Enabling and Sustaining Academic, Educational and Educational Innovation Leadership Study

As an academic, educational or educational innovation leader you are invited to participate in this research. Your professional role and responsibilities might include one, a selection or all of the above.

It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part in this research study. If you do decide to take part, along with this information sheet, you will be given a privacy notice that explains how your data will be collected and used, and be asked to give your consent. If you decide to take part you are still free to withdraw without giving a reason. On completion of your survey please retain your survey number so your responses can be extracted.  Any data collected from you can be withdrawn, up to the point of analysis, in July 2023.

Participation will involve:

in 2022/23

1. completing a short online survey, taking approximately 10 minutes, available from ocaed@brookes.ac.uk 

2. you might also like to attend 2 online workshops of up to 2 hours each. Registration details are below.

2023/24

3. attending a focus group to discuss the interventions developed as a result of this study to discuss their effectiveness

4. responding to a short survey, taking approximately 10 minutes, available from ocaed@brookes.ac.uk 

The project will follow two discrete phases. The first phase will generate data from an online survey and online workshops: a separate workshop will be held for each kind of leadership, the data generated from the survey and online workshops will inform an action plan for developing and supporting each kind of leadership (educational, academic and educational innovation). The action plan will be explored with participants in the second phase. We hope this process simultaneously enables participants to feel heard within the institutional context, to be change agents themselves, and to have a sense of ownership of their academic development.

The workshops will be audio recorded. The closed caption transcription will be checked  by a professional, contracted, transcription service. All research data will be kept in password protected secure workspaces and destroyed after 10 years. 

Innovations to support educational leadership borne from this research will be evaluated using a mixed methods approach. We will evaluate each new activity individually; send out the original survey to the three groups during the following academic year to compare findings; and host a focus group to discuss the overall impact and value of the given interventions. 

In the current HE context (national and local stressors) we recognise some colleagues may be under duress and may find discussing their professional development a trigger for distress. 

Workshops will be facilitated by two members of the team, one researcher will lead the session, the second researcher will be there for technical and pastoral support. Participants may want to talk about an issue that may result in distress, researchers will make it clear that they do not need to go into any details and are free to pause or leave at any time. 

Please note the survey is completely anonymous and only the research team will have access to data generated by the research project.

If you have any concerns prior to, during or after contributing to this research, you may wish to access support the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) (https://www.acas.org.uk/what-we-do), which is a free and independent service for employers and employees in the UK who can provide impartial advice on workplace rights and rules. 

In addition support is available for all Oxford Brookes staff through the counselling services and the Samaritans is available to everyone who might need to talk.  Telephone 116123 or www.samaritans.org

The benefits to participants will be an opportunity to positively share their experiences of academic, educational and educational innovation leadership with peers and to be integral to the creation of academic development to help them fulfil their roles effectively.

The survey is anonymous. All findings of the survey and workshops will be anonymised to ensure no individual, specific discipline, department or school can be identified.

Participants are free to withdraw without adverse consequences, their information will be destroyed. To withdraw from the project please contact the Principal Investigator (J.Lawrence) who will extract your data from the data set and transcriptions. The data of participants wishing to withdraw before findings are analysed and disseminated will not be used in academic outputs. If participants withdraw after findings have been published we may be unable to extract their specific data. All data will be anonymised to the extent that no individual, department or school can be identified.

Data is gathered on Oxford Brookes University encrypted and password protected survey platform, which complies with the University’s data protection policies and process and UK legislation. Notes, recordings and transcripts of the workshops will be kept in encrypted and password protected work spaces and on the University’ data storage application, Arkivum. Only the Principal Investigator (J.Lawrence) and research team (M.Kitchener, P.Magne, S. Morón-García and K.Kwok) the OCAED Center Administrator (Taylor Ray) and professional transcription service will have access to the data (note the professional transcription service will sign a confidentiality agreement).

Data generated by the study must be retained in accordance with the University's policy on Academic Integrity.  The confidentiality of the information provided can only be protected within the limitations of the law - i.e. it is possible for data to be subject to subpoena, freedom of information claim or mandated reporting by some professions. 

If you are interested in participating in this research project please contact ocaed@brookes.ac.uk who will send you a link to the survey and a calendar invitation to the workshops (please let us know which of the first workshops you would like to attend, Academic, Educational or Educational Innovation Leaders) (2022/23) or focus group (2023/24). Information about these workshops will be included in the Survey. The deadline for confirming participation in the workshops is April 19th 2023. 

You may participate in any or all the research activities: the survey only, or both the survey and the two workshops and then the focus group and final survey.

Workshop dates

1. Discover and Envision Workshops week commencing 24th April: 

• Academic Leaders with Polly and Kat - Monday 24 April from 9.30-11.30

• Educational Innovation Leaders with Sue and Kat - Tuesday 25 April 10.30-12.30

• Educational Leaders with Mary and Kat - Wednesday 26 April from 9.30-11.30

2. Engage and Innovate Workshop (all categories of leaders): May, date TBC

Findings will shape a portfolio of academic and organisational development activities in support of the kinds of leadership described.

We aim to produce practical assets and academic outputs to share our findings across the sector.

This research is organised by a research team in the Oxford Centre for Academic Enhancement and Development. The mission of OCAED is to offer inclusive, collaborative and compassionate academic development.

This research has been approved by the he study has been reviewed by the Cross-Faculty Research Ethics Sub-Committee, Oxford Brookes University, the UREC registration number is 221367

The Principal Investigator is Dr Jenny Lawrence, please contact her if you have any queries regarding this study j.lawrence@brookes.ac.uk  

If you have any concerns about the way in which the study has been conducted, you should contact the Chair of the University Research Ethics Committee on ethics@brookes.ac.uk.