T C RU
THOMAS CORAM RESEARCH UNIT
Institute of Education
Thomas Coram Research Unit
Annual Review
2015 - 2016
Researching childhood, parenting and families
2 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
Contents
Unit director 4
Research projects 5
International activities and collaborations
16
Public engagement: informing policy and practice
18
Consultancies 20
Doctoral research and teaching 22
Funders and funding27
Our team 28
Staff publications29
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 3
Unit Director
In the past year we have experienced significant institutional
changes at the Thomas Coram Research Unit. Following the
Institute of Education’s merger with University College London
(UCL) in December 2014, in August 2015, TCRU joined four
other leading IOE research units (Centre for Longitudinal
Studies, Cohort & Longitudinal Studies Enhancement
Resources, Quantitative Social Science and Social Science
Research Unit) to form a new Department of Social Science.
The department establishes TCRU’s position in one of the
largest centres of multi-disciplinary social science research
and teaching in London. In addition the department provides
a more resilient and secure base in a challenging national
funding environment for research.
In November the quality of TCRU’s research, in particular its
“innovative new approach to providing research evidence
for policy-makers in the field of children and families”, was
recognised in IOE Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and
Further Education award. The Prizes are a biennial award
scheme within the UK’s national honours system. They are
the most prestigious form of national recognition open to a UK
academic or vocational institution. The awards are presented
by The Queen, with the Duke of Edinburgh, in recognition
of work by universities and colleges judged to be of world
class excellence. This award celebrates both the creativity
and rigour of TCRU’s research which seeks to inform policy
makers and practitioners making key decisions about children,
young people and their families.
The year started, however, with sadder news, the death
of Professor Barbara Tizard, Director of TCRU between
1980 and 1990, on January 4th. Barbara, an eminent
developmental psychologist, and one of the first Professors
of Psychology in the UK, led a distinguished career.
As Professors Julia Brannen and Ann Phoenix wrote in
their Guardian obituary: Barbara’s research was driven by
important theoretical questions together with a concern ‘to
make life as good as possible for children’. Her contribution
to understanding adversity and its impact on children’s lives
were celebrated with family and friends in a moving event
at the Highgate Scientific and Literary Institute.
TCRU’s current portfolio of research, as outlined in this
2015-2016 Annual Review, continues to provide original
insight into the everyday lives of children, young people
and families. One of our flagship projects, the ERC funded
Families and Food poverty in three European countries,
led by Dr O’Connell, is already beginning to attract the
attention of politicians and policy makers, wanting to
understand how low-income families manage food insecurity
and how policies can be best shaped around their needs.
Our Annual Review pays tribute to the work of Emeritus
Professor Sonia Jackson whose research has been influential
in the Government’s 2014 statutory requirement that local
authorities (LAs) appoint a “virtual head teacher” to promote
the educational achievement of all the children looked after by
that council. Her work and that of Professor Claire Cameron,
in their book on Educating Children and Young People in Care
has received acclaim across the UK. How LAs support young
people leaving public care, both in the UK and
4 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
cross-nationally, and their psychosocial transitions, underpins
several projects in TCRU, including one funded by the DfE
funded Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme led
by Dr Munro.
The experience of the very young, their parents and carers
continues to preoccupy the TCRU research agenda,
through comparative analysis of parental leave systems;
digital mothering, fathers work-family negotiations,
supporting parents with troubled lives and crying babies.
In July findings from the ESRC funded project on Preschool
childcare in Britain, led by Antonia Simon, were launched
profiling the fragmented and fragile nature of preschool
childcare provision. It is rather depressing that so little has
changed since TCRU’s 1980 Penguin classic Nurseries Now:
a fair deal for Parents and Children.
This year has also seen some departures and arrivals,
notably the retirement of Professor Marjorie Smith in July.
Marjorie, has co-directed TCRU as deputy or director since
1991 standing down in late 2013. She has given tremendous
service and support to TCRU, the wider Institute and cadres
of early career researchers over the years. Fortunately
Marjorie’s PhD supervision and writing projects mean that
she continues as Emeritus Professor. Marjorie’s distinguished
contribution to psychological research on parenting and family
life was celebrated at memorable evening event with guests
from across government departments as well as academia.
In terms of arrivals, I am delighted to welcome Dr Mette
Berg, who joined us in October as Senior Lecturer from the
University of Oxford’s Centre on Migration, Policy and Society.
