Staff

Paul Ashwin's research interests include: approaches to teaching and learning in higher education, phenomenographic research methodology, academic development in higher education, critical pedagogy in higher education, and peer learning in further and higher education.

Paul Davies specialises in the evaluation of career education and guidance programmes, the evaluation of careers and Connexions services, how practitioners conduct their own research and evaluation, and uses of ICT to support unemployed young people.

Steve Dempster Gender in education, masculinities, laddishness, student experience of Higher Education, educational transitions, widening participation and post-16 destinations.

Mary Hamilton  (theme leader) specialises in language , literacy and the new media; academic literacies in digital environments; informal adult learning in everyday practices; globalisation and literacy policy; actor network theory; discourse analysis and social semiotic theory; multimodality, especially visual aspects.

Ann-Marie Houghton Research interests are closely linked to the work of REAP (Researching Equity, Access and Participation) and university role as Development Officer for Widening Participation in the Vice Chancellor's Office. Major themes at present include: Educational Equality and Social Exclusion; Widening participation policy and practice; Family Learning; Disability and transition to HE and Employment; Teaching and learning policy and practice; Educational Guidance.

Carolyn Jackson Carolyn's research is guided by an overarching interest in gender issues in education, with particular interests in single-sex and mixed-sex learning environments, fears of failure, and constructions and performances of 'laddish' masculinities and femininities. Between 2003-2005 she undertook a project exploring boys' and girls' motives for 'laddish' behaviours. A book from this project - 'Lads' and 'Ladettes' in School: Gender and a Fear of Failure - was published in 2006 by Open University Press. Also conducts research on the PhD examination process in Britain.

Murray Saunders Educational policy implementation and change; work and the curriculum; national and international policy evaluation, evaluation theory and method, informal learning in communities and specialises in the evaluation of complex change processes e.g. e-learning.

Mantz Yorke. Primary research interest is ‘the student experience’ in higher education in which the interlinked themes of student success, employability, assessment and retention figure prominently.

Malcolm Tight Specialisms include: changing patterns of academic work; the nature of the academic experience; the history and meaning of higher education; alternative modes of study; the postgraduate and research student experience; mature and 'non-traditional' students; comparative studies; patterns of participation; the role of learning in adult life.

Paul Trowler Specialisms include: higher education policy-making and policy implementation; the analysis of organisational and professional cultures in universitities, particularly as they relate to change-management processes; the reception and impact in differing social contexts of learning, teaching and assessment policies and practices; discourse and identities in higher education; ethnographic research methodologies.