Project overview

[can you add a few lines summarising the project, why it's important, and what the potential outcomes are?]

Background

In addition to the recruitment of a research assistant through the PAIS Research Assistant Scheme, the money also enabled me to attend ISA Midwest in November 2019, where I was able to share new research ideas and exchange ideas regarding learning and teaching. The invaluable feedback received on my work has also resulted in stronger engagement and more research influenced teaching emerging in the classroom. To further this, I was also meant to attend ISA 2020 in March where I was going to present my research and attend a workshop on identity in learning and teaching, with a focus on assessment development. Unfortunately, this coincided with Covid-19 and the US/UK travel bans.

The project however, has gone ahead and received ethical approval from the University of Warwick in January 2020, with minor revisions for the use of online platforms for focus groups and a 1 year extension being granted due to the current situation. It was agreed that because the money was from Warwick and the project was primarily situated in PAIS, that ethical approval would be sought here rather than from Liverpool John Moores University, with the ethics team there being happy with this arrangement.

2019/20 Activity

Since the beginning of this academic year, I have developed and circulated an online survey asking a total of 44 questions, including interest in future participation, to staff, undergraduate, and postgraduate students in PAIS (Warwick) and History and Social Sciences (HSS, Liverpool). The questions were tailored to reflect respondent positions within the department. There were a good number of responses, with PAIS finalists not being emailed the survey until after the closure of the NSS as per the original agreement with the Director for Student Experience and Progression within PAIS. There were a good number of responses across the various categories and I have started to engage with the data.

Graduating participants, or those on exchange/going on placement in the next academic year were then emailed if they had expressed interest in further engagement with the project. The current plan is to arrange online focus groups with them within the next month and once universities reopen, another email will be sent offering the same online opportunity or face to face depending on social distancing requirements and university regulations.

I was also able to undertake three confidence in the classroom workshops, one for staff across the university, and two for students within PAIS. I was not able to offer this at Liverpool during this year, but there are ongoing conversations with HSS about introducing this for subsequent years.

Ongoing outcomes

[is it possible to paraphrase this?]

At present, there are no outputs from the project, primarily due to the impact of Covid-19 on my ability to conduct other aspects of the research. Within the next 12 months however, I anticipate producing a report for each department to assist them with engaging more with identity in the classroom through their learning and teaching strategies, and one journal article.