Research highlights
Programme Lead: Rachel Payne is a Senior Lecturer in Education at Oxford
Brookes University. Currently undertaking an Educational Doctorate her research
interest is in exploring how learners make meaning when working with creative
practitioners and in cultural contexts such as museums and galleries. Rachel
is also the Vice President of the NSEAD and is actively involved in championing arts
based education nationally.
Artist Tutor: Dionne Barber
is a freelance artist from Oxford. Her practice focuses on working with others,
sharing skills and facilitating projects for people to express themselves through
the visual arts. Specialising in spatial and self-awareness, Dionne uses her
expressive approaches to deliver learning and self-awareness, as well as teaching
to inspire, engage and enthuse others.
Dionne currently delivers training and specialised consultancy work on how to use
the arts to reach more vulnerable groups and transform attitudes and spaces.
She has exhibited her work in London, Amsterdam, The Pitt Rivers Museum and Oxford
Botanic Gardens. She has also project managed various group shows including The
John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford University of Natural History and the Harcourt
Arboretum. Dionne has worked on the Artist Teacher Scheme since August 2008.
Sustained excellence in research and publication has ensured that a significant
proportion of our School of Education staff were entered for the Research Excellence Framework
(REF) in 2014 (UoA 25). Almost 90% of our research was deemed to be of international
merit, with around one half either ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.
Contributions to the REF were spread across all of our research groups.
Our research aims to create impact on contemporary educational issues - supporting
knowledge creation and developing innovative approaches to researching pedagogic
practices. The School’s research strategy functions at all spatial scales, from
local to global. We publish our highest quality research in leading peer-reviewed
journals. Emeritus, Honorary and Visiting Research Fellows contribute to our
research programmes and outputs.
The School holds two major research conferences each year - the School of Education
Research Conference and the EdD Colloquium. Our Research Seminar Series (which
attracts both internal and external speakers) runs annually - all students are
invited to attend. We also organise a number of conferences, lectures, seminars
and debates, some of which have an international reach.
Members of the School are engaged in a variety of funded and unfunded research
projects; we have previously enjoyed prestigious funded scholarships (such as
the Fulbright – Peabody scholarship) and, when feasible, offer funded Research
Studentships to doctoral applicants. Our Centre for Educational Consultancy and
Development (CECD) regularly secures consultancy and research money.
As might be expected in such a research active school, many staff are engaged as
editors, editorial board members, or reviewers for various peer reviewed academic
and professional journals, as well as online journals.
View all staff profiles for School of Education
Research areas and clusters
The School of Education
at Oxford Brookes University is a thriving centre for educational research and
teacher professional development. Students on master's level programmes therefore
join a large research community comprising researchers at all levels of higher
education study.
The School’s six research groups reflect a thriving research community of academics,
scholars and students. They exist to encourage engagement in research, publication,
conference presentations, seminars and workshops. These groups focus on:
- Inclusion and Wellbeing
- Policy, Partnership and Leadership
- STEAM pedagogy and learning
- Humanistic Perspectives on Education
- Early Years
- Applied Linguistics.