Two students talking in the library

Education Interdisciplinary Research Group

The Dumfries & Galloway Education Interdisciplinary Research Group draws on local and global links to be a world leader in addressing contemporary educational issues and to make a difference for society’s most vulnerable and educationally disadvantaged. Researchers benefit from links to the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change, which aims to promote more equitable education systems through theory-driven, applied research, and the Centre for Research and Development in Adult and Lifelong Learner, which conducts inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary research and development activities in adult education. 

Our Research Group also benefits from interdisciplinary links within the School, with interests in migration, learning for sustainability and community-based education, as well as an interest in pluralist methodologies. Our strong link with Dumfries and Galloway Local Authority provides research capacity to address the unique challenges of the South of Scotland region, while maintaining a focus on enactment and evaluation of world leading research interventions with relevance to communities across the globe.

All research students have two supervisors, providing complementary expertise, and we provide training at Dumfries, as well as benefitting from training opportunities at Glasgow in Research Design, Qualitative Methods, Quantitative Data Analysis, Introduction to Social Theory for Researchers, Applied Qualitative Methods, and Generalised Linear Models. Opportunities for postgraduate funding are available through the Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences and other grant funded programmes, and applications from self-funded students are also welcome.

News and Publications

Postgraduate Research Subjects

We would particularly welcome applicants with an interest in taking postgraduate research degrees (PhD/MPhil) in:

  • Science Education
  • Public Communication of Science
  • Environmental Education
  • Religious and Moral Education
  • School Values, Ethos and Leadership
  • Philosophy of Education
  • Gender Inequalities and Education
  • Sociology of Education
  • Mixed Methods and Methodological Pluralism
  • Practitioner Action Research
  • Dyslexia and Specific Learning Difficulties
  • Additional Support Needs
  • Regional and Rural Education
  • Reading Development
  • Critical Thinking in Communication
  • Literary and Literacy Education
  • Multi-Professional Practice
  • Learning for Sustainability