Bio: Tracey Warren is currently a postdoctoral research associate on an ESRC funded project within the Developmental Intergroup Processes (DIP) Lab (CLES) until the end of June 2022. Tracey is interested in research focusing on inclusion, diversity and equity in education and enjoys her time researching in schools, talking with parents and other stakeholders about their experiences within the education sector.

Having graduated with an EdD in December 2021 I was considering my future employment options as prior to writing up the thesis I had worked in pretty intensive education leadership positions, both internationally and within the UK.  After nearly five years of studying I really wasn’t sure what to do next: a postdoc or return to leadership posts within the primary or special education sector.  The post was advertised over the winter break and certainly hit all my interest requirements so I submitted an application.

The postdoc with the ESRC funded project ‘Bystander reactions to the intergroup exclusion of immigrants among British children and adolescents,’ under the guidance of principal investigator, Professor Adam Rutland, has certainly provided me with plenty of challenges, stretching my organisational skills, drawing on my knowledge within education and schools, as well as developing me as a researcher.  The Bystander project set out to inform educational policy and practice within schools which would encourage students to challenge discrimination, through social exclusion, and promote positive peer relationships. The project has drawn from the Social Reasoning Developmental (SRD) approach to social exclusion.

Since I took up post at the beginning of February 2022 a large part of my role has been liaising with schools, NGOs, practitioners (such as educational psychologists) and academics to set up seminars and workshops to disseminate the findings of this four-year project.  Along with these events there has been the opportunity to work within a project team to review the research findings, coding survey responses, discuss publications and further research study designs related to the initial project findings.

The role has also allowed me the opportunity to develop my own research ideas which have taken me into primary and secondary schools in and around Exeter to interview children and young people about their ideas on bystander responses. The focus groups and interviews are currently being transcribed and will inform a further study by another member of the project team, Ayse Sule Yuksel, that will take place during the second half of the summer term 2022.

Although the Bystander project is coming to the end of ESRC funding, the work continues as the team attend conferences to disseminate the work and articles are drafted, submitted and reviewed for academic publication.  If you are interested in the Bystander project findings you can find out more from the seminar and workshop at the Institute of Education on Friday 17^th June, 2022  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creating-inclusive-schools-research-and-practice-tickets-324353087817, through the DIP Lab website  https://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/diplab/projects/bystander-project/ and publication of the first article “Perceived Similarity and Bystander Self-Efficacy Increase the Likelihood of Youth Challenging the Exclusion of an Immigrant Peer” (in press) in https://issbd.org/

#research #psychology #education #inclusion #ESRC #bystander #bystanderresponses #schools #schoolsupport #immigrants #educationalpsychology #academicchatter #academia

Kelly Louise Preece is the Researcher Development Manager for PGRs iand the Research and EDI Manager. You’ll recognise her face from workshops, her voice from WEBINARs, and her jokes from the 90s. You can follow her on twitter @Preece_Kelly and subscribe to her podcast for musings about researchers, development…and everything in between!  

Last week myself and my job share, Kathryn Coombes, travelled to Penryn to run a couple of face-to-face Lego Serious Play sessions. For those who haven’t attended one of our LSP sessions yet, LSP is a problem-solving methodology, developed by Lego. It is, quite simply, a tool to think through and reflect on problems. We use LSP to deal with some of the more challenging and ephemeral aspects of the PGR experience – for example dealing with writer’s block and finding your way out of a rut.

During the Finding your way out of a rut using Lego Serious Play session we develop a shared ‘toolbox’ for overcoming challenges. The toolbox developed in our sessions last week was particularly useful, and so we wanted to share it here.

