Welcome to the WJETT blog
What is WJETT?
The WJETT blog or Warwick Journal of Education - Transforming Teaching blog is designed to encourage staff and students to disseminate good practice and to engage with their peers on academic cultural critique or areas of research that they find interesting. With the increased focus on ‘teachers as researchers’ in the sector, many qualified teachers are expected to publish the outcomes of any action research projects they undertake. The WJETT blog can be the first step on your journey towards publishing and enables you to experience publishing and reviewing in a friendly and supportive environment.
You will need to scroll down the page below the tags to see the posts.
BELMAS Leadership Preparation and Development RIG
What is a RIG?
This summary explains the Leadership Preparation and Development RIG: what its aims are; how to get involved; what the benefits are of participation. As we all know, education policy is a fast-moving area. Consequently, Research Interest Groups (RIGs) are established when a group of academic colleagues team up with a group of practitioners to discuss and research the changes that are happening in a particular area. The BELMAS (https://www.belmas.org.uk/Link opens in a new window) Leadership, Preparation and Development Research Interest Group is open to all those who have an interest in researching leadership development in its broadest sense, including educational leaders, researchers and research students. Its aim is to build a forum and network capable of generating and facilitating exchange and partnership on a continuing basis across the full range of research interests, professional contexts and contemporary issues relating to leadership development, and the ways in which we prepare leaders in education for their roles. The group might appeal to colleagues researching the changes in leadership preparation and development. This could include colleagues researching social policy, Initial Teacher Education, postgraduate education, those involved in CPD, those involved with recent NCTL developments as it becomes part of the DfE from April 2018, those involved in SSIF and TLIF bids, and so on.
Benefits from participation include:
- Membership of a community of researchers engaged in advancing the understanding of leadership development
- The opportunity to collaborate or correspond with colleagues engaged in similar studies, research or activity
- The opportunity to identify and explore contemporary issues linked to leadership development
- Participation in future events specifically covering issues related to leadership development
Networking and further information on this RIG's activities will take place in the members' area of the BELMAS website. Membership is free for the first year, if you apply before April 1st 2018.
Why should I be involved?
For teachers who are busy, but interested in their landscape, a RIG meeting is a day where a lot of connections can be made between researchers and practitioners that everyone benefits from. For students of educational leadership at all levels, a RIG is a great way to ‘dip your toe’ into an event to see if you like it, and the people involved, before you commit the time (or the money!) to attending a whole conference. Many RIGs (or SIGs as they are called in some organizations) hold free or day-cost only events where teachers, researchers, and students can present posters; research; or listen to panel events from experts on our changing educational landscapes.
Current Research:
We have just finished working on a Special Edition of the SAGE Management in Education journal to be published Easter 2018, on Leadership Preparation and Development: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/mie/Link opens in a new window If you would like to come along to any events, and see what we do, please register on our Leadership Preparation and Development RIG page on the BELMAS website.
Writing guidance
Can I write about anything in my blog post?
Yes pretty much. Academic cultural critique (Thomson and Mewburn, 2013) is always a good source of content for academic blogs. This can include (but is not limited to) comments and reflections on funding; higher education policy or academic life. You might also want to consider blogging about:
- Academic practice (Saper, 2006)
- Information and/or self-help advice
- Technical, teaching and careers advice
- Your research or practice
- How you’ve undertaken research
- The impact of research on your practice
- An area of research/practice that interests you
- Your teaching experiences/reflections
How long can my blog post be?
Each individual blog post should be no longer than 500 words. Long blocks of text are sometimes hard for readers to digest. Break up your content into shorter paragraphs, bullet points and lists whenever possible. Also include a list of keywords or tags as this makes it easier for Google to find your work.
Do I need to use citations?
No, this is a reflective piece so it does not need to include citations (but you obviously can include them if they are relevant).
Can I include links or images?
We would encourage you to include links to any articles that you have considered whilst writing your blog post. We also welcome the use of images (as long as you have permission to use them) as they can often help to illustrate a point and obviously will not be included in the word limit. Please remember this is a public site so if you want to include images of your students in your classes then you will need permission to do this.
What is the process for submitting a piece of work?
Your blog post should be emailed to A.Ball.1@warwick.ac.uk. Once the submission has been reviewed it will either be uploaded at the beginning of the next available week or sent back to you for editing if it requires amendments. You should then send the amended work to me once again and I will then upload it.