As well as leading our exciting new undergraduate BSc Social
Sciences programme to be launched in autumn 2016, Mette’s
work will deepen our scholarship on diversity and migration.
The experiences of children and families who migrate has
been a focus in previous research including our current AHRC
funded project Child Language Brokering, led by Dr Sarah
Crafter; in Professor Julia Brannen’s book also published
this year Fathers and sons: Generations, Families and
Migration and in Professor Ann Phoenix’s writing on patterns
of intersectionality for children and families. How children
and parents shape and make sustainable family and work
lives in times of adversity and, as cities become increasingly
complex and diverse, is an important future research agenda
for TCRU.
I would finally like to congratulate all TCRU colleagues who
been incredibly productive and creative despite several waves
of institutional change, including; contributing to an increase
in research and teaching income, 5 books, 20 articles in high
ranking journals, 36 research reports and significant book
chapters and over 50 invited lectures, presentations and key
notes across the globe. Special congratulations also to Ann
who has been awarded the prestigious Jane and Aatos Erkko
Visiting Professorship at the University of Helsinki Collegium
for Advanced Studies.
Professor Margaret O’Brien
Director
Research
Projects
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 5
Provision and use of
preschool childcare in
Britain
The Surviving Crying Study
Evaluation of Ealing’s
Intensive Engagement Model:
Adolescents in and on the
edge of care
Funder: Economic and Social Research
Council’s (ESRC) Secondary
Data Analysis Initiative
Funder: National Institute for Health
Research HTA Programme
Funder: Department for Education (DfE)
Research team: Antonia Simon (PI),
Charlie Owen and Katie Hollingworth
Duration: December 2012 to July 2015
The aim of this study was to gain a better
understanding of the shape of childcare
provision and usage in Britain, and to
inform its future development.
The specific objectives were to:
• Examine childcare usage in Britain,
including combinations of formal
and informal care, and how the use
of care relates to families’ demographic
characteristics
• Examine who provides informal
childcare, their demographic
characteristics and the extent to which
they have other caring responsibilities
• Examine the formal childcare
workforce, including their demographic
characteristics, their qualifications
and their work patterns.
The research was conducted in
collaboration with the National Day
Nurseries Association (NDNA) and
the Family and Childcare Trust.
The coverage and characteristics of
childcare usage and provision was
investigated through a secondary
analysis of large-scale national
quantitative data.
Further information:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/childcareinbritain
6 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
Research team: Professor Ian St
James-Roberts (PI), Charlie Owen,
plus others from DeMontfort University,
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust,
Middlesex University, National Childbirth
Trust, Northamptonshire Healthcare
NHS Trust, University of Leicester and
University College London.
Duration: September 2012 – October
2016
The Surviving Crying Study is a first step
towards providing routine NHS services
to support parents who are worried about
their baby’s prolonged crying. The study
involves a collaboration between De
Montfort University, Leicester, Leicester
Partnership NHS Trust, University
College London, Leicester and Middlesex
Universities, and the charities National
Childbirth Trust (NCT) and Cry-Sis.
The study has completed the first stage
of data collection, involving development
of a website, printed materials and a
practitioner Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
(CBT)-based handbook for supporting
parents. Stage 2, to evaluate the support
package has begun.
Research team: Dr Emily Munro (PI),
Katie Hollingworth and Veena Meetoo
Duration: April 2015 to July 2016
The London Borough of Ealing
is implementing a new intensive
engagement model to transform the
social care system for adolescents and
expand and reshape its fostering service.
The ‘Brighter Futures Model’ is intended
to support and enable the children’s
social care workforce to build effective,
consistent relationships with young
people, families and carers to bring
about positive change.
The evaluation will look at what happens
during implementation, whether the
model (or aspects of it) deliver the
intended aims and the proposed cost
benefits. It will incorporate: analysis of
management information data; focus
groups and interviews with strategic
managers and frontline staff; surveys and
interviews with young people, parents
and carers; and a costing exercise.
A participatory peer research approach
is being adopted and young adults
who are in, or on the edge of care,
are being trained and supported to
develop research tools, interview young
people and analyse data to produce an
accessible report for their peers. Social
Network Analysis will also be utilised
to visually map the frequency and
perceived quality of inter-professional
and inter-personal relationships.
