The Education Continuum

SRHE Annual Conference 2011

I'm going to be at the SRHE Annual Conference at the Celtic Manor from today until Friday.  If you are attending, do come and visit the Continuum stand to talk about new publication ideas, to have a look at the books we have on display and to pick up a catalogue.  We are offering a 20% discount on all paperbacks and a 35% discount on all hardbacks on the stand, including Yvonne Hillier’s Reflective Teaching in Further and Adult Education and Paul Ashwin’s Analysing Teaching-Learning Interactions in Higher Education.

Alison Baker
Senior Commissioning Editor

SRHE Newer Researchers Conference 2011

Calling all Newer Researchers!

I'm going to be at the SRHE Newer Researchers Conference at the Celtic Manor today.  If you are attending the conference, do come and visit the Continuum stand to talk about any writing project ideas you have, to have a look at the books we have on display and to pick up a catalogue.  We are offering 20% discount on all paperbacks and 35% discount on all hardbacks on the stand, including Yvonne Hillier’s Reflective Teaching in Further and Adult Education and Paul Ashwin’s Analysing Teaching-Learning Interactions in Higher Education.

Alison Baker
Senior Commissioning Editor

Getting Ahead and Making an Impact

I've been sent links to two interesting articles in the last couple of days that I wanted to share with you:

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) recently published a handbook exploring how social scientists can maxise the impact of their research. To find out more, check out the LSE Impact of Social Sciences blog and handbook here.

The Guardian ran a live Q&A chat titled 'how to get ahead in academic publishing' earlier this month and the 'best bits' can be found here.

Alison Baker
Senior Commissioning Editor (Academic Education)

Networking Research - out now!

Networking Research by Patrick Carmichael (Professor of Educational Research at Liverpool John Moores University, UK) explores how researchers can engage effectively in networks and carry out research on networks and networking.  The book draws on extensive research into educational research networks in schools, colleges and informal education settings to explore:

How can researchers and research-informed practitioners best engage in and with networks and develop effective networking practices?

How might networks and networking be conceptualized in order to frame and support their work in and on networks?

How do networks relate to existing organizational forms and how might new networking practices emerge?

We've already had some great responses to the book:
‘Amidst the banal talk these days about networks as though they are inevitable in teacher practice, professional learning, technology and research, here at last is an informative and critical discussion. Carmichael offers a clear map through the multifarious forms, perspectives and uses of networking practices, and thoughtful approaches for those struggling with the ‘ducking and diving’ processes of researching in, and about, networks in education.’ Tara Fenwick, Professor of Education, University of Stirling, UK

‘Patrick Carmichael has offered us a remarkable tour de force on the nature and role of networks and networking in educational research. The book provides a superb synthesis of social theory, original empirical research and personal expertise that will guide the debate and thinking on research capacity building for many years to come.’ Dean Garratt, Reader in Education, Faculty of Education and Children's Services, University of Chester, UK

Alison Baker
Commissioning Editor (Academic Education)

Guest post from David Scott, co-author of Researching Education

Researching Education: Data, Methods and Theory in Educational Enquiry is a second edition of a book first published in 2000. This new version includes a substantially rewritten account of philosophical issues relating to educational research, a new chapter on judgemental criteria for educational research, and a detailed account of feminist approaches to research. The focus and substantive content of the book is the same as it was when it was first published. It sets out to examine the theory and practice of researching education, focusing on the philosophical, historical, political and social contexts in which such research is conducted, and the implications of these contexts for the collection and analysis of data. The point is that everyone thinks that they know what research is and how to do it; whereas in fact most research is poorly constructed, inadequately conceptualised and over-claiming of its results. In part, this is because those ontological and epistemological frameworks within which all research is located are rarely surfaced for attention and the methods and approaches used to collect and analyse data are subsequently misconceived. So, this book serves as a corrective to research studies which deny the sociality of the research process and the implicit power relations that underpin these works. In short, it seeks to problematise the practice of research and examine how power is ever present in the construction of research texts, not in a partisan sense nor indeed so that it is deliberately biased and distorted, but rather in the sense that it imposes a closure of the world, when openness is to be preferred.