Celebrating the International Day of Education
A look back at what has been achieved over the last year within the School of Education.
Friday 24 January marks the International Day of Education, a day dedicated to the importance of education, celebrating the power that education holds to empower people and communities alike, and provide an opportunity to amplify the discussions already being held about education, the barriers to education, and the progress being made within education.
To celebrate this day, we have highlighted some of the work which has been completed, or is being completed, by members of the School of Education.
This long, but far from exhaustive, list demonstrates how the excellent work and dedication put in by staff and students alike pays tribute to the ideals put forward in the International Day of Education.
Early in the year Professor Louise Tracey presented on the topic Addressing the Impact to Early Developmental Goals as a Result of the Cost-of-Living Crisis and the Pandemic as a guest speaker at Westminster Insights’ Early Years Digital Inspections Conference.
A team made up of Dr Syafiq Mat Noor, Dr Chris Ostrowdun, Dr Indira Banner, and Durdona Karimova participated in the Spring edition 2024 of the eight-week Learning Design and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Bootcamp and were awarded the overall winner.
A trial of the programme ‘English as an Additional Language’ (EAL) in the Mainstream Classroom, led by a team including Professor Louise Tracey as well as academics from the University of York and the University of Dundee, investigated the impact of the programme on Year 10 pupils’ (14–16-year-olds) science and history attainment.
In March Dr Peter Hart was invited to join an international group of scholars at the German Education Research Association, GERA, at their largest conference.
ICY Researchers Dr Erin Dysart and Dr Aimee Code spoke about their work on Early Talk for York and the use of the WellComm Toolkit. The results of this were used by the City of York Council.
Dr Lou Harvey and Dr Kim Petersen have been running a pilot project on the affordances of trauma-informed circus practice to support children's connection and communication.
Dr Syafiq Mat Noor won a British Academy ‘Knowledge Frontiers: ODA International Interdisciplinary Research 2024’ grant for the Voices of the Rainforest research project under the ‘Knowledge Frontiers: ODA International Interdisciplinary Research 2024’ funding call.
Staff and students were celebrated at Faculty of Social Sciences’ 2024 Faculty Partnership Awards for outstanding teaching, innovative research practice and expertise, and student achievement, The overall Faculty Partnership Award was won by Sarah Shackleton, the Faculty’s Deputy Employability Manager who received many compelling and heartfelt nominations across multiple categories. Two of the winners of the Faculty Partnership Awards, Matty Burchell and Gergely Kajos, were also shortlisted for University Partnership Awards – Matty for the Innovation Award and Gergely for the Student Academic Rep of the Year Award.
Last Summer Alice Deignan, Professor of Applied Linguistics in the School of Education, secured a significant grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to conduct a large-scale project into the language directed at and used by tweens.
Colleagues from LSSI, the School of Education and POLIS were among winners and runners up at last year’s Research Culture Awards.
Dr Peter Hart was awarded a £15k Impact Acceleration Account award for a joint project with Dr Morgan Campbell (School of Earth & Environment).
The British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) Vocabulary Special Interest Group conference was hosted by the School of Education (SoE) and the Centre for Language Education Research (CLER). This event brought together 66 delegates (17 academics, 8 ECRs, 37 PGRs, and 4 MA students) from about 17 countries and 21 institutions worldwide to exchange ideas, present research findings, and discuss advancements in integrating vocabulary research into multidisciplinary contexts.
Around 15 data collectors were brought together by Louise Tracey and Erin Dysart to administer endline language and communication assessments with 921 3–4-year-olds in 75 settings for Communication Friendly Settings.
Two films by The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood showcase University of Leeds graduates.
Two students undertook a one-month education internship in August in the provincial town of Jambi, Sumatra, Indonesia.
Three Laidlaw scholars took part in a six-week project, working to develop a reading scale for boardgames.
Around 15 data collectors were brought together by Louise Tracey and Erin Dysart to administer endline language and communication assessments with 921 3-4 year olds in 75 settings for Communication Friendly Settings.
At the start of this academic year we celebrated how the hard work and dedication put in across the School was recognised through League Table successes, including placing number one in the UK for Childhood and Youth studies and ranking number one amongst universities in Yorkshire and the Humber overall on the Complete University Guide’s rankings, as well as a consistent rise in various other tables.
Professor Diane Pecorari delivered the third Faculty Inaugural Lecture, ‘Plagiarism: Educational disorder or symptom?’, to a theatre of colleagues, postgraduate researchers, and students.
Professor Maggie Kubanyiova published a new book, Listening Without Borders which brings together more than 40 academics, arts practitioners and educators.
Professor Alice Deignan, along with Marcus Jones, also published a new book, ‘New words, new meanings’. This new book shows teachers how they can make the language of their subject less daunting and more accessible for all students.
We look forward to seeing what the next year brings and celebrating 2025’s acheivements. With many projects ongoing, and with new ideas consistently being generated, the School of Education continues to represent the growth within Education at Leeds and within the wider community.