© Becky Wetherington, flickr
Daybreak family group
conferencing
Families and food in
hard times
An evaluation of Focus on
Practice in three London
Boroughs
Funder: DfE
Funder: European Research Council
(ERC)
Funder: DfE
Research team: Dr Emily Munro (PI),
Veena Meetoo, Katie Quy
Duration: April 2015 to March 2016
Daybreak is a charity specialising in the
provision of family group conferences
(FGCs) and the project sets out to
increase the number of safe placements
made with the agreement of family
members. The objectives include:
raising the quality of FGCs, promoting
consistently good outcomes, reducing
court costs and ensuring that final
decisions are reached more quickly.
The aim of this evaluation is to assess
the outcomes of offering and delivering
the model to all families receiving a
‘letter of intent’ to issue care proceedings.
A mixed-methods approach is being
adopted, including, secondary data
analysis (in two project and two
comparator LAs), surveys of all family
members and children over five at three
data collection points, focus groups with
social workers and in-depth interviews
with children, parents and social workers
involved in a sample of cases.
Research team: Dr Rebecca O’Connell
(PI), Professor Julia Brannen, Dr Abigail
Knight, Antonia Simon, Charlie Owen,
Silje Skuland, Anine Kleiv Frykholm
(Statens institutt for forbruksforskning,
Norway); and Penny Mellor (Project
Administrator)
Duration: May 2014 to April 2019
The research aims to understand the
extent and experiences of food insecurity
for young people aged 11-15 years and
their low-income families in Austerity
Europe and the roles social contexts
and social policies play. Applying a
mixed-methods international comparative
case study design, the study provides
for ‘a contrast of contexts’ in relation
to conditions of austerity, focusing on
Portugal, where poor families with
children appear to have been most
affected by economic retrenchment,
the UK, which is experiencing substantial
cuts in benefits to poor families, and
Norway which, in comparison with most
societies, is highly egalitarian in terms
of income and has not been subject to
austerity measures. The mixed
methods research strategy includes
secondary analysis of national
and international data and a range of
in-depth qualitative methods with 45
young people and their parent or parents
in each country. In addition to addressing
substantive and methodological research
questions the study sets out to inform
the intervention and advocacy work of
NGOs, policymakers and practitioners
concerned with poverty and the effects
of austerity on children, young people
and their families in Europe.
Research team: Professor Claire
Cameron (PI), Heather Elliott, Dr Humera
Iqbal, Dr Emily Munro and Charlie Owen
Duration: May 2015 to March 2016
The aim of this evaluation is to examine
the impact of a systemic therapy based
change programme in children’s
services in three London boroughs.
The programme consists of training
for staff and managers, changes to
recording, observation and coaching,
and reflective groups.
Methods include interviews and focus
groups with families, social workers,
managers and key stakeholders, as well
as an analysis of local authority statistics.
The evaluation is part of a large
programme of innovation in children’s
social care that aims to reduce
caseloads, reduce costs, and reduce
the number of children coming into
local authority care.
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 7
Foster care breakdown
Strengthening higher
education for social policy
making and social services
delivery (SHESPSS)
Digital Mothering: a
scoping study towards the
development of a research
proposal on technologies
and mothering practices
in mothers’ blogs about
feeding families
Funder: Jacobs Foundation
Funder: EU Tempus
Research team: Professor Claire
Cameron and Hanan Hauari, in
partnership with University of Applied
Sciences, Zurich, and University of
Siegen, Germany
Research team: Professor Claire
Cameron (PI) and Dr Ian Warwick
(Department of Education, Practice and
Society), in partnership with universities
in Denmark, Sicily, Nis, Novi Sad and
Belgrade
Funder: IOE/UCL Strategic Partnership
Research Development Fund
Duration: November 2014 to
September 2017
This three country study aims to
document foster care breakdown,
broadly defined, in Switzerland, where
little data is recorded on children in care.
The study seeks to learn, through
narrative interviews, from the
experiences of children, foster carers and
professionals in Switzerland, Germany
and England about the factors that shape
breakdown and how any adverse impact
of breakdown might be ameliorated
in future.
