Megan Stock

Profile

Profile

I am a full-time PhD student in the School of Education. My research is analysing the discourse of the government regarding music education and inequality. I completed my BSc (Hons) in Sociology and Criminology from the University of Portsmouth (UoP) in 2020. During my undergraduate studies, I was a course representative for two years and restarted the Sociology Society at the UoP. 

Towards the end of my BSc, I started working for Morrisons Supermarkets Limited and subsequently transferred to a store in Portsmouth when I started my MSc in September 2020. I was a full-time Master’s student and graduated in 2021 with a MSc in Criminal Justice and Criminal Psychology. After graduating, I moved back to my hometown in Gloucestershire for two years before moving to Leeds in 2023 to start my PhD in October 2023. 

My interest in music began when I started learning to play the violin at school around the age of 7. This interest continued throughout secondary school where I became a member of the school orchestra and Gloucestershire Youth Sinfonia (GYS). As a member of GYS, I participated in regional music competitions and many concerts. 

When I started at UoP, I became a member of the music society and joined the orchestra and choir. Throughout my membership, I was part of a pit orchestra for three years accomanying the drama society’s musical stage shows. The shows were West Side Story, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella and Orpheus in the Underworld. I also travelled to Spain as part of the music society’s tour. 

After leaving Portsmouth in 2021, and returning back to Gloucestershire, I joined The Film Orchestra based in Cheltenham for two years before starting my PhD. I am a member of Sinfonia at the University of Leeds. 

 

In addition to music, I am also a keen photographer with my repertoire consisting of but not limited to landscapes, flowers, architecture and street portraits.

Between 2016-2023, I was a volunteer for the National Trust based at Croome Court in Worcestershire. Whilst there, I undertook an Extended Project Qualification alongside my A-levels on the Sociology of the History of Croome Court.

From 2015 to 2017, during the school holiday seasons, I was an arts and crafts assistant at a local school in Gloucestershire for children aged between 4-11.

 

Research interests

My research

My undergraduate dissertation, I undertook a comprehensive literature review to examine the relationship between music and the likelihood of desistance regarding young offenders. This research identified how most young offenders represented in statistics are from a poverty background where access to a wide range of music is not as widely available as compared to those from more affluent backgrounds through financial constraints. This research further identified how music is a positive influence on developing skills and improving relationships and therefore may be a positive service for young offenders working alongside more mainstream programmes of rehabilitation. Class and finance are inexplicably linked to one another hence the interest in developing upon knowledge in capital.

My Master’s dissertation developed on my undergraduate research drawing more upon the public perceptions into the use of music as a rehabilitative service for offenders. This research identified how rehabilitation is important to the participants in my research. Music is an accepted form of rehabilitation for offending individuals with the overriding opinion that it should be implemented alongside other services. While not explicitly analysed for my Master’s research, one of my questions asked about barriers to accessing music with responses referring to class, money and stereotypes.

For my PhD research, I am continuing with the music theme; critically analysing government discourse in policy, debates and speeches on children and young people accessing music education. 

 

My research interests

• Class and gender social inequalities
• Access to the arts
• Social, cultural and economic capital
• Socialisation
• Language and discourse
• Rehabilitation and desistance from crime and offending behaviour

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) First Class Sociology and Criminology, University of Portsmouth
• MSc Merit Criminal Psychology and Criminal Justice, University of Portsmouth

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Language Education
• ICY: Inclusion, Childhood & Youth Research Centre
• Centre for Curriculum, Pedagogy and Policy