Education research
The education department at the University of East London conducts research that reflects a commitment to inclusivity with practical application in real-world contexts. It has local impact (in both East London, wider London and the UK) as well as global scope and influence via international partnerships. Through this research with a wide range of stakeholders (including schools and educators, parents and carers) we co-produce knowledge via collaborations with groups such as vulnerable young people, neurodiverse population groups, young men with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and children and young people experiencing severe economic disadvantage including refugees.
Through our Professional Doctorate in Education, in particular, we engage with the schools and teachers in our local community, to co-research and embody impactful research through the Continuing Professional Development of our local teaching community. Education research at UEL has a real-world impact in changing people’s lives for the better through its prioritisation of tackling epistemic injustices through co-production and collaboration with marginalised groups facing intersecting inequalities including age, gender, ethnicity and disability. Research in the Department for Education comprises three specialist thematic networks:
- Early Childhood Education and Care
- Critical and Inclusive Education
- Innovations in Teacher Education.
These feed into and are supported by the Centre for Wellbeing, Community and Inclusion (CWCI). We have won funding for significant research projects and smaller-scale studies including:
Our early childhood education and care research
Challenging Early Childhood Inequalities in Local, National And Global Contexts
Early Childhood Studies in the Neoliberal Academy via constructing and exchanging knowledge of injustice in the ECEC sector and in the academy. (Jenny Robson, Gemma Ryder and Micky Le Voguer); Playful pedagogies in HE that have the potential to support students in navigating structural injustice in their future careers (Micky Le Voguer and Jenny Robson); Academic advising to the Conservative Government's flagship early years policy for England, the 30 hours free childcare policy (Eva Lloyd and Ivana La Valle); Exploring Strategies for Equitable Access to Early Childhood Education for Lebanese children and Syrian child refugees funded by the British Academy. (PI Eva Lloyd, CO-I Katie Wright UEL and Hiam Loutfi El Zein Rafik Hariri University, Lebanon, 2019-2022); Research investigating the Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Early Childhood Education and Care services Covid19 and Childcare, The Nuffield Foundation. (Eva Lloyd, CO-I, 2019-2020); Policy analysis of the implementation of the Prevent duty in ECEC settings in England. (Jenny Robson)
Early Childhood and Early Years Pedagogy
Multimodality, touch screen technologies and creativity in the early years (Fiona Byrne); Anti-racist pedagogy (Hattie Campbell), values education in early childhood (Jenny Robson); Museum pedagogy (Vasiliki Tzibazi) and the creative curriculum (Ruskana Beigi); Leadership in Early Childhood including walking pedagogies and outdoor learning (Charlotte Page); Arts-based learning (Evgenia Theodotou and Rebecca Blake) and pedagogies fostering Pro-Social Behaviour and Development (Gemma Ryder).
Our critical and inclusive education research projects
Health Equity including SEND, Mental Health and Sexual Health
Digital self-advocacy projects enabling the use of digital tools for children and adults with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) as well as work with the charity Pathfinders Neuro-muscular Alliance which is run by people with all neuro-muscular conditions and with the national charity Duchenne UK. In 2001 Janet co-founded the charity Action Duchenne and has worked on many projects with young people with the rare genetic condition Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and their families (Janet Hoskin); Inclusive Education (Graham Robertson) and Research on Education, Health and Care Plans (ECHPs) with parents and children (Louise Arnold); SENCO and EHCP Management during the pandemic (Debbie Kilbride, Richard Malthouse and Tanya Cotier); The impact of the intersection of ‘toxic’ conditions for children and young people and mindfulness-based approaches as early interventions with young people. (Andrew Ravenscroft).
Gendered dimensions of education and transnational caregiving
Leverhulme funded research into women’s historical engagement in mathematics (Maria Tambouku) and research investigating gendered intergenerational transfers of human wellbeing in the context of international migrants from the perspectives of migrant mothers and daughters and migrant fathers and sons (Katie Wright); Parents in academia and maternal voices and health (Katie Ketcher and Aniqa Khaliq).
