Alison Fox – författare

This book celebrates the benefits of continuing professional development (CPD) for your growth as an educator. The authors weave together an international selection of case studies to offer CPD which transcends educational trends. Thematic chapters put your professional identity at the heart of the book and encourage you to take control of your career development, allowing you to show leadership whatever your role.This book:•Challenges you to reflect on and evaluate your experiences of professional development •Includes reflection points and personal development planning to support your reading•Places equity and social justice at the heart of effective personal development•Encompasses the challenges and opportunities of embracing digital technologies•Illustrates professional development for leaders and educators in a range of cultures and contexts Drawing on multiple global perspectives of professional development in education and training from early childhood to higher education settings, this book offers strategies for all career stages: from the student educator to the experienced senior leader and is the perfect fuel for career development.“As well as being a valuable contribution to professional knowledge in this field, this resource can be thoroughly recommended to educational professionals as a guide to practice.”Professor David Egan, Emeritus Professor of Education, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK“This book is well written and is crucial for any educator at any stage of the education landscape.”Paul Miller, PhD, Professor of Educational Leadership & Social JusticeAlison Fox, Helen Hendry and Deborah Cooper are colleagues in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies at The Open University, UK, and teach on the Masters in Education programme, in particular the Leadership and Management and Learning and Teaching pathways. They engage in international research associated with professional learning.

Thinking Critically and Ethically about Research for Education draws on the experiences of a range of researchers in the discipline to explore the lived realities, including ethical and methodological complexities, involved in undertaking educational research.Using global case studies, this book examines the meaning of ethical research practice and raises questions about representation, power and empowerment in the field. It provides critical reflections from researchers, reviewing the methodologies they used in their studies and the ethical implications of these in theory and practice. The book highlights the various difficulties and realities present in education research and provides researchers with the tools necessary for refining their skills and understanding ethical research methodologies.The chapters reflect authors’ responses to the following questions: What values prompted you to do this work and how did you share these with participants? What were the ethical considerations raised beforehand and how were these tackled in terms of meeting obligations (including to ERBs), maximising benefits and dealing with issues arising during the study and through to publication? What does ‘empowerment’ and/or ‘voice’ mean to you as a researcher and how did you express this to your participants? In what ways were the participants given opportunities to be empowered in or through your study?With critical discussions on ethics and research practices in education research, this book is ideal for student, novice and experienced researchers looking to undertake ethical education research.

Thinking Critically and Ethically about Research for Education draws on the experiences of a range of researchers in the discipline to explore the lived realities, including ethical and methodological complexities, involved in undertaking educational research.Using global case studies, this book examines the meaning of ethical research practice and raises questions about representation, power and empowerment in the field. It provides critical reflections from researchers, reviewing the methodologies they used in their studies and the ethical implications of these in theory and practice. The book highlights the various difficulties and realities present in education research and provides researchers with the tools necessary for refining their skills and understanding ethical research methodologies.The chapters reflect authors’ responses to the following questions: What values prompted you to do this work and how did you share these with participants? What were the ethical considerations raised beforehand and how were these tackled in terms of meeting obligations (including to ERBs), maximising benefits and dealing with issues arising during the study and through to publication? What does ‘empowerment’ and/or ‘voice’ mean to you as a researcher and how did you express this to your participants? In what ways were the participants given opportunities to be empowered in or through your study?With critical discussions on ethics and research practices in education research, this book is ideal for student, novice and experienced researchers looking to undertake ethical education research.

Learning how to learn is an essential preparation for lifelong learning. This book offers a set of in-service resources to help teachers develop new classroom practices informed by sound research. It builds on previous work associated with ‘formative assessment’ or ‘assessment for learning’. However, it adds an important new dimension by taking account of the conditions within schools that are conducive to the promotion, in classrooms, of learning how to learn as an extension of assessment for learning. Among the materials included you will find:an introductory in-service session self-evaluation questionnaires an action planning activity workshops tools for school development a network mapping activity guidance about different ways of using the resources teachers descriptions of ways they have used of adapted them references to further information and advice. In addition, there is a support website and examples of how individual schools have used or adapted these materials to maximize their benefits.

