Research Activities

The Educational Future and Innovative Qualitative Research: International Perspectives

An international seminar organised by ESRI in collaboration with the Research Capacity Building Network of the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme
3 & 4 February 2005

Organiser: Maggie MacLure, MMU

This two-day seminar was organised and hosted by ESRI at MMU. The event was the fourth and final seminar in the series Qualitative Research in Teaching and Learning: Quality, Innovation and Future Directions jointly organised with the Research Capacity Building Network of ESRC’s Teaching and Learning Research Programme.

As the culmination of the series, the seminar explored international perspectives on possible futures for qualitative research, led by speakers who are working at the leading edge of methodological and critical development in education and the social sciences. To allow for discussion and participation by all seminar members, interactive sessions were built into the two-day schedule, which was attended by researchers from across the UK.

It was clear that certain controversies and issues that are familiar to UK researchers are also to be found in the US and Australian contexts. Recurring themes included relationships between applied research or evaluation, policy and politics; the politicising of debates around ‘quality’; the mismatch between research and policy constructions of identity, voice and participation .

Speakers:

Patti Lather , Ohio State University
Scientism and Scientificity in the Rage for Accountability: A Feminist Deconstruction

Erica Burman , Manchester Metropolitan University
Beyond 'Emotional Literacy' in Feminist Research

Jennifer Greene , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Engaging with Values in Evaluation, Qualitative and Otherwise

Bronwyn Davies , University of Western Sydney , Australia
Having, and being had by “experience”. Or “experience” in the social sciences after the discursive/poststructuralist turn.