Research Menu
Our Research
The Department has a world-class reputation for excellence in research. The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) placed us in the top 20 of 82 departments of Education in the country, with 80% of our research activity judged to be of international standing, and 45% graded as internationally excellent and world leading.
We have three areas of excellence: Higher Education Research and Evaluation; Social Justice and Wellbeing; Technology Enhanced Learning. Work in each of these areas is facilitated by, and organised through, a centre:
- here@lancaster
- Centre for Social Justice and Wellbeing in Education
- Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning
The centres act as focal points to exchange, support and develop research but also enhance cross-departmental synergies in methodological approaches. Each Centre also has a programme of seminars and events.
here@lancaster
here@lancaster supports a wide range of research and evaluation work on higher education in all its manifestations: teaching; research; administration; income generation. Work in the centre builds on research and evaluative work undertaken in its predecessor: Centre for the Study of Education and Training (CSET) in which five major UK policy evaluations in H.E took place over the last decade. Much of our work is informed by social practice theory which shapes our understanding of the social world and the role and nature of higher education within it. Areas of expertise include: evaluative practice; disciplinary differences; policy implementation; learning and teaching in H.E; discourse and literacies; change management; and research as an activity.
Centre for Social Justice and Wellbeing in Education
Research in this centre explores questions about equity, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing. Our work is multi-disciplinary – drawing particularly on sociology, linguistics and psychology - and spans a range of formal and informal education contexts including schools, higher education, home and the workplace. We have particular expertise in relation to: gender; literacy; disability; migration; motivation; technologies; widening participation; youth ‘at risk’; self-esteem and well-being. We have close links with the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies and the Literacy Research Centre (both at Lancaster University). The Centre for Social Justice and Wellbeing in Education also has strong links with regional and international development work through our programmes of participative research.
Within this Centre, we also have a group that specialises in Researching Equity, Access and Participation (REAP).
Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL)
The Centre for TEL supports research concerned with teaching and learning with digital technologies, and with widening digital participation across a range of populations. The Centre builds on the previous methodological and philosophical approaches to research undertaken through Lancaster University’s world-renowned Centre for the Study of Advanced Learning Technology (CSALT), which focuses on networked and collaborative learning. Our research is multidisciplinary and spans a wide range of contexts and approaches including evaluative and policy research. We seek to understand basic learning processes and the ways they relate specifically to digital technologies, and we focus on learning and pedagogical approaches using digital technologies and networks to support learners from primary schooling to higher education, as well as in the workplace.
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