1. Before you start – stop and reflect. Rather than just diving in, think about the problem or challenge ahead of you and what you might need to do to overcome it.
2. At this point, you may also want to identify your goal or outcome to help you focus on the problem more clearly. This may be setting a deadline, a particular ‘output’ (a presentation, journal article, draft of a chapter) or the answer to a question or problem.
3. Break it down. Whilst have a goal is important, goals are often big and unmanageable – and therefore demotivating. If your goal is to write a draft of a thesis chapter, break it down in to smaller tasks – reviewing your notes, making a plan, writing individual sections. Smaller tasks are more achievable, less intimidating and help motivate us. You can find some useful resources on this in our Project managing your research degree online resource.
4. Do your research. Use your skills and do what you do best. If you are stuck in a rut – perhaps you are struggling for motivation after your upgrade – do your research. What strategies exist for maintaining motivation? Can you undertake any training to help? (Hint you can – it’s called maintaining momentum and focus after your upgrade and you can watch a recording of the session on Exeter Learning Environment or access our online resources.)
5. Talk to other people. Chances are someone in your immediate circle, one of your peers, a postdoc in your department, or even a friend of family member has experienced something similar. Talk the problem through with them. Ask them how they overcame it. What strategies did they develop? They may have helpful solutions – but sometimes just talking through a problem can help you think through a problem or feel less alone.
6. Use your supervisors. Their role isn’t to solve the problem for you, but it is to guide you. They have oversight and perspective on your project or work as an outsider. Use it. They have also likely been through similar experiences – ask them how they dealt with it.
7. Get creative. We tend to work in set ways, which work for us most of the time. You might have a set strategy for planning a piece of written work, for instance. But what can you do when it doesn’t work – if you get stuck? Do it differently. Simple tools like mind mapping, using post it notes, or even playing with Lego can help you visualise a problem differently, think critically and creatively and come up with solutions.
8. Rest. We tend to think the answer to productivity or overcoming a problem is to keep working at it. But it isn’t. We need rest to recharge our literal and metaphorical batteries, but also to let our ideas percolate. There’s a reason why we have our lightbulb moments when we are doing something else – our brains are processing the information and making connections subconsciously. So having rest, and taking breaks, is one of the most important tools in your box. Kay Guccione calls it #TakeBreaksMakeBreakthroughs.
9. As well as rest, relax. Rest and relaxation are not the same thing – something I have learned the hard way! Engage in activities that nourish and energise you – going for a coffee with a friend, binging the latest Netflix phenomenon, walking, reading, cooking, cycling…whatever floats your boat. For me, its all forms of crafting (knitting, crochet, sewing, embroidery…) and building Lego.
10. When it’s over – stop and reflect. We learn more in our personal and professional lives from when things go wrong than when they go right. When you have overcome that challenge or got out of that metaphorical rut, reflect. What happened? What strategies did you use to overcome it? How did you cope physical and emotionally? What helped you relax? Who did it really helped to talk to? Through reflection, you can refine your toolbox and build something bespoke to you.

Tanya’s final model capturing both her rut, and strategies to overcome it.

With thanks to Raul Di La Fuento Pino, Hao Lu, Tanya Venture and Kathryn Coombes for the discussions and insights captured in this blog post.

Malcolm Richards is an independent doctoral research with the Graduate School of Education at the University of Exeter: https://eprofile.exeter.ac.uk/malcolmrichards/

Camille London-Miyo is a PhD researcher with the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre De Montfort University, Leicester: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/stephen-lawrence-research-centre/team.aspx

In the period following the murder of George Floyd (r.i.p) and the subsequent Movement for Black Lines protests across the United Kingdom between March and June 2020 (fire bun Colston), there has been renewed interest in the educational experiences of Black students, families, and educators. Here, Black (with ‘B’ capitalized) denotes peoples, cultures, knowledge, and communities of the African and African-Caribbean diaspora. Within this recent interest convergences, a variety of education institutions have sought to highlight their commitment to equality, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racist practices. Others have sought to ‘double down’ on their belief that institutional racism does not exist – or they can find no evidence to prove it. These are inevitably preoccupied with (small-c) conservative themes of migration, integration, and assimilation – though arguably grounded in (big-C) colonial and colonizing principles.