Learning how to learn is an essential preparation for lifelong learning. Whilst this is widely acknowledged by teachers, they have lacked a rich professional knowledge base from which they can teach their pupils how to learn. This book makes a major contribution to the creation of such a professional knowledge base for teachers by building on previous work associated with ‘formative assessment’ or ‘assessment for learning’ which has a strong evidence base, and is now being promoted nationally and internationally. However, it adds an important new dimension by reporting the conditions within schools, and across networks of schools, that are conducive to the promotion, in classrooms, of learning how to learn as an extension of assessment for learning. There is a companion book, Learning How to Learn in Classrooms: Tools for schools (also available from Routledge), which provides practical resources for those teachers looking to put into practice the principles covered in this book.

Learning how to learn is an essential preparation for lifelong learning. Whilst this is widely acknowledged by teachers, they have lacked a rich professional knowledge base from which they can teach their pupils how to learn. This book makes a major contribution to the creation of such a professional knowledge base for teachers by building on previous work associated with ‘formative assessment’ or ‘assessment for learning’ which has a strong evidence base, and is now being promoted nationally and internationally. However, it adds an important new dimension by reporting the conditions within schools, and across networks of schools, that are conducive to the promotion, in classrooms, of learning how to learn as an extension of assessment for learning. There is a companion book, Learning How to Learn in Classrooms: Tools for schools (also available from Routledge), which provides practical resources for those teachers looking to put into practice the principles covered in this book.

In the twenty-first century, what could be more important than networks? Such is the power of their influence and attendant technologies that it is unsurprising that our thinking about networks is permeated with images and metaphors from electronic networks. This orientation may equally influence thinking about education, whether that is of students or teachers.Researching and Understanding Educational Networks extends the discussion of educational networks in a unique and novel way by relating it to teacher learning. Following an investigation of teacher and school networks in the UK, the authors found that theoretical perspectives taken from existing work on such networks were not adequate to provide an understanding of their potential, nor to provide the basis for researching them in ways that reflected the variety of teacher experience.This book presents analyses of the problems with existing theories of teacher learning, which for example draw on ideas of 'communities of practice', and explores what network theories can be brought to the problem of how teachers and schools create and share new knowledge about practice. Innovative networking theories discussed include:social network analysissocial capital theoriesactor-network theoryinvestigations of electronic networks including computer-meditated conferencinghow people learn at events such as conferences.Researching and Understanding Educational Networks explores a new application of networks theories derived from quite different fields of work, and extends it both by being concerned about networks beyond organisations and specifically about educational networks. Their application to educational networks, and to teacher learning in particular, is a unique contribution of the book. This enables it to be of interest to both researchers and those studying for higher degrees, including students who are professionals working in schools.

In the twenty-first century, what could be more important than networks? Such is the power of their influence and attendant technologies that it is unsurprising that our thinking about networks is permeated with images and metaphors from electronic networks. This orientation may equally influence thinking about education, whether that is of students or teachers.Researching and Understanding Educational Networks extends the discussion of educational networks in a unique and novel way by relating it to teacher learning. Following an investigation of teacher and school networks in the UK, the authors found that theoretical perspectives taken from existing work on such networks were not adequate to provide an understanding of their potential, nor to provide the basis for researching them in ways that reflected the variety of teacher experience.This book presents analyses of the problems with existing theories of teacher learning, which for example draw on ideas of 'communities of practice', and explores what network theories can be brought to the problem of how teachers and schools create and share new knowledge about practice. Innovative networking theories discussed include:social network analysissocial capital theoriesactor-network theoryinvestigations of electronic networks including computer-meditated conferencinghow people learn at events such as conferences.Researching and Understanding Educational Networks explores a new application of networks theories derived from quite different fields of work, and extends it both by being concerned about networks beyond organisations and specifically about educational networks. Their application to educational networks, and to teacher learning in particular, is a unique contribution of the book. This enables it to be of interest to both researchers and those studying for higher degrees, including students who are professionals working in schools.

