Social Justice, Place & Lifelong Education: Terms of Reference

Focus of the group

The intellectual activities of this group centre on issues pertaining to education and social inclusion, the enrichment of the social environment, the development of social capital and global justice.

• The role of education in the process of social reproduction; focusing on the ways in which education can prevent the marginalization of vulnerable or disadvantaged groups as well as policies and processes that reinforce deprivation. Here the group’s terms of reference include all forms and levels of education: from primary to higher education, both academic and vocational and including education taking place in formal and informal settings. A concern with all forms of educational inequality means that the group has a research agenda that includes the impact of social class, gender, neighbourhood, disabilities, ethnic origin and religious affiliation. Interests extend beyond Scotland and the UK to include developed and less developed societies as well as comparative work.
• The relationship between formal and informal educational provision and the development of places at a range of scales; a key theme will be stakeholder contribution to learning within regions and cities, and the relationship between learning, regeneration and new growth areas, partnership and the development social capital. This work cuts across sectors (schools, FE, community education and HE) and places (formal educational settings, museums/galleries/libraries, natural spaces, etc), and intersects with concerns of other disciplines given its relationship with social, economic, cultural and environmental engagement.
• Lifelong and life-wide learning and teaching with a particular, though not exclusive concern, with post-compulsory learning in adult life (including in higher education), both within formal/non-formal/informal settings and as provided publicly and privately. This will include issues such as widening participation to, and retention within, formal institutions; institutional co-operation and transition; workplace learning and skills development; and the role of ICT.
• International and comparative education with a particular focus on role of education (from school to HE) on poverty reduction in the developing world, linked to the work of GCID (Glasgow Centre for International Development) of which CRADALL is already a part and to that of UNESCO in Scotland.

This work draws on cross-disciplinary and trans-national ideas and practices, and international sites to stimulate innovative policy development and implementation.

Teaching activities

The outputs of research in this group are translated into provision offered through the EdD, and the Masters courses in Adult Education, Teaching of Adults and Community Development and young people and change which have been re-shaped to reflect the active research interests of the group. Masters students undertaking dissertations and Research students are encouraged to orientate their work to the main themes and to the funded programmes of the group. A global doctoral programme on Higher Education and Regional Engagement, already established within the PURE project will be embedded in the group, and serve as a means of international student exchange. The group will contribute to management development for the HE sector, namely an MPA in Higher Education Management.

Members of the group are willing to supervise doctoral students and dissertations proposed by PGT and undergraduate students related to any of the areas signaled above.

Knowledge transfer

Knowledge transfer is at the fore of this group’s concerns, and seeks to respond to existing, and create new demand, from cities, regional governments and other clients, both nationally and internationally, for expertise which can be quickly mobilised to support initiatives related to place, enhancing social cohesion and learning as well as innovation and development. A key concern is to enable regional governments and associated policy-makers to benefit fully from emerging research and learning about how best to foster balanced and sustainable economic and social development in their regions. This is already integral to PASCAL and will be developed from existing subscription-based consultancy services delivered by its associates and affiliates to regions and universities, and through electronic resources (commissioned hot topic papers, briefing papers and online library). A global doctoral programme on Higher Education and Regional Engagement, already being established within the PURE project will be embedded in the group, and serve as a means of international student exchange. The work of the group will also be concerned with the impact of knowledge transfer from HE itself and engage with the work of the Scottish Funding Council and the university’s own research and enterprise office. A key objective will be to create a number of other offers to external bodies based on the PURE model, namely ones that are scalable within an international domain. These will include projects concerned with Youth Justice and Health and Migration and Cities. Investigation will be made on the market for CPD in the FE sector.

Public engagement

This will include the current annual/bi-annual PASCAL conference, CRADALL seminars and newly developed interactive services within PURE and related projects, and podcasts/webinars of events. Seminar series will be offered in collaboration with funders e.g. a current arrangement concerning international skills issues with Skills Development Scotland. There will be public lectures by professional staff and others in the group, and these will be organized in collaboration with funders.

The Donald Dewar Visiting Chair in Social Justice, currently held by Professor Paul Connolly of Queen’s University, Belfast, is linked to the group and will be used both to raise the group’s profile as well as to establish a set of activities to enhance group cohesion.