Inclusion and Wellbeing

Aims

The inclusion and wellbeing research group aims to critically explore policy, pedagogy and practice in relation to the educational experiences of all children, young people and students of all ages. This includes children and young people who exhibit a broad range of diverse, additional and potentially complex learning needs as well as those showing typical development.

Areas of Interest

Members’ interests reflect the diverse nature of this field but also a range of methodologies and expertise in both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The areas of inclusion and wellbeing currently being explored by the researchers in this group include:

• Emotional development and attachment;
• Nuture Group Theory and Practice
• The social, emotional and mental health of children and young people;
• Well-being of HE students and pedagogy in Universities;
• Neuroscience and the development of emotional competency;
• Links between educational assessment and wellbeing;
• Achievement motivation;
• Bullying;
• Beginning teachers professional learning in relation to physical and emotional learning;
• Beginning teachers learning in relation to supporting pupils with diverse and additional learning needs;
• Alternative approaches to practice and pedagogy e.g. The impact of the Nurture Group interventions on well-being
• Autism
• Looked after Children/ ACE

Projects and current research

Dr David Colley

• Secondary Nurture Groups – Models of Best Practice (NurtureUK)

Dr Carol Brown

• Research into motivation, identity and achievement of A-level students
  • Brown, C. (2018). What Motivates A-level Students to Achieve? Exploring the Role of Expectations and Task Values. Psychology of Education Review 42 (1) 53-63
  • Brown, C. (2018). The Role of Task Difficulty and Effort in the Expectations and Values of A-level Students. Psychology of Education Review 42 (2) 5-14
• Research Ethics in Educational Research
• Other research:
  • Ingram, J., Elliot, V., Morin, C., Randhawaa, A., and Brown, C.(2018). Playing the system: incentives to ‘game’ and educational ethics in school examination entry policies in England, Oxford Review of Education 44 (5) 545-562

Barry Carpenter

Barry Carpenter was recently appointed to the UK’s first Professorship in Mental Health in Education at Oxford Brookes University. He is Honorary Professor at universities in the Ireland, Germany and Australia. He has been a Fellow of the University of Oxford. He has been awarded an OBE and CBE by the Queen for services to children with Special Needs. In 2017 he was entered into “Who’s Who” in acknowledgement of his national and international contribution to the field of Special Education. In 2009, he was appointed by the Secretary of State for Education as Director of the Children with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Research Project. Since completing that research, Barry has overseen the development of a national project developing online ‘Training materials for teachers of children with severe, profound and complex learning disabilities” ( www.complexneeds.org.uk).

He is the author of over 150 articles and many texts on a range of learning disability/special needs topics.

Joanne Billington

• Systematic review of the literature into effective supports for autistic learners in mainstream schools.
• Study into the lived experience of autistic learners in mainstream primary schools from the perspectives of three stakeholder groups: parents, teachers and autistic adults.
• Has delivered talks recently at Manchester Metropolitan University, Royal Holloway; University of London and Priestnall School in Stockport on involving parents and young people in the co-production of support for autistic learners.
• Has recently run workshops on how to support the mental health and wellbeing of autistic children and young people for the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust.

News and events

Please see the School of Education Eventspage for an up-to-date list of research group events. Recent events include Jon Reid and Jo Billington’s extremely successful Inclusion Week; Children’s Mental Health Week film screenings; external speakers; and practical workshops.

Networks

• ENSEC
• European Primary Physical Education Network
• Teacher Educator Advancement Network
• Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties Association
• National Education Trust
• National Association of Primary Education
• The British Psychological Society: Psychology of Education,   
• Youth Sport Trust
• Department for Education
  

Academic staff with related research interests