8 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
Duration: December 2013 to November
2016
The aim of the project is to strengthen
higher education in the field of social
policy making and social services
delivery through developing new study
programmes, improving existing study
programmes and establishing effective
links between academic programs and
social/labour market needs. We are
doing this through reviewing existing
programmes and establishing new
programmes in social policy, social work
and social pedagogy curricula at BA, MA,
PhD levels in three Serbian universities
using the expertise and experience of
the EU 27 universities. Now into its final
year the project consists of baseline
research about workforce competences,
workshops, briefing papers, tracking
progress, advising on curricula outlines
and pilot courses.
Research team: Heather Elliott
(PI); Dr Rowanne Fleck University of
Birmingham, formerly UCLIC, UCL; and
Dr Rebecca O’Connell
Duration: November 2014 to June 2015
‘Mummyblogging’ has emerged as
a means of documenting mothering
practices and of developing communities
of interest as well as commercial
opportunities. Analysis of blogs offers
insights into how technologies are
shaping women’s everyday lives as well
as cultural narratives about motherhood.
While there has been academic
interest in parents’ understandings of
their children’s online lives, mothers’
own online practices and identities are
relatively underexplored.
The main aim of this project was to
establish the basis for a research
proposal on technologies and family life.
We undertook pilot research with
bloggers and Mumsnet, identified
key research questions based on the
literature and fieldwork and developed
several academic papers.
Servicing super-diversity
Child Language Brokering:
Spaces of identity belonging
and mediators of cultural
knowledge
Against all odds? Exploring
and explaining positive
outcomes for young adults
formerly in public care - a
three country comparison
Funder: ESRC IAA
Funder: Arts and Humanities Research
Council (AHRC)
Funder: Norwegian Research Council
Research team: Dr Mette Louise Berg
(PI)
Duration: October 2014 to
September 2015
This Knowledge Exchange Fellowship
focuses on two research projects,
co-developed with Southwark Council
(external partner), to enhance knowledge
of the everyday impact of super-diversity
on residents. One project will work with
the Latin American Women’s Rights
Service to assess the needs and impact
on local services of Latin American
immigrants. The other project works
with council and housing association
tenants, leaseholders, shared owners
and home owner residents’ organisations
to provide input into the development of
Southwark’s new housing strategy. The
fellowship complements and informs the
Council’s policies and service delivery
practices, leading to new social science
understanding of urban diversity with
clear policy implications and generating
insights of use to other local councils
across the UK and Europe. It gives
Dr Berg an ‘inside-out’ perspective on
the challenges of service delivery to a
super-diverse population and issues of
concern to local residents, which will
feed into ongoing and future research
collaboration.
Research team: Dr Sarah Crafter (PI)
and Dr Humera Iqbal
Duration: January 2015 to
September 2016
When families migrate to a new country
their children often learn the local
language faster than their parents. As a
result, they find themselves interpreting
and translating for their families and
friends. In this research arena, these
young interpreters are known as child
language brokers.These conversations
often take place in contexts and spaces
of officialdom with professionals who do
not speak the family’s home language.
These young people are more than just
direct word-for-word communicators of
language; they are often the bridge or
mediators of cultural worlds.
The aim of this project is to examine how
child language brokers as mediators of
cultural knowledge, values and norms
act as a communicative and performative
process. We aim to gain good
understandings of what child language
brokers focus on when translating in
particular contexts, whether or not they
are conscious of translating cultures and
how this influences feelings of identity
and belonging.
Research team: Professor Elisabeth
Backe-Hansen (PI), Charlie Owen,
Elisiv Bakketeig, Tonje Gundersen
and Christian Madsen (Norwegian
Social Research - NOVA); Turf Böcker
Jakobsen (The Danish National Centre
for Social Research - SFI); Professor
Janet Boddy (University of Sussex).
Duration: September 2014 to
August 2017
To support care leavers into adulthood,
it is not sufficient to focus on risk
factors – we need to learn more from
the experiences and developmental
pathways of those who do well. Research
about positive outcomes among these
young adults is still relatively scarce and
there is an urgent need to address this
critical knowledge gap.
This international collaborative study
between research centres in Norway,
Denmark and England seeks to identify
why some care leavers end up doing
well as young adults, against all odds.
The study is adopting a mixed methods
approach. Analysis of administrative
ata at the national level is being used to
describe general characteristics of care
leavers. A qualitative approach will be
adopted to explore how young adults
themselves define positive outcomes
and factors contributing to them.
