Inclusive secondary education for refugees in Oxfordshire

This research examines the experiences of children from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds in secondary schools in Oxfordshire. The research will provide insights into five cohorts of young people:

• Children in refugee and asylum-seeking families
• Children and young people from Afghanistan who have arrived as part of government schemes, including the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) and the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP)
• Children and young people from Ukraine who have arrived as part of government schemes, including the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship scheme and the Ukraine Family Scheme
• Children and young people from Hong Kong who have arrived as part of government schemes, including the Hong Kong British Nationals Overseas (BNO) visa route
• Children from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds with Special Educational Needs (SEN)

Lead organisation: Alice Robinson, Refuge Education UK
Co-investigator: Professor Joanna McIntyre
Funder: Oxfordshire County Council
Further information: Project website

Driving local and trans/national policy change in refugee education: reducing inequality through sustainable quality education for forcibly displaced people

Unprecedented levels of global migration necessitate supporting educational policymakers to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for refugee learners. This project engages policy-influencers and policymakers leveraging McIntyre’s research in refugee education to advance knowledge, deepen relationships between policy and academic expertise, and foster sustainable inclusive educational policies.

Drawing on the HERE project, international policy networking events, will be held in collaboration with Brussels-based SIRIUS European Policy Network on Migrant Education.  Nationally, McIntyre’s collaborations with Refugee Education UK (REUK) - ASPIRE and STRIVE, will advance policy narratives and ensure elements of SDG4 are met for refugee learners. Locally, McIntyre’s research findings will underpin a roundtable event in Nottingham, supported by Nicholas Lee, Director of Education at Nottingham City Council. 

Principal investigator: Professor Joanna McIntyre
Funder: Research England's Quality-Related Research Policy Support Funding and Participatory Funding

Refugee volunteering, vocational training and shared learning

This research explores the activities provided by the Action Asylum programme for volunteers who are refugees in the UK.

The aims of Action Asylum are as follows:

• Provide volunteering opportunities for people seeking asylum together with local people, to improve the environment through conservation and community efforts
• Promote integration and shared learning by connecting people seeking asylum to their local communities and so promote better mental health and wellbeing
• Improve public perception of people seeking asylum

Two aspects are of particular interest:

1. The extent to which refugees themselves feel volunteering provides opportunities for self-development
2. The opportunities for changing perceptions about (forced) migration and experiences of ‘shared learning’ between people seeking asylum and their local communities in different contexts

Principal investigator: Dr Chris Stone
Funder: The Task Force Trust
Further information: Action Asylum website 

Grasping hope for anti-racist change in higher education

Racial inequalities have been a mainstay within English higher education. Racial disparities in student access and academic achievement continues to persist. These racial disparities are also observed in the workforce where the presence of black faculty at professorial level is less than desired. These indicators suggest English universities are racialised organisations operating to a racial hierarchy. It is reason for pessimism, particularly for students and staff of colour. Employing a critical race theoretical lens, the project seeks accounts of hope from university managers in making anti-racist change with universities. The aim is to offer a sociological understanding of hope for anti-racist change in education.        

Principal investigator: Dr Manny Madriaga
Funder: The Leverhulme Trust

Making sense of primary school homework: Mothers’ constructions of homework, homework support and mothering

UK primary pupils regularly receive homework and high proportions of parents actively support it. Dominant social ideas about mothers’ suitability for care tasks means that in many families, regardless of work status, mothers principally undertake this educational labour. However, little is known about homework as a family practice, how mothers understand, construct or experience their homework role. Extending my doctoral research, this ESRC-funded project explores what drives mothers’ homework involvement, what shapes their approach, how they make sense of and enact their role, and their reflections on these experiences, leading to a new, relational conceptualisation of homework. Project activities include:

• further research with mothers of different racial heritages (interview, videography, stimulated reflection)
• a monograph (Routledge) and journal paper
• public engagement activities with teachers and student-teachers

Principal investigator: Dr Rachel Lehner-Mear
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Self and agency in displacement: The case of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in Greece

The study examines forced migration through the lens of an overlooked group, displaced children, in one of the major host, yet under-researched, countries of the European periphery, Greece. By taking a child-centred approach to displacement that acknowledges refugee and asylum-seeking children as social actors and co-creators of knowledge, the study disrupts the adultism and the emphasis on vulnerability and victimhood that tend to dominate these fields. 

