School of Education

Prof Robert Davis

bob_davis
  • Head of School (School of Education Administration)
  • Associate Academic (Institute of Health and Wellbeing)

telephone: 01413303001
email: Robert.Davis@glasgow.ac.uk


Biography

I am Professor of Religious and Cultural Education and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Education. I am active in Initial Teacher Education (BEd Primary and PGCE Primary and Secondary), CPD and Postgraduate Teaching and Research supervision, including Masters, PhD and EdD programmes. A large proportion of my work is in research and publishing.

Research interests

I have taught, written and broadcast widely on religion, literature, music, folklore, education, childhood studies and the development of Catholic education in Scotland and beyond. Teacher education remains central to my interests, encouraging a wider exploration of professional values and professional formation more generally. The implications for contemporary education of the so-called 'Return of Religion' figure prominently in my recent research and teaching.

I am currently engaged in a number of significant publications projects with a range of colleagues in areas such as the effectiveness of Religious Education, the cultural history of early childhood and Scottish children's literature.

I welcome applications for masters and doctoral study on many aspects of religion, culture and education––including comparative religion; contemporary religious movements; Catholic education; Religious Education and catechesis; myth, religion and history; religion and literature; children's literature; music and culture; perceptions of childhood; education and critical theory; post-secular philosophy; religion and violence; globalisation and citizenship.

Research collaborations

  • Educational Theory Summer Institute, Government Intervention in Family Life, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, July 2009.
  • AHRC Seminar Series, Institute of Education, London: Changing Discourses of the Parent-Child Relationship, 2008-2009.
  • Visiting Professor, Norwegian Teachers Academy (NLA), Bergen, 2009.
  • Visiting Lecturer, University of Malmo, 2005.
  • Visiting Lecturer, St Patrick's College, Dublin, 2002, 2005.
  • Co-Chair: The Ring Goes Ever On: 50th Anniversary Conference on The Lord of the Rings, Birmingham, 2005
  • Co-Chair: Reasons of the Heart: Myth, Meaning and Education, Edinburgh, 2004
  • 1999-2002: Signs of Change: Christianity and the Arts, 1000-2000. An International Network Collaboration led by the University of Copenhagen (100K)
Jump to: 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2005 | 2004 | 2002
Number of items: 20.

2012

Baumfield, V.M., Conroy, J. , Davis, Robert , and Lundie, David (2012) The Delphi method: gathering expert opinion in religious education. British Journal of Religious Education, 33 (3). pp. 5-19. ISSN 0141-6200 (doi:10.1080/01416200.2011.614740) (In Press)

2011

Davis, R.A. (2011) Brilliance of a fire: innocence, experience and the theory of childhood. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 45 (2). pp. 379-397. ISSN 0309-8249 (doi:10.1111/j.1467-9752.2011.00798.x)

Davis, R. (2011) Mother–child relations and the discourse of maternity. Ethics and Education, 6 (2). pp. 125-139. ISSN 1744-9642 (doi:10.1080/17449642.2011.622979)

Davis, R. (2011) Robert Owen and Religion. In: Thompson, N. and Williams, C. (eds.) Robert Owen and His Legacy. University of Wales Press, Cardiff. ISBN 97800708324431

2010

Davis, Robert (2010) Government intervention in child-rearing: governing infancy. Educational Theory, 60 (3). pp. 285-298. ISSN 0013-2004 (doi:10.1111/j.1741-5446.2010.00359.x)

Conroy, J., and Davis, R. (2010) Religious Education. In: The SAGE Handbook of Philosophy of Education. sage, London, pp. 451-467. ISBN 9781847874672

Davis, R., and O'Hagan, F. (2010) Robert Owen. Series: Continuum library of educational thought, 25 . Continuum Press, London. ISBN 9781847061041

2009

Coll, R., and Davis, R.A. (2009) Catholic Religious Education in Scotland. In: Keiran, P. and Hession, A. (eds.) Exploring Religious Education: Catholic Religious Education in an Intercultural Europe. Veritas, Dublin, pp. 189-198. ISBN 181847301320

Conroy, J.C., Davis, R.A. , and Enslin, P. (2009) Philosophy as a Basis for Policy and Practice: What Confidence Can We Have in Philosophical Analysis and Argument. In: Bridges, D., Smeyers, P. and Smith, R. (eds.) Evidence based policy: What evidence? What basis? Whose policy? Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 157-175.

Davis, Robert (2009) Escaping Through Flames: Halloween as a Christian Festival. In: Foley, M. and O'Donnell, H. (eds.) Trick or Treat: Halloween in a Globalising World. CSP, Newcastle, pp. 28-44. ISBN 1-4438-0153-4

2008

Conroy, J, Davis, RA , and Enslin, P (2008) Philosophy as a Basis for Policy and Practice: What Confidence Can We Have in Philosophical Analysis and Argument? Journal of Philosophy of Education, 42 (2). pp. 165-182.