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 9
Best Interests of the Child in
China: Research feasibility
visit
The Educational Experience
of Children and Youth in
and after Public Care
Funder: Sino British Fellowship Trust
Funder: Leverhulme Trust (Emeritus
Fellowship)
Research team: Professor Ann Phoenix
(PI), Professor Monica Dowling, Dr
Abigail Knight, Dr Xu Qiong; Professor
Jane McCarthy (Open University) and
Guangyu Freear (Open University)
Duration: August to September 2014
The aims of this research were to:
•
•
•
Investigate the feasibility of the
proposed research design by
conducting pilot study research.
Explore and strengthen UK/Chinese
collaborations by writing joint papers
in the area of children, childhood and
the best interests of children in state
care in China
Meet with non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and other
academic partners to inform the
preparation of an Economic and
Social Research (ESRC) Council bid
The team felt that the collaborative
research trip increased their
understanding of China in relation to
the planned research bid. The ESRC
proposal is in the process of being
submitted, one journal article has been
submitted and two others are in process.
10 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
Research team: Professor Sonia
Jackson (PI) and Katie Hollingworth
Duration: October 2014 to October 2016
The primary purpose of this project is
to prepare material for an Institute of
Education archive on the education of
children and young people in out-ofhome care, an important focus of Sonia
Jackson’s research and writing since the
1970s. Collecting this material together
documents how, over the course of 30
years, the poor educational performance
of children in care has progressed from
a minority interest of a few individuals
to become a matter of major concern to
government and professionals.
In the process of summarising over 150
boxes of papers it became evident that the
contents will offer scope for further work.
Through two major research projects,
‘By Degrees’ and YiPPEE, TCRU has
built up a unique body of data on the
post-secondary and higher education
of care-experienced young adults. The
researchers have undertaken secondary
analysis of this material to produce new
empirical evidence on Coleman’s focal
theory of adolescent development. A
second topic is the pre-school education
of children in foster care, on which, there
is a dearth of information despite its
importance. The third project has been to
build on an earlier study by Sonia Jackson
and David Berridge by interviewing a
representative sample of Virtual School
Heads (leaders of virtual schools for
children in care). This is now a statutory
position, and the objective is to assess its
usefulness for raising the attainment of
children and young people in public care.
Research
projects
(spotlights)
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 11
Provision and use of preschool childcare
in Britain
Funder: ESRC, SDAI
Research Team: Antonia Simon (PI), Charlie Owen and Katie Hollingworth
Background: This research aimed to understand childcare provision and usage in Britain using a number of large-scale national
datasets, including the Family Resources Survey (FRS), the Labour Force Survey (LFS), and The Childcare and Early Years
Survey of Parents (CEYSP). Analysis focused on the most recent data but also compared patterns between 2005 and 2014.
Duration: 2012-2015
More information: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/childcareinbritain
•
The childcare workforce has shrunk by five per cent in Britain since 2005 (from 329k in 2005-07 to 313k in 2012-14: LFS).
This trend raises concerns about who will do childcare work in the future.
•
The results show a highly gendered (98% female), low valued workforce in which qualifications are modestly rising (12%
increase over time in NVQ level 3) but persistently low paid (on average £6.60 per hour compared with £13.10 per hour for
other occupations).
•
More people describe themselves as childminders in the LFS than are registered with Ofsted, suggesting a possible growth
in illegal childminding.
•
Despite previous concerns of high workforce turnover, the mean service length is now over six years and increasing.
Employment in this sector may offer nonfinancial benefits such as satisfying work and the opportunity for part-time
employment that can be combined with family life which may explain long periods of service among workers, given
the low pay.
•
Childcare usage is high (68%), with around half of families using more than one type and reliance on informal care is still high (31% of all usage is grandparents).This suggests current childcare does not cover what parents need, especially to work
full-time, as parents are using more than one form of childcare to provide cover for what they need.
•
Childcare use is not evenly distributed: formal childcare is used more by employed, higher income families whereas informal
care is used more by mothers who are not employed and by younger mothers. Couples where both partners were in
employment were most likely to use formal childcare.
12 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
The Surviving Crying Study
Funder: National Institute for Health Research HTA Programme
Research Team: Professor Ian St James Roberts (PI), Charlie Owen, plus others from DeMontfort University, Leicestershire
Partnership NHS Trust, Middlesex University, National Childbirth Trust, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Trust, University of
Leicester and University College London.
