Meet the Staff

The Academic Team

The BA in Community Education (Hons), is run mainly by eight people. On this page you will find a brief summary of their past and present activities, and their current interests. As well as teaching on the BACE programme, all the staff are actively engaged in research activities of various kinds. This means that they undertake investigations and enquiries on behalf, for example, of the Scottish Government, the Scottish Funding Council or other major public bodies and agencies, and present their findings to inform policy makers about the development of practice in the field. All the staff write regularly for national and international academic journals, and contribute chapters to books or produce their own books. Each one is responsible as a Course Organiser for co-ordinating the delivery of specific courses on the programme. And as a Director of Studies, all take on the pastoral support of groups of students. All first year students are allocated to a Director of Studies on entering the programme. In addition to these duties, the staff also work together in the department to ensure the smooth running of the programme, and with colleagues from across the School and the University on various committees and working groups.

Lyn Tett is Professor of Community Education and Lifelong Learning. Her research interests lie within the broad area of community education and lifelong learning. Her research has involved an investigation of the factors such as class, gender, disability that lead to the exclusion of adults from post-compulsory education and of the action that might be taken to promote inclusion. She was the Principal Investigator for several projects in the field of adult literacies including ‘Evaluation of the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Strategy for Scotland’; ‘Curriculum Framework for Adult Literacy and Numeracy'; 'Formative Assessment in Adult Foundation Skills' (OECD); and 'Credit where credit is due:recognising literacies learning'. She was also a member of research teams investigating ‘gender in teacher education’, ‘Equalities & Adult Literacies in Small Enterprises', Developing Competence: Early and Mid Career in Community Learning and Development' and ‘Identifying and quantifying the social capital outcomes of CLD ’. Over the last ten years she has produced over 100 research publications.

Dr John Bamber is Senior Lecturer Community Education. He is currently Programme Co-ordinator MSc/PGDip in Community Education. His MPhil by research concerned with understanding good practice at unit level in youth and community work. He has over 10 years of experience of research in widening access to Higher Education. John has recently completed his Ed.D thesis, which focussed on the training of community educators. He has a particular research interest in the development of work based and part-time routes to professional qualifications in community education. In the past 10 years he has published regularly across the range of his research interests, which include youth work, educational groupwork and voluntary sector management.

Dr Jim Crowther is Senior Lecturer in Adult and Community Education. He is currently Porgramme Coordinator for the BACE. He teaches introduction to community education and specialises in adult education and adult literacy at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He is currently supervising two PhD students and writes and researches in the area of popular education, critical literacy, social movements and the politics of lifelong learning. His most recent books in 2005 include two edited works - Popular Education: Engaging the Academy (with Vernon Galloway and Ian Martin, published by NIACE) and Lifelong learning: Concepts and Contexts (with Peter Sutherland, published by RoutledgeFalmer).

Ian Martin is Reader in Adult and Community Education. He has written extensively on the politics of adult education, lifelong learning and citizenship, and is co-editor of Community Education: An Agenda for Educational Reform (1987), Education and Community: The Politics of Practice (1992), Popular Education and Social Movements in Scotland Today (1999), Renewing Democracy in Scotland: An Educational Sourcebook (2002) and Popular Education: Engaging the Academy – International Perspectives (2005). He is a founding member of the international Popular Education Network. He received the Cunningham Award for Social Justice at the North American Adult Education Research Conference in 2000. He was born and brought up in India, and has worked extensively in central and southern Africa.

Mae Shaw is Lecturer in Community Education. She publishes widely in the field of community development. Her publications include 'Radical Community Work: Perspectives from Scotland' and 'Community Work: Policy, Politics and Practice'. As a former community development practitioner, she maintains an interest in the relationship between theory and practice and has an ongoing active engagement with a range of agencies and practitioners. She has an interest in educational arts work and teaches and publishes in this field.

Dr Ken McCulloch is Senior Lecturer in Community Education. He has recently completed research projects on 'The Characteristics and Value of Sail Training Experiences', an international study funded by Sail Training International, and Researching Youth Participation by scrutiny of a project in Scottish Borders, research funded by Borders Voluntary Youth Work Forum. Other current interests include community schools, youth subculture identities and their relationship to social class, young people as citizens, and both the practice and the ideology of youth work.

Vernon Galloway is Lecturer in Community Education. Before joining the university he worked as an adult and community educator in various communities across Edinburgh and the Lothians. His research is in adult education, critical pedagogy, participative methodologies and the development of community based learning in a historical, Scottish context. He has a range of publications across his areas of interest

Alan Ducklin is Senior Lecturer in Social Science and Community Education. He has worked in school, further and adult education contexts (at Newbattle Abbey Adult Residential College and the Open University), including tutoring in prisons and as an adult literacy tutor. He is currently coordinator for the MSc Education and the MSc in Educational Research. In addition he is Associate Dean Quality Assurance and Enhancement in the College of Humanities and Social Science, the largest of the 3 university colleges. He has research interests in Further and Adult Education and is currently working on a study of Further Education College Principals Leadership qualities. In addition he is researching into the patterns of Governance across the Further Education sector. With the Vice President (Academic Affairs) of EUSA and two current PhD students in the School of Education he is looking at students experiences of research - teaching linkages across the University of Edinburgh, the first phase of which was an on-line questionnaire survey to all 26.000 students, the second will be a series of focus group interviews with undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Dr Ian Fyfe is Lecturer in Community Education. His research interests include citizenship education, political participation and social action. He has produced a wide range of publications in these fields. His recent PhD study investigated the impact of learning on the political literacy of young activists in Australia. As an experienced youth worker he has an ongoing interest in the relationship between policy, theory and practice.

The Support Team

Supporting the academic team are a number of people whose work is essential to the smooth running of the programme. Their work involves administration, keeping track of spending, servicing exam boards, handling student essays and keeping track of marks, organising placements, preparing course materials and generally providing the full range of office services. In addition to keeping an eye on community education matters, Pam Holgate is the Administrative Secretary for the Department of Higher and Community Education. Along with her other duties, Helen Robertson is also the Placement Secretary. Completing the team is Lesley Spencer who plays a vital role in processing all the marks for exam boards.

CUE has been developed at the University of Edinburgh by John Bamber and Clara O'Shea as part of the Student Recruitment and Admissions 'Transitions' Project in 2006/7. For further information on CUE and on CUE: Community Education contact: John Bamber, Department of HIgher and Community Education, Moray House School of Education, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 8AQ, Tel.: +44 - (0)131 - 651 6116, E-mail: john.bamber@ed.ac.uk

Website updated: June 19, 2008