Localism may actually reduce citizen voice because information on citizen redress is either not collected or ignored

Citizen redress is essential for any government committed to administering accountable and efficient public sector services. However, as Jane Tinkler argues, the introduction of more complex provider networks in the Big Society threatens the already unrecognised potential of citizen voice in providing a system of checks and balances

How radical is “radical efficiency”?: can it still be useful in a time of cuts?.

With some Whitehall departments facing 25 per cent budget cuts over the next five years, there should be a good market in government for the promise of “Radical Efficiency” in a recent report by the Innovation Unit for NESTA. Yet Jane Tinkler and Patrick Dunleavy find there are only some good but small ideas (reliant perhaps on more prosperous times) – but no far-reaching response to the problems of innovating in big-scale government that could really cut costs without damaging services.

BIS report on UK Research Councils: Drop in income sees fewer researchers supported but more knowledge created.

Jane Tinkler breaks down the key findings from the UK government’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) report on the impact of research council funding over the last year. With income cuts playing a significant role, the number of principal investigators and research fellowships with research council funding have both gone down. Interestingly, output productivity of funded researchers has actually increased in this time, with a massive 16 per cent increase in the number of refereed publications since 2008/09

Rather than narrow our definition of impact, we should use metrics to explore richness and diversity of outcomes.

Impact is multi-dimensional, the routes by which impact occur are different across disciplines and sectors, and impact changes over time. Jane Tinkler argues that if institutions like HEFCE specify a narrow set of impact metrics, more harm than good would come to universities forced to limit their understanding of how research is making a difference. But qualitative and quantitative indicators continue to be an incredible source of learning for how impact works in each of our disciplines, locations or sectors

What perceptions do children involved in an active school partnership with a school in India have of the country?

The aim of this study was to research the perceptions children in my school, a small rural primary school in England, have of India, the country with which we have an established international school partnership. The intention was to provide an insight into the images our children have developed over the course of our link project which began following a visit to India funded by the British Council and UK aid five years ago. The findings provide an interesting insight into what the children think about their partner country and will inform the development of similar projects in the future and encourage teachers who are considering developing international links to carefully consider their own preconceptions along with the aims of their projects. This will allow them to make informed choices about how best to approach the inclusion of resultant learning into their curriculum in a way which promotes critical global citizenship and does not simply reinforce stereotypes that may already exist. The research was originally designed to use children’s drawings as a basis for semi-structured interviews with pupils in school however, due to Covid-19 restrictions, interviews have not been possible and so the data collection was adapted to take account of school closures and the remote learning provision provided by our school. As many children were learning remotely, the data was collected through the analysis of annotated children’s drawings which were completed following online video input on our home learning platform. The research method was designed to access the voices of children from the entire primary age range in a child-friendly and effective way

Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom Before Dred Scott

Slaves’ Voices Reemerge from the Cases in Which They Sought Freedom Historians of the South and of American slavery owe a debt of gratitude to Lea VanderVelde for Redemption Songs, a book that tells heart-rending stories of freedom contested, lost, and won. Professor of law at the ...

Reaching for a Radical Community-Based Research Model

This qualitative study contrasts two community-based research (CBR) projects. While the first project fell short of CBR goals, it influenced how the author carried out the second project, which did meet those goals. The two experiences enabled the author to create a conceptual model that can be used to structure and evaluate CBR projects for those who aspire to a more radical form of community-based research