Learning how to learn is an essential preparation for lifelong learning. This book offers a set of in-service resources to help teachers develop new classroom practices informed by sound research. It builds on previous work associated with ‘formative assessment’ or ‘assessment for learning’. However, it adds an important new dimension by taking account of the conditions within schools that are conducive to the promotion, in classrooms, of learning how to learn as an extension of assessment for learning. Among the materials included you will find:an introductory in-service session self-evaluation questionnaires an action planning activity workshops tools for school development a network mapping activity guidance about different ways of using the resources teachers descriptions of ways they have used of adapted them references to further information and advice. In addition, there is a support website and examples of how individual schools have used or adapted these materials to maximize their benefits.

Providing theoretical grounding, case studies and practical solutions, Implementing Ethics in Educational Ethnography examines how researchers can overcome ethical dilemmas associated with and encountered during ethnographic research. From the initial stages of research design such as consideration from regulatory bodies, through research occurring in the field to project completion and reporting, it explores many of the factors associated with ensuring culturally sensitive and ethical studies.The book covers key questions including:What can researchers expect of ethical review boards?Where and with whom should dialogue take place about ethicality within research?What effect does a research focus have on regulation and research practice?What is the effect of context on ethical practices?Does the positionality of a researcher have an effect on ethical practices?How do we ensure that ethicality supports the trustworthiness of research projects?Using a range of international case studies, Implementing Ethics in Educational Ethnography provides researchers and students with invaluable details about how to navigate the field, ensuring that they can sustain good ethical practice throughout the life of a research project.Chapters 4 and 6 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Providing theoretical grounding, case studies and practical solutions, Implementing Ethics in Educational Ethnography examines how researchers can overcome ethical dilemmas associated with and encountered during ethnographic research. From the initial stages of research design such as consideration from regulatory bodies, through research occurring in the field to project completion and reporting, it explores many of the factors associated with ensuring culturally sensitive and ethical studies.The book covers key questions including:What can researchers expect of ethical review boards?Where and with whom should dialogue take place about ethicality within research?What effect does a research focus have on regulation and research practice?What is the effect of context on ethical practices?Does the positionality of a researcher have an effect on ethical practices?How do we ensure that ethicality supports the trustworthiness of research projects?Using a range of international case studies, Implementing Ethics in Educational Ethnography provides researchers and students with invaluable details about how to navigate the field, ensuring that they can sustain good ethical practice throughout the life of a research project.Chapters 4 and 6 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Drawing on the real voices and experiences of researchers, this book illustrates how the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research can be used to appraise research studies ethically. Researchers have choices when they design, conduct and report their research. These choices have consequences for others – funders, sponsors, those who facilitate access to research settings, those in the research settings, participants and the researchers. Sometimes the consequences can be anticipated and positive consequences can be maximised in the research design and negative consequences minimised. Sometimes the consequences only become apparent as the research unfolds. This book presents a series of case studies following researchers in their decision-making through studies in a range of settings to consider different ways to deal with ethical dilemmas raised. The authors draw on their experiences to explain researcher thinking and how this relates to enacting values, pointing to relevant advice in the BERA ethical guidelines. They also explore choices not taken, considering the possible implications from such decisions, and how other researchers might have made different decisions based on different positionality. The book confronts rather than avoids the application of Global North derived guidance for research in settings other than the UK. As well as thought provoking case studies, the book puts forward questions for readers to relate to their own research contexts and recommended reading for further thinking about the issues raised.Published in partnership with the British Educational Research Association.

Drawing on the real voices and experiences of researchers, this book illustrates how the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research can be used to appraise research studies ethically. Researchers have choices when they design, conduct and report their research. These choices have consequences for others – funders, sponsors, those who facilitate access to research settings, those in the research settings, participants and the researchers. Sometimes the consequences can be anticipated and positive consequences can be maximised in the research design and negative consequences minimised. Sometimes the consequences only become apparent as the research unfolds. This book presents a series of case studies following researchers in their decision-making through studies in a range of settings to consider different ways to deal with ethical dilemmas raised. The authors draw on their experiences to explain researcher thinking and how this relates to enacting values, pointing to relevant advice in the BERA ethical guidelines. They also explore choices not taken, considering the possible implications from such decisions, and how other researchers might have made different decisions based on different positionality. The book confronts rather than avoids the application of Global North derived guidance for research in settings other than the UK. As well as thought provoking case studies, the book puts forward questions for readers to relate to their own research contexts and recommended reading for further thinking about the issues raised.Published in partnership with the British Educational Research Association.