The Surviving Crying Study is a first step towards providing routine NHS services to support parents who are worried about their
baby’s prolonged crying. The study is based at De Montfort University, Leicester and funded by the National Institute for Health
Research HTA Programme. It involves a collaboration with Leicester Partnership NHS Trust, University College London, Leicester
and Middlesex Universities, and the charities National Childbirth Trust (NCT) and Cry-Sis.
Background: Prolonged infant crying can trigger maternal depression, poor parent-child relationships, premature ending of
breastfeeding, over-feeding, problems with long-term child development, and infant abuse in a small number of cases. Yet, there
are no tried and tested NHS practices for supporting parents in managing the crying. Instead, parents turn to popular books,
magazines or websites, which give conflicting advice.
The study so far
Stage 1 of the Study (Development of an Intervention Package) began in November 2014 and data collection is now complete:
•
55 Health Visitors in Leicester Partnership NHS Trust have collaborated in the research by informing parents of previously crying babies about the study.
•
The parents have been shown example websites and other materials designed to provide support; quantitative and qualitative data have been collected to assess parents’ preferences about the sorts of support materials and services they need.
•
Safeguarding protocols have been developed.
• Focus groups with 20 of these parents have obtained information about their experiences: what they found challenging and what helped.
•
Development of a package of materials designed to meet parents’ needs, including a website, written materials and practitioner-
delivered support sessions, is nearing completion.
Stage 2 of the study (Feasibility Study of Package Implementation in the NHS) has started and will last for a year. It will provide
provisional data on the effectiveness and cost of the package, find out whether parents and Health Visitors consider it worthwhile,
and make recommendations about its inclusion, and further evaluation, in the NHS. For more detailed reports of the findings so far,
and to be kept posted on future reports and publications, please contact: i.stjamesroberts@ioe.ac.uk
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 13
Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme
Funder: DfE
Research Team: Dr Emily Munro (PI), Professor Claire Cameron, Heather Elliot, Katie Hollingworth, Dr Humera Iqbal,
Veena Meetoo, Dr Katie Quy, Charlie Owen
The Department for Education launched the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme in October 2013 to act as a catalyst for
developing more effective ways of supporting vulnerable children. The programme is seeking to inspire whole system change so
that in five years’ time the following is achieved:
• Better life chances for children receiving help from the social care system;
• Stronger incentives and mechanisms for innovation, experimentation and replication of successful new approaches; and
• Better value for money across children’s social care.
Building on our international reputation and specialist expertise in the conduct of policy-relevant research in children’s social care
(including, for example, studies on: children with additional support needs; children on the edge of care; looked after children and
care leavers), the Thomas Coram Research Unit are conducting three independent research evaluations of projects funded as part
of the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme.
Rethinking children’s social work – large-scale projects to transform the children’s social care system
Focus on Practice is an investment in the staff working with families to transform practice. Its aims are to: embed a new ‘cultural
norm’ for practitioners based on systemic theory; reduce the number of families who are repeat clients; reduce the number of
children in care.
Rethinking support for adolescents in or on the edge of care
Ealing Brighter Futures Model is intended to support and enable the children’s social care workforce to build effective, consistent
relationships with young people, families, communities and carers, and to use those successful relationships to bring about positive
change.
Other priorities in children’s social care
Daybreak is a charity specialising in the provision of family group conferences (FGCs) and the project sets out to increase the
number of safe placements made with the agreement of family members.The research teams are employing mixed methodologies
in the three projects. This allows different methods to be applied to answer the multi component complex issues found
in social work practice.
14 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
Spotlight on Sonia Jackson: changing policy
about the education of children in care
In 1987, Sonia published the results of
her first study examining the education
of looked after children in England.
She found that education departments
and social services departments rarely
talked to each other and so children’s
educational attainment, and attendance,
was often simply not seen as important.
In 2004, local authorities were finally
given a duty to promote the educational
attainment of children in care, in no
small part due to Sonia’s continuous
campaigning work. Shortly afterwards,
children’s services departments brought
education and social work together.
In 2005, Sonia led a TCRU team who
reported on a five year action research
project into the factors that contributed
to success at university for the small
minority of young people who had been
in care and were participants in higher
education. Their study recommendations
were accepted in full by the then
government and included having a
‘tick box’ on the UCAS application form
to indicate whether an applicant had
been in care as a child. This innovation
has helped universities track and offer
resources to young people for whom
they have a special responsibility.
