Have you applied to study Education at Liverpool Hope in September? Got questions? On Monday 27th, Naomi from the School of Education will be taking over the university’s Stories. She’ll show you around, tell you more about the course, and answer your questions. You’ll hear from students and tutors, too. Follow @liverpoolhopeuk on Instagram.
Not on Instagram? Use Twitter? Follow @hopeschoolofed and @drnaomihodgson and we’ll answer your questions there.
#proudtobehope
The School of Education Prize for ‘Academic Excellence on a Taught Postgraduate Programme’ was awarded on 23rd January to MA Education student, Karima Enajah for achieving the highest overall mark on the Masters programmes offered by School of Education.
Karima’s dissertation, entitled ‘What are we really teaching when teaching to the test?’, completed under the supervision of Dr Naomi Hodgson, was driven by her interest in the role of education in shaping democratic identities. Having experienced the damaging effects of teaching to the test culture in schools in North Africa and the UK, both as a student and later as a teacher, Karima in her Masters research, was keen to establish the practices associated with teaching to the test as well as locating them within the broader context of policies. Her research confirmed the detrimental impact the testing culture can have on the intellectual and democratic development of pupils. Her research highlighted that the practice is possibly a deliberate attempt to shape intellectually incompetent citizens, which helps to maintain and reproduce the status quo.
Karima was accompanied by her son and grandmother on the day to receive this award. Speaking of her experience on the Masters’ programme, she emphasised the value the degree had offered in deepening her knowledge, opening her up to multiple perspectives, strengthening her resolve to stand up for what she believed in and, most importantly, giving her the confidence to take on challenges she had previously avoided.
During my first term at Hope I began to seriously doubt my decision to pursue a Masters degree. I was forced to reconsider and question the opinions I had and practices I used, which left me feeling like I was unlearning all I knew. Despite this leaving me confused and frustrated at times, I can now appreciate this journey and am very thankful to my tutors who forced me in to that position. I can now say that I am much more certain in all decisions I make.
Karima Enajah, MA Education, 2019/20
Karima is now working as a teacher in an international school in Istanbul. Drawing on her learning from the Masters programme, she has been instrumental in creating the first ever positive behaviour policy for the school and is now looking to develop a more culturally appropriate curriculum that is better suited to the school’s diverse student body.
‘From Values to Virtues, and from Chaos to Research Grant’
Dr David Lundie (University of Glasgow) and Dr Antonio Zuffiano (Liverpool Hope University)
Tuesday 28 January
4pm
HPS 106
Hope Park Sports Building, Hope Park, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, L16 9JD
Join us on Wednesday 22 January, 3.30-5.00pm, for the next seminar, presented by Dr Ian Kidd (University of Nottingham): ‘Corrupting the Youth’? Character Education and the Vices of the Mind.
Abstract: There’s much enthusiasm, these days, for character education – roughly, the conviction that the improvement of individual character ought to be a central aim of education. An important aspect of this is epistemic character education, focused on the cultivation of the virtues of the mind – curiosity, reflectiveness, and so on. But if education can serve to enhance epistemic character, then it could also damage or corrupt it by promoting the development of the epistemic vices – arrogance, closed-mindedness, and so on. The aim of this talk is to offer a way of thinking about the epistemically corrupting potential of contemporary higher education.
EDEN006, Eden Building, Hope Park Campus, Liverpool, L16 9JD.
The final research summary for this term comes from the Centre for Education & Policy Analysis (CEPA). The CEPA Publications booklet summarises the research published by CEPA researchers during the 2018/19 academic year, covering the four Research Programs: Higher Education, Philosophy, Education & Society, Citizenship, Identity & Social Justice, and Education for Advantage.
CEPA, led by Dr Catherine O’Connell, is an interdisciplinary research centre based in the School of Education, and runs a regular seminar series. Details of the next event can be found here. The Centre also publishes a regular newsletter on its activities.
CEPA seminar, Wednesday 18 December, 2-3.30 pm, EDEN005, Hope Park.
Seeing the ‘real thing’: does seeing historical artefacts provide a knowledge gain? (Clare Jarmy, Bedales School)
Abstract: Normally, school students learn academic subjects in classrooms, but it is best practice to, now-and-again, take them on trips. Often, it is then that they come face-to-face with ‘the real thing’, an historical artefact. Intuitively, it seems that these are excellent learning experiences for students, but what role, if any, does the artefact itself play? Does a student acquire knowledge from seeing ‘the real thing’? If we think of knowledge as propositional, the artefact seems to offer little, yet at the same time, seeing the artefact is often the reason for taking the trip in the first place. We are hence in a dilemma: the artefact seems at once to be central and irrelevant to the learning experience. By drawing on RG Collingwood’s notion of historical events as having outsides and insides, and Heidegger’s understanding of ‘things’ as having ‘worlds’, we are able to think of the artefact as extended beyond its physical phenomena. In going to see ‘the real thing’, a student is able to piece together the historical thought behind it, something that makes her an historian.
The Ed Stu, our Education Studies Newsletter by students for students, is out now, featuring reflections on balancing studying with being a parent, a study visit to Texas, and learning outdoors. Thank you to all our contributors, and of course to editor, Dr Rosie Germain. Read it here.
In our latest Research Summary, Katharine O’Neill explores the perennial question of how to teach grammar, with the aim of improving trainee teachers’ content knowledge and developing creative teaching approaches. You can read Katharine’s summary here.
Which kinds of formative influence are morally permissible, impermissible, or obligatory? What about the case of religious initiation? John Tillson develops a theory to answer these questions in his recent monograph, published this year by Bloomsbury.
Read a summary of the research here.
