8 July 2010, British Academy UK-South Asia Partnership Academic Seminar
"Postitive Action and Community Cohesion in the UK"
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Speakers:
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Dr Maleiha Malik, Kings
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Dr Theo Gavrielides, Director, IARS |
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Dr Anthony Heath, Oxford |
Dr Kalbir Shukra, Goldsmiths |
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Professor Audrey Osler, Leeds |
Dr Nasar Meer, Southampton |
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Professor David Robinson, Sheffield Hallam |
Dr Gareth Harris, Manchester |
This seminar explored two policy movements recently experienced in the UK. On the one hand, a movement from equal opportunities towards 'positive action' and, on the other, a movement from multiculturalism towards 'community cohesion'. It was organised by Rob Higham with support from the LERU team. The Partnership team is led by Alpa Shah and includes Dr Ajay Gudavarthi and Dr Sara Schneiderman.
Links: For presentations and the programme of the day please see the Partnership's webpage: http://www.gold.ac.uk/affirmative-action-southasia/events/positiveactionandcommunitycohesionintheukseminar/
6 July 2010, London Global Cities Afternoon Seminar - "Languages of London"
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Speakers:
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Dick Wiggins, IOE
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John Eversley, London Metropolitan |
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Theresa Tinsley, CILT |
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Lid King, National Director for Languages in England |
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Joe Lo Bianco, University of Melbourne |
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Mohammed Mirbashir and Renata Albuquerque, Language Leaders Project
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Laura House, Teach First |
To mark the forthcoming (October), long awaited, update of the study Multilingual Capital (2000) LERU held an event at which researchers and authors who led this process provided insights into the process of mapping languages of London’s school children. Guest speakers Lid King and Joe Lo Bianco addressed key policy issues, and representatives of the Language Leaders Project and Teach First's languages in primary pilot told of their experience with languages in schools.
9 June, 2010, London Global Cities Seminar - "Technical Education in New York Secondary Schools"
Speaker: Joseph O'Brien, Fordham University, New York City, with a response by Karen Spence-Thomas, IOE
Joseph O’Brien’s paper gives a New York perspective on an issue of which the UK and London have plenty of experience. “With the US’s troubled economy and the rise of unemployment, it has become increasingly important to revaluate Career and Technical Education (CTE) at the high school level. Apprenticeships and other career and technical courses blossomed under federal policies – first by distinguishing between CTE and academic courses and then ensuring that each of these programmes had the financial resources to thrive.” (‘Finding the Balance: Reconsidering Career and Technical Education in New York City’s Secondary School Environment’, London Digest 6)
19 May, 2010, London Seminar and Launch - First steps towards a Global Cities Education Network
'School Community Partnerships: Improving Learning in Formal and Informal Education Settings in Paris'
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Speakers:
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Marie-Anne Hugon and Alain Vulbeau, Universite Paris Oest Nanterre La Defense, France, introduced by Dina Mehmedbegovic and Chris Husbands, IOE
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7 May, 2010, Conference: Beyond Student Voice: What Makes a Difference to their Lives and Learning?
Speakers: Henry Compton, Kidbrooke and Mulberry school students
Student research teams from schools involved in LERU's London Lives student voice project have been trained by IOE staff in research methodology and presented their findings from their research projects. For more information and presentations visit the project's pages.
8 March, 2010, London Seminar - 'The Geography of London Primary Schools, their Pupil Populations, Neighbourhoods and Performance’
Speaker: Dr Anne Gibbs
Anne Gibbs originally trained as a town planner. Having completed a PhD on retail planning policy at Reading University, she worked for several years in retail property research. Since 2001, she has worked as a teaching assistant in an inner city primary school, a job she took to combine with motherhood. This inspired her to shift her attention to education research. She has just completed an MSc in Geographical Information Systems at the University of Leeds. The research for her prize-winning dissertation provides the basis for this seminar.
The seminar addressed the following questions:
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How can schools be classified in terms of the ethnic and socio-economic characteristics of their pupils?
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Do different forms of governance dominate different classes of schools?
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Are particular classes of schools found in particular areas of London i.e. can a spatial pattern be discerned?
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How do the classes of schools relate to the demographic characteristics of the local neighbourhood?
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How does the classification of schools relate to their performance in terms of standard assessment tests (SATs) results at Key Stage 2?
Links: Presentation 8 March
2 February, 2010, Professorial lecture by Kathryn Riley, Director of LERU:
London Lives: Are London’s Schools Meeting the Needs of Today’s Children and Young People?
Professorial Lecture by the Director of LERU, surveying state of knowledge of Young Londoner’s Educational Lives, and highlighting new challenges for research.
20 January, 2010, London Seminar - Schools’ ethnic diversity and students’ friendships in London secondary schools
Speaker: Maria Papapolydorou, PhD student, IOE
The study explores whether the ethnic diversity of a school influences students friendships. Social capital theory is used to engage with the data collected in four London schools.