In various publications from 2010 - 2014,
Sonia and Claire Cameron reported the
results of the EU funded YiPPEE study.
While about the same proportion of
young people from public care access
higher education in the five countries
examined, policy development, and
targeted services to support care
leavers, were better established in
England than in Denmark, Sweden,
Hungary or Spain. In Catalonia (Spain)
this work led to a long term programme
to record care leavers’ educational
participation.
with the research, school staff and
an IOE facilitator work together to
identify and carry through a feasible
local project to improve the wellbeing
of children in care. This work, entering
its second year, and running with three
cohorts across England, constitutes
real practical impact of Sonia’s long
standing contribution to the field.
In 2009, Sonia was instrumental in an
evaluation of the pilot Virtual School
Heads; in 2014 these became statutory
requirements in local authorities.
However, much remains to be done to
address the difference in attainment of
five GCSEs among children in care and
those never in care (a 40 percentage
point gap in 2014). Teachers are still
rarely educated about the particular
circumstances of children in care or
effective strategies to support this group.
TCRU has been working with IOE
colleagues in PALAC, a knowledge
exchange project about promoting the
wellbeing and attainment of looked after
children, where, after being presented
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 15
International activities
and collaborations
International Research Network
on Transitions from Care to
Adulthood (INTRAC)
Learning and Teaching in
Culturally Diverse Settings
International Group
TCRU Deputy Director Dr Emily Munro
is one of the co-ordinating committee
of the International Research Network
on Transitions to Adulthood (INTRAC),
which was established in 2003.
Representatives from 16 countries
meet annually to explore the process
of transition made by young people
moving from care to adulthood. This
year the INTRAC meeting was hosted
by Zurich University of Applied Sciences,
in conjunction with the SGSA-Congress.
Members of the network have also been
preparing contributions for a new edited
collection on Young people transitioning
from care: International research, policy
and practice.
This year, Sarah Crafter became the
Principal Coordinator for SIG21 Learning
and Teaching in Culturally Diverse
Settings International Group. She was
joined by a new co-coordinator who
is Charles Max from the University
of Luxembourg. She is one of the
organising committee members for the
next SIG21 conference which will take
place in Tartu, Estonia. The conference
will bring together three special interest
groups: learning and teaching in cultural
diverse settings, social interaction and
educational theory. These groups are
all part of the European Association for
Learning and Instruction (EARLI).
Dis/located Children: Children
in/and Care Network, Australia
The Dis/located Children Network is a
wide-ranging project bringing together
inter-disciplinary scholars interrogating
the experiences of children and young
people at the margins of society or who
otherwise do not, or cannot, conform
to normative ideals around childhood.
Dr Emily Munro delivered an invited
lecture on children in residential care,
and a masterclass on children in out of
home care to provide an international
perspective and inform discussions.
In November she returned to South
Australia to contribute to policy debates
on the use of residential care for looked
after children.
Cultural diversity
Mette Louise Berg spoke at the II
Conference on Cultural Diversity and
Conflicts in the European Union, held
at Sorbonne, Paris. Her talk was drawn
from ongoing research in Southwark,
London examining everyday experiences
of diversity and difference in a
super-diverse urban space.
16 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
Child language
brokering resource
Earlier in the year, Sarah Crafter and
Humera Iqbal travelled to the University
of Bologna in Italy to record a video cast
with Rachele Antonini about her work
child language brokers. An edited version
of this video will soon be made available
on the website developed by Sarah
Crafter as a resource for those working
with young interpreters. This can be
found at languagebrokering.org.
International Sociological
Association RC06 Committee
on Family Research
With Barbara Neves (University
of Toronto), Margaret O’Brien is
coordinating next year’s ISA RC06
stream at the ISA Forum in Vienna in July
2016 which will consist of 14 symposia
on range of themes including: families
and migration, family policy challenges
across Asia and work-family policies in
southern Europe.
International Network
on Leave Policies
The International Network on Leave
Policies, coordinated by Peter Moss and
Fred Deven with Margaret O’Brien as
one of the UK representatives had its
12th seminar in Trondheim in September.