Conroy, J.C., and Davis, R. (2008) Citizenship, education and the claims of religious literacy. In: Peters, M, Britton, Alan and Blee, Harry (eds.) Global Citizenship Education: Philosophy, Theory and Pedagogy. Sense, Rotterdam, pp. 187-203. ISBN 9789087903732

Davis, R (2008) Futures of Faith Schools. In: McKinney, Stephen (ed.) Faith Schools in the Twenty-first Century. Dunedin Academic Press, Edinburgh, pp. 56-67. ISBN 978-1-903765-81-4

2007

Davis, R., and Carr, D. (2007) The lure of evil: exploring moral formation on the dark side of literature and the arts. Journal of the Philosophy of Education, 41 (1). pp. 95-112. ISSN 0309-8249 (doi:10.1111/j.1467-9752.2007.00541.x)

Coll, R., and Davis, R. (2007) Faith schools and state education: church-state relations and the development of the 5-14 Religious Education Programme in Scotland. Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice, 11 (1). pp. 67-82. ISSN 1097-9638

O'Hagan, F., and Davis, R. (2007) Forging the compact of church and state in the development of Catholic education in late nineteenth-century Scotland. Innes Review, 58 (1). pp. 72-94. ISSN 0020-157X (doi:10.1353/inn.2007.0010)

O'Hagan, F., and Davis, R. (2007) Integrating the study of history into the professional formation of beginning teachers. Professional Studies Review, 3 (2). pp. 57-75. ISSN 1548-0704

2005

Davis, R. (2005) Music education and cultural identity. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 37 (1). pp. 47-65. ISSN 0013-1857 (doi:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2005.00097.x)

2004

Davis, R. (2004) Education, Utopia and the limits of enlightenment. Policy Futures in Education, 1 (3). pp. 565-585. ISSN 1478-2103 (doi:10.2304/pfie.2003.1.3.8)

2002

Davis, R., and Conroy, J. (2002) Transgression, transformation and enlightenment: the trickster as poet and teacher. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 34 (3). pp. 255-272. ISSN 0013-1857 (doi:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2002.tb00303.x)

This list was generated on Sat May 26 06:50:34 2012 BST.

Grants and awards

  • Religion and Society Programme: An Analysis of the Aims, Practices & Models of Effectiveness in Religious Education across the UK
    Economic and Social Research Council/Arts and Humanities Research Council
    Co-Investigator
    2007-2010

  • Global Citizenship in Intial Teacher Education
    Department for International Development
    Co-Investigator
    2002-2005

  • Unit for Global Citizenship in Teacher Education
    Department for International Development
    Co-Investigator
    2005-2008

  • Child Protection Training in Scottish Schools
    Scottish Executive Education Department
    Co-Investigator
    2001-2004 (60K)

Supervision

I have recently successfully supervised PhD dissertations on

  • Conceptions of Childhood in Children's Fantasy Literature (K. McGavock)
  • The Faith Formation of Catholic Teachers (R.Coll)
  • National Identity in Scottish Children's Fiction (M. Farrell)

I am currently supervising dissertations in

  • Policy Formation and the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland (A. Britton; EdD diss)
  • Comparative Study of Religious Education in Scotland and Malawi (Y. Matemba)
  • The Effectiveness of Religious Education in the United Kingdom (D. Lundie)
  • Religious Education and Catechesis (L. Franchi)
  • Hospitality to the Other in Faith-based Schools (D. McGovern)
  • Alchemy and the The Metaphysics of Quality in the Writings of Robert Pirsig (A. McManus)
  • Pastoral Approaches to Critical Pedagogy (P. Petrie)
  • Liturgy and Catechesis (J. Smith)

Recent PhD and EdD Examination

  • K. O'Brien (Dublin) Education for Citizenship in an Irish Primary School
  • F. McCutcheon (Dublin) School Leadership and Professional Practice
  • David Lines (Auckland) The Work of Music: Nietzsche and Heidegger
  • Yusuke Uno (Edinburgh) Comparative Study of Japanese and Scots Gaelic Lullabies
  • Christopher Nicholson (Northampton) The Enduring Wound: Trauma in the Poetry and Prose of Robert Graves

Consultancy and Knowledge Transfer

I run a highly successful annual CPD Programme on Leadership in Catholic Schools

CEC-SEED Joint Working Party on Faith and Teaching, 2001-2003

Welsh National Opera Programme Essay for the James Macmillan/Michael Symmons Roberts opera, The Sacrifice, 2007

186 Media, The Write Kit, a Creative Writing resource for secondary schools (2004-2006). Winner of the Content 360 Competition, MIP-TV in Cannes, 2007.

Member of the Development Team, and script and concept consultant, for the BBC Children’s Television programme Tweenies, produced by Tell-Tale Productions (1999-2001).

Academic and professional body membership

I am a member of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. I serve on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Philosophy of Education Society, for which I am UK Reviews Editor.

I am a member of the Association for Moral Education.

I am a member of the British Association for Romantic Studies