Society Educational Studies 75th Anniversary National Awards
Insights that Cultivate Wisdom in Education
As part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations, the Society for Educational Studies invites applications from teachers and lecturers in early years settings, schools, academy trusts, sixth forms, and colleges of Further Education (FE) who are interested in conducting research around the broad theme of Insights that Cultivate Wisdom in Education. Research projects could be practice-based investigations, policy analyses, or a philosophical consideration of themes in related areas, up to a budget of £10,000. Applications should follow the application form available below and be received no later than 1200 on 28 February 2025. Projects should last 12 months and begin on/before 1 July 2025.
Who is eligible?
Applicants must meet the following criteria:
- Applicants must be employed at a nursery/early year setting, in a school, academy trust, sixth form college, or FE college and be resident in the UK.
- Applicants must have at least a higher degree (e.g., a masters-level qualification or higher).
- Applications for collaborative research projects between teacher/lecturers in FE/sixth form colleges are welcome.
- Applicants will be expected to provide a letter of support from their head of school or college confirming that they will be supported during the year, including time for research, as appropriate.
Eligible Costs
- Funds may be spent on directly incurred costs related to the planning, conducting, developing, and dissemination of the research project.
- A maximum of £5,000 may be spent on ‘cover’ or salary costs, which can include supply cover costs.
Ineligible Costs
- Grants will not be made to fund higher research degrees or costs associated with tuition, nor international travel (unless a strong case can be made for why overseas travel is required to fulfil the project aims).
- Applications that include ‘bought in’ research consultants will not be funded, unless an explicit case can be made for why data collection, analysis, etc cannot be undertaken by the project investigators.
Expectations
Successful applicants will commit to the following:
- Research is expected to be carried out in line with BERA ethical guidelines;
- Projects should begin on/before 1 July 2025 and are expected to complete on/before 1 July 2026;
- The presentation of a paper at the Society for Educational Studies Annual Colloquium, to be held at Oriel College, Oxford in September 2026.
- The submission of an interim report to the Society for Educational Studies after c.6 months, with a final report due within 2 months of the end of the project (no later than 1 September 2026).
- Attendance at a celebratory dinner and networking event with fellow applicants (date and venue TBC).
- The proactive dissemination of research findings is expected, with a minimum requirement of a blog/publication in a professional or academic journal/other relevant outlet.
Completed application forms should be emailed to [email protected] no later than 1200 on 28 February 2025, with required attachments (see below link to Guidelines and Application Form). Late applications will not be accepted. Feedback on unsuccessful bids will not be possible. The Application Form is available as a .PDF document. It is fully editable and convertible to Word doc format. Word versions are available on request via [email protected]
Previous National Awards 2022:
The Transformative Work of Teachers
The Society for Educational Studies awarded the University of Glasgow the National Award for 2022.
Sarah Anderson (PI) and colleagues considered a multi-case analysis exploring the nature of judgements regarding initial teacher education (ITE) students’ performance per normed teaching standards. The project focused on the transformative work of teachers in three key ways: how classroom-based mentor teachers judge students’ performance, who institutions rely on to judge teaching effectiveness, and how ITEs use concomitant judgements of teaching effectiveness amongst a context of power dynamics. The project involved partnership of three ITE programmes: University of Glasgow, Scotland, Aberystwyth University, Wales, and Leeds Beckett University, England. The project sought to enable more accurate judgements to positively affect teacher capacities, to reimagine the value and professional career trajectory of the ‘teacher academic’ as a reorientated role, and investigated impacting power dynamics amongst schools, local authorities, and ITEs.
The research report is available online by clicking the thumbnail below:
Previous recipients of the National Award have included:
- 2015: NP3: New Purposes, New Practices, New Pedagogy, Prof. Peter Twining and colleagues, Open University.
- 2013: Race, Racism, & Education: inequality, resilience and reform in policy & practice, Prof. David Gillborn, Dr. Nicola Rollock, Dr. Paul Warmington, Sean Demack, University of Birmingham.
- 2011: The Social Organisation Of Educational Studies: Past, Present and Future, Professor Gary McCulloch, Professor Gemma Moss and Dr. James Thomas of the Institute of Education, University of London.