Diversity and Multilingualism
Diversity and Multilingualism and language teaching policy and practice including research on empowering multilingual learners in English-dominated speech communities (Mario Moya), teachers of multilingual learners (Ratha Perumal) and research exploring the lived experiences of teachers delivering primary EAL pedagogy in a post-COVID Context (Steve Wong) and language equity for refugees via an intersectional human wellbeing approach (Katie Wright); Intersectional racial justice, culturally responsive/relevant, decolonial, creative orientated pedagogies (Silhouette Bushay).
Widening participation in Education
Pupil Premium for Children in Care (Ben Taylor); and in Higher Education: Ableism and financial inequity (Shrehan Lynch) and class inequality (Iona Burnell Reilly); Digital and Online Learning (Warren Kidd), Hip-Hop Education (Silhouette Bushay); Relational Pedagogy (Lisa Taylor); Coaching and Mentoring (Paulet-Brown Wilsher).
Our innovations in teacher education research
Professional development and identities of Teacher Educators
International surveys with school-based educators and those working in universities, to identify their professional development and learning needs (Gerry Czerniawski, trustee and director of the British Educational Research Association Council); Teacher Educators (Sheeba Viswarajan) Performative culture and teacher identities (Hannah Fox); Pupil-teacher perceptions of challenge and failure (Elicia Lewis) Becoming a critical educator (Lisa Taylor); School leadership (John Macklin) Learner experiences of adult education (Haava Oykener) Media education (Michelle Thomason); Assessment in HE and Use of Rubrics (Ben Taylor, Flora Kisby, Alice Reedy); Teacher Shortages (Huw Humphreys)
Evaluation of interventions in teaching and learning:
Critical realist evaluation of Baby Watching as an intervention in primary school classrooms (Ruth Hunt).
Technology enhanced learning, inclusion and neurodiversity
Technology-enhanced learning, inclusion and neurodiversity in the teacher workforce (John Macklin, Ciro Genovese): podcasting for educational gain, digital technologies for educational research practices including in a Covid and post Covid context (Warren Kidd and Jean Murray).
SEND and EHCP Management
Children’s Literature and Reading
The Department of Education houses two journals - Research in Teacher Education, founded and edited by Gerry Czerniawski, a periodical offering a forum for informed debate and discussion on all aspects of teacher education. It also houses Patterns of Practice: An International Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, a peer-reviewed open-access international journal jointly hosted by the Department of Education and the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, University of East London, edited by Warren Kidd and Gabriella Buttarazzi.
As a centre for research-informed education and teacher education and training at Primary, Secondary and Post-Compulsory levels, we have a reputation for excellence in preparing teachers to educate young people in east London’s multi-ethnic and multilingual urban schools and colleges. We are proud to be one of the UK’s largest providers of initial teacher training for global majority students.
We offer research-led undergraduate, postgraduate and teacher training courses to ensure our graduates can later make pedagogical choices underpinned by theoretical and subject-specific knowledge. Research-informed practice is backed by investment in resources and teaching facilities to enable this. In keeping with our research-informed and inclusive culture we offer PhD and professional doctorate programmes which offer personalised, supportive, and vibrant academic experiences. Beyond our East London community impact, our master’s programmes which cut across each of our research specialist areas also attract global student cohorts.
We have been rated Outstanding by Ofsted for our Teacher Training courses (2024) and a key strength of UEL Teacher Training and Education is our commitment to research that supports diversity and inclusion complemented by our particular focus on critical and inclusive education and special educational needs. Recruiting from the east London community (whilst not excluding others) our graduates redirect research-informed teaching back into our communities’ highly diverse and multilingual schools and colleges.
Most east London schools are Ofsted-rated Good or Outstanding and are often significantly staffed by UEL ITE graduates, where numerous UEL-trained teachers are senior leaders and headteachers. Our department’s Teacher Education has a strong and effective commitment to inclusion and to schools and colleges in east London and the region, building on exceptionally strong and cohesive school partnerships.