We maintain that the living experiences of Black educators have always offered a unique and central perspective in “exposing the tacit nature of racism and marginalisation in education” (Tembo, 2021).  Decades before ‘Small Axe’ (McQueen, 2020) and ‘Uprising (McQueen, 2021), Black and anti-racist educators have drawn upon the legacy work of social movements which were instrumental to the educational advances made across our educational community. A long and extensive history of educational discourse across Black communities has directly informed these movements, which has centring perspectives and lived experience providing valuable insights about the roles of equity and race in education (Andrews and Palmer, 2016). Some seminal works, such as “How the West Indian Child is made Educationally Subnormal by the British Education System” (Coard, 1971/2021) are becoming important reference points for new generations of educators and referenced widely within the teaching education and development profession. Other books have had recent reissues, such as Beryl Gilroy’s “Black Teacher” (1976/2021) or Heart of the Race (Bryan et.al., 1985/ 2018), and place the importance of the vital contribution’s Black women centrally. There are so many other examples. We suggest that Black educators have long always formed part of a critical pedagogy, which is rooted in love, care and understanding for all. Yet within our respective universities, as we sought reading lists, academic events, and expertise to help us on our emerging academic endeavours, we found an absence of course content related to the experiences of Black educators. Instead, we were subjected to academic experiences which appeared, despite the best intentions of colleagues, rooted in deficit theorizing, or reduced into institutional pedagogical responses characterised as “the three S’s: saris, samosas, and steel bands” (Troyna, 1987). We had so many questions: how can emerging academics place centrally the counter-stories of Black educators who have directly influenced our academic works? Where can academics and educators engage with the significant research, teaching, resources, activism, community education and transformative practices which has emerged from Black educators and Black education spaces? What is this black in Black education, and who is this black in Black Educators?

Our response was small, but important. We created the Black Educators Book Club to encourage a intercultural, interdisciplinary space where colleagues can critically engage with such enquiries, while also centring, honouring, celebrating, and valuing some of the collective community praxis which we believe has emerged from it. The Black Educators Book Club is a virtual monthly lunchtime book club is open to staff, students, and professional service members at University of Exeter and De Montfort University, members, and affiliates of the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre (SLRC) and Race, Ethnicity and Education Network (REEN), as well as education staff in schools, colleges, academies, and other educational organisations.  In the words of our friend, colleague and first BEBEC guest, Zahra Bei (2021), our hope is to honour the “legacy works” of knowledge production, praxis and peoples which recognise that Black educators have little alternative but to be transformative (Osler,1997) in their practices.

#BEBC2021 Readings:

• #1 – How the West Indian Child Is Made Educationally Subnormal by The British Education System by Bernard Coard (1971/2021)
• #2 – Spaces and Places of Black Educational Desire: Rethinking Black Supplementary Schools as a New Social Movement by Professor Heidi Mirza and Professor Diane Reay’ (2000)
• #3 – Black Male Teachers, White Education Spaces: Troubling School Practices of Othering and Surveillance by Dr Christine Callender (2019)
• #4 – Visible and Invisible Barriers: the impact of racism on BME teachers by Dr Zubaida Haque and Sian Elliott (2017)
• #5 – What is this Black in popular black culture? by Professor Stuart Hall (1993)

References: 

Andrews, K. & Palmer, L. eds. (2016). Blackness in Britain, 1st edition, Routledge.

Bryan, B., Dadzie, S. & Scafe, S. (1985). The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain. London: Virago.

Coard, B. (1971) Making Black Children Subnormal in Britain, Equity & Excellence in Education, 9:5, 49-52.

Coard, B. (1971). How the West Indian child is made educationally subnormal in the British school system: the scandal of the black child in schools in Britain. London, New Beacon for the Caribbean Education and Community Workers’ Association.

Gilroy, B.  (1976) Black Teacher, Cassell, 1976. Reprinted Bogle-L’Ouverture, 1994

McQueen, S. (2020). ‘Small Axe”, BBC Television, Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p08vxt33/small-axe

McQueen, S. (2021). ‘Uprising’, BBC Television, Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m000y317/uprising

Osler, A. (1997). The education and careers of Black teachers: changing identies, changing lives, Open University Press, Buckingham, UK.

Tembo, S. (2021) ‘Black educators in (white) settings: Making racial identity visible in Early Childhood Education and Care in England, UK’, Journal of Early Childhood Research, 19(1), pp. 70–83.

Troyna, B. (1987) Beyond Multiculturalism: towards the enactment of anti‐racist education in policy, provision and pedagogy, Oxford Review of Education,13:3, 307-320.