The project ethnographically documents the impact of displacement on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children’s (UASC) pre- and post-flight experiences and the intricate ways that structure and agency are interwoven in their self-narratives. It aims at making a significant empirical and theoretical contribution to the fields of forced migration, education and childhood studies and the related policies and practices.

Principal investigator: Dr Eugenia Katartzi
Funder: The British Academy

A sustainable place for inclusive refugee education (ASPIRE)

A Sustainable Place for Inclusive Refugee Education (ASPIRE) is a research initiative between the University of Nottingham and Refugee Education UK (REUK). This study focuses on refugee education and pioneers a participatory methodology led by learners with asylum-seeking and refugee backgrounds.  

ASPIRE is a place-based research study that aims to understand existing education provisions in two English cities – Oxford and Nottingham – from the perspective of young refugees and those who support them in local communities. This project aims to develop a holistic educational network for refugees. Thus, despite its focus on Nottingham and Oxford as specific research locations, its objective is to showcase effective local initiatives and facilitate the transfer of their knowledge to other localities.

Principal investigator: Professor Joanna McIntyre
Funder: University of Nottingham
Further information: Refugee UK website 

Knit and Matter: Material meaning making with amateur fibre craft

Although knitting is a popular everyday creative practice, its significance for meaning making in contemporary lives has not been fully recognised. The value of textile practice in meaning making has been overshadowed by narrow models of literacy which dominate formal education and public life and stereotypical views of amateur crafts have also meant that the significance of knitting as a creative resource for meaning making has been overlooked.  Recent research by Dr Susan Jones has sought to build on the rich conceptual connections between text and textile through a series of interviews with crafters. ‘Knit and Matter’ seeks to develop this further through a focus on material meaning making, though means which engage with the process of making itself. 

A lack of recognition of the role of everyday creative practice has wide-ranging symbolic and practical implications for individuals, communities and for wider society, and these implications need to be better understood. As we face global crises and consider our response to these, it is timely to seek better understanding of the role of everyday practice in addressing some of the most troubling questions we face, not least how we recognise and respect our material relationship with the world. 

Principal investigator: Dr Susan Jones
Funder: The British Academy
Further information: Project page

Psychoeducation for young persistent fire setters

A small but worrying group of children and young people (CYP) develop persistent fire setting behaviours which can carry significant risk. Our knowledge about these young people, and the factors that shape the fire setting behaviour, is limited. A collaborative research project between a UK Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) and the University of Nottingham has piloted and developed a new psychoeducation intervention with the aim of helping CYP presenting with persistent fire setting behaviour to desist from setting fires.  

Principal investigator: Professor Gary Winship
Funder: Nottinghamshire Violence Reduction Unit
Further information: Project page

Increasing access and participation for black, Asian and minority ethnic groups in postgraduate research study (YCEDE)

Office for Students, Research England and Yorkshire Consortium for Equity in Doctoral Education (YCEDE) partners (University of Leeds, University of York, University of Sheffield, University of Bradford, and Sheffield Hallam University) have committed to invest more than £4 million over four years to improve access and participation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic people in postgraduate research study across Yorkshire. The project consists of four workstreams. The University of Nottingham is collaborating with Sheffield Hallam University in carrying out a rigorous evaluation of the YCEDE Programme and provide an evidence base to share widely across the HE sector and beyond.

Principal investigator: Dr Manny Madriaga
Funder: Sheffield Hallam University
Further information: Project website and project blog