this reform and its various manifestations.
Ole Smordal's keynote address: "Connecting learning across contexts, two cases of design explorations”
Abstract: In educational research there is a focus on improving science learning by combining classroom activities with field trips in order to create variations and transitions between instructional contexts. A challenge is to connect activities in different contexts to foster deeper engagement for students, e.g., by opening up cross-disciplinary activities in schools and organizing observations and data gathering in the local vicinity of the school. Design explorations in two cases are presented, one based on knowledge building about climate changes that is contextualized across physical locations and digital worlds by means of a mobile augmented reality, and one based on incorporating a digital game about future energy sources at a science museum into a school visit.
Jeoren Huisman's keynote address: "Higher education systems and student diversity”
Abstract: Much attention has been paid to diversity in access to and participation in higher education and rightly so. Less attention has been directed to investigating how higher education system characteristics (i.e. macro-level features of the system) affect participation in higher education. It has been assumed that diverse higher education systems better cater for a diverse student population. The presentation will explore this assumption, focusing on the available evidence and what kind of institutional diversity would be most beneficial.
Our international visitors in 2015 were:
- Jenni Case, Virginia Tech University, USA (formerly at the University of Cape Town, South Africa);
- Bob Lingard, University of Queensland, Australia;
- Mpine Makoe, University of South Africa (Pretoria);
- Mikko Ruohonen, University of Tampere, Finland.
Our YouTube channel hosts videos of Jenni Case and Bob Lingard speaking at "Exploring the policy-practice nexus in higher education research" (a one-day symposium held during Visitors' Week).
You can also watch a recording of presentations by Mikko Ruohonen - "RuralVoice (and further) Mobile Voice-based Services for rural India" and Mpine Makoe - "Pedagogical affordances of mobile learning in enhancing distance education in developing countries".