The Knowledge

Dr Karen Boardman and Hannah Farrell In our field of early years education, we talk at length about meaningful, authentic context within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) (DfE 2023). Enabling environments, warm relationships, and plenty of time for talking about our experiences are some of the key aspects in supporting very young children with…

Delta Wright The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown have highlighted the need for crisis management in higher education. Crisis management in the form of crisis planning and the use of existing crisis management models to understand how crises occur and how they can help Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) mitigate against damages (Karlsson & Offord, 2023; Spais…

Gavin Davenport Imagine what a 6-year-old thinks when they are first told that a computer program contains ‘bugs’. Their eyes widen, connections are made, and their imagination paints a picture of what is happening inside that black box. “My computer stopped working ‘cause it’s full of bugs!!” A lot of work has taken place in…

Anna Grey Many people struggle to get across the full range what their job involves but, on the whole, saying you are a nurse, lecturer or an accountant at least has people nodding as they have at least heard of them. When I say I work as a University Research Director, I get a quizzical…

Christina Blakey, Head of Knowledge Exchange Office For those in the Knowledge Exchange field within academia, one of the key dates in the calendar is the publication of the National Centre for University and Business (NCUB) Report on the State of the Relationship.  This annual report examines the interactions between businesses and universities in the…

Rachel Marsden Friday’s Child I’m sure we’ve all heard the nursery rhyme, ‘Monday’s Child is Full of Grace…’. I’d like to take a moment to reflect on Friday’s Child, who, according to the pseudo-prophetic poem, is ‘loving and giving’. This innocent nursery rhyme highlights an age-old issue that has only come to the fore in…

Laura Eastlake Sugar Bowl from abolitionist period (1820-1830) inscribed ‘East India Sugar. The Produce of Free Labour’. Image: Maritime Museum, Liverpool. MMM.1994.111 Sugar is in the bloodstream of modern Britain. Whether we enjoy it as a treat or worry about it as an increasingly urgent health risk, navigating our relationships with sugar is a national…

What images are conjured when we think of ‘research’? A scientist in a white coat and safety glasses experimenting with test tubes and Bunsen burners? A social scientist has no such apparatus; in my field, education, our lab is the classroom and the work we do does not necessarily have any such physical manifestation as…

Dr Linda K. Kaye Cyberpsychology is the scientific study of the psychology of technology use and online behaviour. I’ve been involved in this field throughout my academic career, but only recently more fully recognised the merits of cyberpsychology within commercial contexts. Psychology has always had relevance in respect of understanding consumer behaviour, but in an…

Keisha Ann Stewart In the past decade, a coalition of progressive educators have embarked on a transformative journey to make education more equitable and inclusive for students (Elhinnawy, 2023). The unexpected challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted traditional learning and highlighted increased inequalities in education. Widespread concern about learning loss for disadvantaged students resulted in…