Published March 2025
As the ERSP initiative progresses, we remain committed as a partnership to empowering and celebrating teachers as essential contributors to and creators of educational research. With this vision in mind, the initiative continues to grow and evolve through school visits, our website launch, increased opportunities for research engagement, and the groundwork for our upcoming summer conference.
Since the last newsletter, university and school colleagues have strengthened their connections through collaborative school visits. These visits aimed to support the brilliant projects happening in schools and encourage other teachers and new schools to become involved in the ERSP initiative.
In November, staff from the university visited Borden Grammar School and Blean Primary School to support their research endeavours. The visit to Borden focused on working with the research team to finalise their data collection and discuss the next steps. Later this year, the university looks forward to welcoming Borden's researchers to the university to develop their data analysis skills further. At Blean, teaching staff and school governors join CCCU staff to consider their research projects. The discussions were rich and centred around personalising the research to their staff and the school.
University staff visited Smarden Primary School, which is looking to become more research-active. The school is interested in joining the ERSP project and becoming part of its wider research community.
Upcoming Engagements - Looking ahead, a visit is planned to work with the teachers at The Folkestone School for Girls as they embark on their research journeys. Bringing university and school colleagues together to explore potential research ideas.
We are pleased to announce that the ERSP website is now running - https://ersp.org.uk/. While currently just a framework, we hope to expand it significantly in the future. We are particularly interested in ideas for research support resources and would welcome contributions from university or school colleagues who want to participate in their production. Additionally, we are compiling profile information for each partnership school and would appreciate it if schools could provide a brief overview of themselves and their research projects.
On another note, we can share that the research award accreditation is in its final stages of approval. Professor Alan Meades has been actively advocating for its approval in various meetings, and he is optimistic that it will be finalised soon.
We are delighted to announce that Kent College has, once again, warmly agreed to host the event for this year's Summer ERSP Conference, taking place on Friday 13th June. As with last year, the event will feature a series of practitioner talks, round-table discussions, networking opportunities, and a fantastic lunch! Planning and organisation for the day are ongoing, and a big thank you goes out to everyone involved in making this possible.
Following the January ERSP meeting, Kamilla Razik has assembled a survey to gather your thoughts on the possible structure and ideas for the day. Your input will help shape an engaging and productive event.
We are also pleased to announce that we have secured a keynote speaker for the day and are delighted that Dr Claire Tyson has agreed to share her insight and experience of practitioner research with us.
Claire is a teacher-researcher whose work involves supporting teachers and students in developing academic writing, academic integrity, and research capacity within schools. She is a founding member of the RATED consortium (Research-Informed Approaches to Tackling Educational Disadvantage), a research partnership between academics and teachers focused on improving student outcomes through collaborative research opportunities. Additionally, Claire is the co-convenor of the BERA Special Interest Group for Practitioner Research.
In the coming weeks we will send out invitations to the partnership for contributions and speakers at the conference.
Thank you to Catherine Sherwood and Silvina Bishopp-Martin for joining the ERSP group and agreeing to lead the writing and research workshop in May.
In the January ERSP meeting, Catherine and Silvina facilitated a discussion on what the group would like to gain from the workshop. Initial thoughts included using the session to introduce library services and provide some form of writing support, potentially focused on ERSP conference contributions.
Over the next few weeks, we will reach out to school colleagues who could not attend last month’s meeting to gather their input on preferences for the session.
If you have any thoughts or ideas, please feel free to share them with Catherine, Silvina or Phil (catherine.sherwood@canterbury.ac.uk , silvina.bishop-martin@canterbury.ac.uk, phil.stone@canterbury.ac.uk).
In our meeting, Lydia Ahern, Sam Holdstock, and Emily Lau kindly introduced themselves and their research to the ERSP group.
Emily outlined her research, focusing on how children and young people engage in intergenerational social action and the educational spaces where they can participate in conversations to develop active, critically conscious citizenship for democracy. Her recent work highlights socio-economic barriers to active civic learning, the crucial role of civic-minded teachers and school ethos, and the value of justice-oriented civic education. She has invited ERSP partners to get involved in her research project.
Lydia introduced her PhD research, which will investigate teacher engagement with research, research-informed practice, and the perceptions of teachers involved in research activities. As an initial step, she plans to survey ERSP schools and conduct informal school visits.
Sam's research is focused on interactive fiction and its use in schools. He is keen to establish research partnerships with schools and teachers to explore topics such as interactive fiction and non-linear texts, classroom talk and text-based dialogue, and critical-creative pedagogies.
If you would like to get involved in any of these projects, please get in touch with Emily, Lydia, or Sam at emily.lau@canterbury.ac.uk, l.ahern398@canterbury.ac.uk, sam.holdstock@canterbury.ac.uk.
On the 5th of March, IPDA England is hosting a webinar on Research Impact with Prof Gary Beauchamp, looking at what research impact means and how it could be evidenced. You can register here: https://ipda.org.uk/5-march-2025-ipda-england-research-impact-with-prof-gary-beauchamp/
Thank you to Kerry Jordan-Daus for sharing this information.