Bio: Gemma is currently working as a postdoc within the Land Environment Economics & Policy Institute at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses upon the interactions between energy systems and the natural environment. You can follow her on twitter @G_Delafield.

Trigger warning- please note that this blog post may contain topics which some people may find sensitive.

In November I successfully defended my PhD. I am now officially Dr Delafield. However, if we rewind to December 2019, I was sat on a bench on campus crying on the phone to my partner discussing whether or not I should leave my program.

I have suffered from anxiety and depression for over 10 years and knew the potential threat a PhD might pose to my mental health before I had even started. It’s no secret that the culture of overwork in academia, alongside experiences of bullying and discrimination, contributes to 86% of PhD students reporting marked levels of anxiety.^[1]

I am telling you my story to help tackle the stigma around mental health. If you are struggling, I want you to know that you are not alone. Seeking help is a strength, not a weakness and you should never feel shame in doing so.

Since starting my PhD I have actively tried to protect my mental health.^[2] I disclosed my history of anxiety and depression to the university and my supervisor. I took the annual leave I was entitled to. I avoided working on the evenings or weekends. When problems arose I would approach my supervisor to try to work through them.

Despite my efforts, by late 2018 I found myself struggling. I was living apart from my partner and had taken on teaching work which I didn’t yet feel particularly confident in doing. I often felt a strong sense of imposter syndrome. I did not feel like I belonged and I started having difficult discussions with my supervisor regarding the direction I wanted to take my research in. I spent weeks at my desk getting very little done as most of my energy was going into trying not to cry.

I tried to access counselling through the university and my GP but had no success. The university’s counselling service was so oversubscribed at the time they had closed the waiting list and the NHS could not offer me the type of therapy I needed. I ended up using the money I was making through my teaching work to pay for private therapy (the irony of this situation did not escape me…).

With the help of therapy, I started to prioritise what I wanted to get from my PhD experience and took the pressure off of myself to achieve the ‘perfect’ piece of research. I started to reap the benefits of disclosing my disability to the university by attending Health, Wellbeing and Support for Study (HWSS) meetings and asking to be assigned a wellbeing mentor.^[3] Most importantly I learnt the power of saying no and setting clear boundaries in an environment which (sadly) encourages overworking.^[4]

All of these measures helped me considerably. However due to a lack of sick pay, I never actually took time off to fully recharge. By December 2019, a series of events culminated in me sitting on that bench, in tears, deciding whether I should leave my PhD program. I took Christmas to gather myself and be with my family. A stroke of good fortune occurred in January 2020 when I saw a tweet highlighting that UKRI had updated their sick pay policy which meant I was now entitled to 13 weeks paid sick leave per year. By February, I had made the decision to interrupt my studies.

In total, I took 15 weeks off from my PhD. For many weeks, my to do list consisted simply of: eat, shower, take my antidepressants and do some mindfulness or yoga. Some days I felt fairly content, other days I was plagued by feelings of guilt and shame. I was lucky enough to have a strong support network around me who reminded me that taking an interruption from (or even quitting) your PhD is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of great strength. At the end of the day looking after your mind and body is much more important than work. I started doing some volunteering which reminded me of the transferable skills I’d developed throughout my PhD.

Time away from the PhD allowed me to spend time looking after myself and put measures in place to ensure when I returned to my research I’d be better supported. I set out a clear plan for my remaining chapters, I brought onboard a new second supervisor, and arranged several HWSS meetings to check in on how I was doing. I started attending Shut Up & Write sessions with fellow PhD students to provide structure to my days. I felt empowered by my decision to put my health first and started campaigning to raise awareness of inclusivity issues within the university.

The final stages of my PhD were difficult, I cannot lie. I requested a 3 month COVID extension as lockdowns had heightened my sense of anxiety. In the last few months leading up to my deadline, I worked longer hours to ensure I finished on time. The physical symptoms of stress took their toll on me. Checking in with my wellbeing mentor every week however allowed me to note when I wasn’t taking good enough care of myself and put in place measures to manage my health. With the support of friends and family, I finally submitted my thesis. I celebrated by sleeping, sunbathing and listening to audiobooks for a solid 2 weeks.

