YERN Success
Our partnership with local schools through the Young Educational Researcher Network (YERN) has proven successful in terms of improving children's research skills and supporting teachers in how to plan a research project. It was wonderful to see the efforts of Sali Williams from Ystalyfera Cymraeg Bro Dur and Harriet Jones from St Joseph’s Cathedral School recognised in this year's Welsh Heritage Awards for their YERN community projects during 2024.
Harriet Jones explained:
“It has been amazing to take part in the YERN project... I took my class to the university for five sessions. The children have now got a good understanding of how to use these skills to find out new things. Four months on, it’s changed my teaching. Using the research model to frame my approach.”
Diversifying Humanities teaching in Swansea Schools through Disability History
Dr Russell Grigg and Professor David Turner are delighted to be working with partner primary, secondary and special schools, local archives, Partneriaeth, Disability Arts Cymru and other partners on a new project: Diversifying Humanities teaching in Swansea Schools through Disability History.
Funded through the Arts and Humanities Research Council Impact Acceleration grant, the year-long project aims to show how the history of disability in Swansea reveals important lessons about diversity and inclusivity for today’s school generation. Nationally, this is timely given the emphasis within Curriculum for Wales on diversity as a cross-curricular responsibility for all schools, and other education reforms targeted at promoting more inclusive provision for pupils with additional learning needs.
The project will include workshops to co-create education resources for schools on disability history.
Khuseda Siddika, Head of History at Bishop Vaughan Catholic Secondary school, explains the potential value of the project:
“The Curriculum for Wales allows for schools to explore diverse history, and this has been a golden opportunity to include diversity such as Black and Asian history into the curriculum. However, I am very conscious that there is a lack of resources on disability history - last year, as a school, we wanted to mark Disability History Month but found that it was difficult to access any meaningful resources. This was particularly true in terms of the Welsh context and exploring Cynefin - the few resources I could find were not specific to Wales and often focused on issues such as the legal aspects of disability history rather than an exploration of the lived experience of Welsh people with disabilities. The opportunity to work with specialists and create teaching resources that are suitable for classroom use would be of huge benefit in creating a diverse, inclusive curriculum that reflects the reality of our classrooms and Wales as a whole.”
The resource outcomes planned for December 2025 will be made available on the website. If you want to know more about the project, email: g.r.grigg@swansea.ac.uk
Marking a Quarter-Century of Devolved Education in Wales
In November 2024, Professor Andrew James Davies (DECS, Swansea University) and Professor Gary Beauchamp (Cardiff Metropolitan University) edited a special issue of the Wales Journal of Education to mark 25 years of devolved education policy in Wales. The collection of essays from leading academics, from across Wales and the rest of the UK, reflects on the progress, successes and challenges encountered over the past quarter-century since educational policy was devolved to Wales. It includes articles on UK-wide and Welsh policy, professional learning, ALN reform, Welsh-medium education, ITE and a great deal more. All articles are fully Open Access and available in both English and Welsh: https://journal.uwp.co.uk/wje/issue/41/info/
Professor Andrew James Davies, Director of the Centre for Research into Practice, has completed work co-editing a special edition of the Wales Journal of Education to mark 25 years of devolved educational policymaking in Wales. Working with Professor Gary Beauchamp of Cardiff Metropolitan University, Professor Davies has overseen the collation and editing of a series of 10 articles written by leading academics, each of which evaluates an aspect of educational policy and practices since devolution. In addition to co-editing the special issue, Professor Davies has also written an article for the edition, with colleagues from Cardiff University, which analyses the development of uniquely Welsh policy approaches over the last quarter-century. The special issue will be fully bilingual and published by University of Wales Press in December 2024.
Dr Russell Grigg has joined the Advisory Board on a major ESRC-funded project: 'School Meals Service: Past, Present – and Future?'
In December 2022, Russell Grigg joined a panel of academics and former HMI to discuss the history of the education inspectorate in Wales as part of the launch of the ground-breaking publication Watchdogs or Visionaries? Perspectives on the History of the Education Inspectorate in Wales.
