The vital role of research in teaching and learning

Edge Hill University's Vicky Duckworth, Senior Lecturer in Post Compulsory Education and Training will play a leading role at a forthcoming event to promote the research agenda and better practice within the Lifelong Learning sector.

This year the Liverpool Community College Research Network celebrates its tenth anniversary and to honour the occasion practitioners, researchers and policy makers have been invited to attend their ‘Learning through Teaching' networking day.  

Vicky explains, "Through my role as convenor of the Learning and Skills Research Network I have successfully linked Edge Hill University with Liverpool Community College and so have been asked to deliver one of the seminars."  

"As part of my presentation entitled, ‘Basic Skills, Curriculum Design and Learner Empowerment: Using practitioner research to inform practice and emancipatory approaches to curriculum design', I will be disseminating my research paper with attendees as a way to encourage action research and a move towards best practice," she adds.  

The Learning and Skills Research Network (LSRN) began in 1997 with the support of the Learning and Skills Development Agency and starting working collaboratively with multiple partner organisations in April 2006.  

Based in the regions of England and Northern Ireland, the LSRN brings together people involved in producing and making use of research in the learning and skills sector and higher education, as well as providing a welcoming atmosphere for those new to research.  

"At both Edge Hill and LSRN North West we are committed to underpinning teaching and learning with contemporary, relevant and meaningful research," Vicky continues. "As such, we welcome the opportunity to support this crucial event, which celebrates some excellent and innovative research on a local and national level. It also gives our students at Edge Hill the opportunity to experience the latest research first-hand."  

As well as her research interests which include practitioner and collaborative research methods, participatory action research and linking research and practice, Vicky is also concerned with issues of empowerment and egalitarian approaches to teaching and learning as well as violence in relation to learning. She is part of several national and international networks and is a member of theTeacher Education Research Network (TERN),an International representative for the Adult Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) and a member of North West Dialogue steering group.

Vicky has also recently collaborated with Carrie Johnson, Assistant Professor at Chicago's National Louis University. "We met in 2007 at a conference and realised we had many similar approaches to education," Vicky says. "What started as a stimulating conversation led to an international research project where we examined two adult learners who, despite being marginalised from a young age and facing numerous barriers, had both gone on to achieve academic success. We presented our findings at the annual conference of the Adult Higher Education Alliance in America in 2008, which were then published in the US journal, National Association of Developmental Educators. It was a significant learning opportunity for us to hear from the students in their own words and to be able to share this in writing with our colleagues."  

Recently Vicky has also been invited to participate on a panel of educators speaking on the topic of collaboration. This will take place at the annual AHEA and American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) annual conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA on 1st November.  

Her latest project sees Vicky leading two exciting writing initiatives. The first is working with specialist educationalists and students on the Post Compulsory Education and Training course to write and edit a book on creative approaches to teaching, while the second sees her editing a book on leadership alongside Edge Hill's Dean of the Faculty of Education, Robert Smedley. These are both due to be published globally in June 2011.