I am proud of myself, not only for finishing my PhD, but for doing so whilst championing myself and my rights as a disabled individual.

I live in hope that the culture in academia will change. That more and more individuals will reject the expectation to overwork and fight for systematic change. That universities will work with the community to create an environment where everyone, no matter their disability, gender, race or sexuality, is supported to achieve what they are capable of.

Written by: Gemma Delafield (former PhD student in the Business School)

This blog post was written in affiliation with the Universities Disability and Chronically Ill network. The network is open to all and aims to provide a space for staff and students to connect, share experiences and information as well as provide support. Further details about the network can be found on their webpage.

We realise that through reading this article you may find some of the information distressing and/or may identify with some of the issues and therefore may need some support. Below is a list of support available to all PGR students at Exeter:

Wellbeing Support

• Exeter based students- Speak to the University of Exeter’s Wellbeing team (available to all students on the Streatham and St Lukes campuses)
• Cornwall based students- Speak to Fxplus wellbeing services (available to all students based on the Penryn or Truro campuses)
• Speak to the PGR Education Welfare Advisor-
• University Networks
• Call Spectrum Life (available to PGRs and staff)
• Speak to your GP
• Call the Samaritans on 116 123
• Details of all the support available to PGRs can be found on the Doctoral College website
• If there is an immediate emergency please call 999. Further details about urgent support available please see the Wellbeing website.

Policies to support PGRs

• UKRI’s sick pay policy
• The University of Exeter’s sick pay policy
• The University of Exeter’s Health Wellbeing and Support for study procedures (HWSSP)
• Doctoral College Parent and Carer webpage

References

^[1] https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-views/postgraduate-researchers-are-positive-about-their-
experience-despite-high-anxiety

^[2] You can read my previous blog about work life balance here.

^[3] You can find out more about HWSS meetings and Disability Support Allowance funded wellbeing mentors here and here.

^[4] A useful TED talk about setting boundaries.

Umas Jin is a final year English PhD researcher, who is about to submit his thesis. His research looks at the intellectual resonances between Virginia Woolf and neuropsychologists of her time and those who came after her. It also touches upon how narrative can play an important part to better understand the mind-body relation as holistic and dynamic.

I would like to share my writing experience with the writing workshop Shut up and Write. In the pre-Covid lockdown era, I normally worked in the office with other colleagues as they gave me a sense of “togetherness”. Although we were doing our own research, we were working, basically, together in the same location and time. English is not my first language so I would have the opportunity to ask my colleagues in the office about grammar and language. At that time, I was aware of the writing group but I rarely attended. Looking back, I think I took it for granted. However, things changed when the lockdown began last year. I could not go back to the office and many of my colleagues moved back with their families, friends, and partners. I was thankful to my best mate Chris who accompanied me throughout the difficult times.

During the lockdown, the Shut up and Write group moved online. First, I doubted whether it would work for me as I prefer working with people and seeing them face-to-face. Nonetheless, it went pretty well! Because it is online, I’ve got to know people around the UK and even the Globe. People are very nice and welcoming to each other. I like how we split time into 25 minutes for work and 5 minutes for break, so we would not indulge too much in our own work but balance our time in a day. I decided to help hosting the online workshop which was a good experience. As we gradually walked out of the lockdown in April this year, I was able to do two in-person writing sessions in St Luke’s Campus. I was indeed keen on doing the workshop with peers and seeing faces. We chatted, ate cookies, and worked on our research.

In the PhD journey, we may feel isolated and lonely as we are doing different research, topics, and fields on our own. However, the purpose of Shut up and Write, I believe, is to help us understand that we are not alone and are supported by one another. In addition, the group also introduces us to people from various disciplines, ethnicities, and cultures, which I think can be inspirational for our own research and lives. Whether the group is online or in person, we are able to interact with others who are actually walking along with us in our journey.

With plans to restart the writing group in person next year, I would make the most of it and try my best to support peers. Community is what researchers need the most!

• Join the PGR Writing Group here.
• See all Writefest21 events here.