• Activism, Advocacy and Rebellion: Power Struggle in Africa’s third largest country

    Dr Shereen Shaw News about a conflict in Sudan and the need for emergency flights for hundreds of people leaves us bewildered about the cause of such conflict in the region. The dispute goes back to before the 2019 uprising within parts of the Arab world. At this time there was a power struggle between…

  • The End of the 20th Century?

    Professor Jo Crotty Following the death of her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and former General Secretary of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, just a week before, it feels as if the 20th century has finally come to an end. Like me, people may have been prompted by the former to watch (or in my case…

  • The Power of Music to Change Lives?

    Dr Anna Mariguddi On Saturday 25th June 2022, the much anticipated (second) National Plan for Music Education (NPME) was published entitled; ‘The power of music to change lives’. The (non-statutory) document represents political ideology (as does the Model Music Curriculum and Ofsted Research review series: music). Despite leaning towards traditional Western Art values, the NPME’s…

  • So what Happens Now? Another Suitcase?

    Paula Keaveney The ambitious Conservative MP with leadership ambitions (and most do have these whatever they say) has to take a series of decisions quickly. Are they ready to fight a leadership contest? Can they get enough support to stand a chance? Is this the right time for them or are they best waiting for…

  • Hannah Arendt: War as a Violation of the Human Condition

    Dr Paul Bunyan War represents a violation of the human condition in so many ways. In what many consider to be her magnus opus The Human Condition, the philosophical and political theorist Hannah Arendt stresses the conditioned nature of humanity and contrasts this with totalitarian ideologies wherein all-powerful beings can control the processes of history…

  • The Right to Play: Are young children free to determine their own actions?

    Dr Jo Albin-Clark I recently saw an art exhibition with Mark Titchener that got me thinking about how far young children are free to determine their own actions. Previously my research interests have been about how teachers observe playful learning (Albin-Clark, 2021, 2022) and develop critical awareness about children as holders of rights (Albin-Clark and…

  • Double Defeat: is this (finally) the end of Boris Johnson?

    Paula Keaveney In Devon you put the jam on last – scone, then cream, then a big dollop of strawberry.  So last week’s by-election win in Tiverton and Honiton was the jam on top for the Liberal Democrats. The victory in what has been a safe Conservative seat since it was created will send shivers…

  • ‘Bridges’ and ‘Phonics’, and How to Navigate Both

    Dr Karen Boardman As I respond to yet another message on social media about why I am suddenly ‘crossing bridges’ from early reading advocacy to the teaching of Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP), I am wondering why I feel the need to explain my position yet again. Firstly, it is not either/or – it is both.…

  • A Snail Carries its Bunker on its Back: Researching Nuclear Anxiety through Creative Writing

    Dr Philippa Holloway Creative Writing often embraces other disciplines. While academic research within this field focuses on research in Creative Writing (the theories and practices of creative expression), essentially writers must also research for their writing. They must learn about and consider psychology, geography, science, history, sociology, geology, ethnography, and philosophy as well as develop…

  • How to Keep Talking about Climate Change with Television?

    Elke Weissmann Many of us probably feel that this is a time of crisis: the cost-of-living, the invasion of Ukraine, and so much more. These crises are real and evident, and also clearly taking place now. Disasters, catastrophes and crises need to be constructed as events to grab the headlines (see for example Bednarek and…

  • Let them eat…?

    Roger Spalding Lee Anderson, Conservative MP for Ashfield and Eastwood has jumped into the cost-of-living crisis. He was quoted in the Daily Mirror (12/05/22) as saying: “We can make a meal for around 30p a day and this is cooking from scratch.” Leaving aside the practicalities raised by this claim like how many is this…

  • What Does it Mean for Teachers to be True to Themselves? Can a Critical Creative Process Support our Articulations of Self?

    Victoria Inyang-Talbot As I prepare to share parts of my research at the International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry later this month in Cape Town, I cannot help but meditate on the question that has preoccupied me for a long time, and is key to my research project. The famous quote, ‘to thyself be true’, spoken…

  • Cry God for Harry, England, and St. George?

    Dr Roger Spalding Until relatively recently St George’s day, 23rd April passed by relatively unnoticed except for hardcore ‘patriots’ and Morris dancers. Yet recently there have been attempts to elevate this holiday to that of St Patrick’s day on 17th March. Historically St George rather withered as the English did not need an emblematic saintly…

  • The War Against ‘Dis-information’: Romania Reacts to the Conflict in Ukraine

    Dr Cristian Ciobanu & Dr Duncan Light The war in Ukraine came as a big shock for Romanians who (like many Europeans) found the idea of a ‘traditional’ war involving tanks and bombs as unimaginable. In recent years, scepticism among Romanians about membership of the EU and NATO had been on the rise, but with…

  • Social Justice – Whose Responsibility?

    Professor Amanda Fulford There’s an awful lot of talk about social justice that seems to fill our newspapers, airwaves, and social media content. It has become a buzzword, and simultaneously lost its meaning. Like many such concepts, it is slippery, and difficult to define. When we do try to talk about it, we often articulate…

  • Amplifying Diverse Voices via Hybrid Meetings

    Dr Katy Goldstraw We have only just learnt how to do online meetings, yet as intermittent Wi-Fi, wild offspring and performing pets morph into a return to ‘the office’ – new challenges are arising. Many of us are working ‘hybrid’ with some days at home and others in the office. Many Universities have returned to…

  • ‘A Whiff of Munich’?

    Roger Spalding Neville Chamberlain holds the paper signed by both Hitler and himself on his return from Munich. I often read in applicants’ personal statements that they wish to study History to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. This is sadly, something that rarely occurs; humanity appears to have an infinite capacity to repeat…

  • Turning Unimaginable Tragedy into Opportunity

    Peace Centre Founder Wendy Parry OBE reflects on how the death of her son in the IRA bombing of Warrington Town Centre in 1993, led to her becoming a campaigner for peace and reconciliation. International Women’s Day 2022: Edge Hill University and the Institute for Social Responsibility present four women who had greatness ‘thrust upon…

  • Ukraine – What Next? Is Civil Society the Answer?

    Sergej Ljubownikow Over a week into Putin’s war in Ukraine, speculation on why, for what reason , remain high – but also to what end. Putin appears to have a variety of conflicting, and spurious aims (some only beknownst to him) with this invasion; both with regards to Ukraine, and highly likely beyond. Western response…

  • Medals at all costs? Kamila Valieva discovered the ‘ice cold’ reality of failure

    Anabel Timmins The ISR interview recently conducted with Rachael Denhollander regarding sexual abuse at USA gymnastics (USAG) for International Women’s Day 2022 was recorded before the Winter Olympics. However, the scenes of a 15-year-old girl caught up in a doping scandal less than 10 years after Russia was found to have engaged in a scheme…