The event was hosted by Professors
Berit Brandth and Elin Kvande who have
done so much research on the benefits
of Norway’s father quota. The Norwegian
Parental Leave Debate was a focus of
intense discussion with contributions
from the Ministry of Children, Equality
and Social Inclusion (Arni Hole), the
Norwegian Confederation of Trade
Unions (Synnøve Konglevoll) and the
Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise
(NHO) (Alf Åge Lønne). The network now
has more than 60 members from over
35 countries. The 2015 report is
available on the network’s website
www.leavenetwork.org
EU Network on the social
dimension of education
and training
Monica Dowling was part of a core team
of experts in a successful bid by PPPI
Lithuania to EU for 2015-2018 creating
a Network of experts on the social
dimension of education and training
www.nesetweb.eu. The network will
provide advice to the EU and research
reviews for policy makers.
Norwegian Collaboration
Professor Ingeborg Marie Helgeland
and Associate Professor May-Britt
Solem from Oslo and Akershus
University College of Applied Sciences
(HiOA), Department of Social Work,
Faculty of Social Sciences, came to visit
the Unit from 19th to 21st May 2015 to
discuss qualitative longitudinal research
methods, masculinities and fatherhood
with Julia Brannen, Margaret O’Brien,
Charlie Owen and Ann Phoenix.
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 17
Public engagement:
informing policy and practice
Special Guardianship: Showcase event and
contribution to a government consultation
Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU), in collaboration
with UCL IOE colleagues from London Centre for
Leadership in Learning (LCLL) have established a
research-bridging network. This brought together strategic
and operational managers, frontline social workers and
Special Guardians (providing legally secure placements
for children who cannot live with their birth parents) from
six London Boroughs in the North London Adoption and
Fostering Consortium (NLAFC). In July 2015 Dr Emily
Munro (TCRU), Professor Louise Stoll (LCLL) and the
NLAFC network held a Special Guardianship Showcase
event which:
Outlined the approach that TCRU and LCLL designed
to support the development of responsive services for
children and Special Guardians in North London;
•
Provided insight into the strengths and limitations
of current provision, based on the experiences of
Special Guardians and the latest research evidence;
•
Highlighted recent proactive developments aimed
at transforming services and support for Special
Guardianship in the North London Adoption and
Fostering Consortium.
UCL IOE also hosted a meeting bringing members of the
research-bridging network together with policy makers
at the Department for Education, to inform the current
government consultation on Special Guardianship.
18 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
Informing New Zealand’s review of
statutory child protection services
The Modernising Child, Youth and Family Expert Panel
has been appointed by the New Zealand Minister of
Social Development to provide independent advice on a
programme of work to redesign the delivery of statutory
child protection services to vulnerable children, young
people and their Whānau. At the request of the Panel
TCRU’s Dr Emily Munro has been invited to discuss her
research and perspectives on best practice in relation to
youth transitions to independence from state care.
How do local authorities deal with the
increasing diversity of their clients and
residents?
This Breakfast Briefing, based on research in the London
Borough of Southwark, explored how local authorities and
other service providers, deliver welfare and other services
to populations which are rapidly changing and increasingly
diverse in their needs and backgrounds, in a context of
funding cuts. The Briefing event was attended inter alia by
journalists, Home Office civil servants, MPs researchers,
local authority representatives, and civil society members.
Speakers: Mette Louise Berg and Ben Gidley (COMPAS,
Oxford).http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/events/breakfastbriefings/previous-breakfast-briefings/#c3217
‘Making Food Fair’ Conference,
hosted by the Kindling Trust
The conference brought together speakers and over
70 participants to explore the iniquities of the current
food system. Rebecca O’Connell was invited to give
the opening talk: Our Unfair food system and why
it disadvantages so many. Slides are available at
foodinhardtimes.org/resources.
Private roundtable with Maria Eagle MP
Rebecca O’Connell was invited to a private roundtable
with Maria Eagle MP. The Labour Party fought the 2015
general election with a commitment to take action to
reduce food bank use by reforming social security and
tackling low pay. Given the outcome of the election
the purpose of the roundtable was to discuss the
Labour Party’s response to the high levels of food bank
dependency in the UK. Contributors drew on national and
international evidence, including interim findings of the
Fabian Food & Poverty Commission.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation: Making
markets work for low income consumers
Rebecca O’Connell participated in a private round table
about scoping measures to ease the impact of rising food
prices on low income groups. The discussion was chaired
by Sir Brian Pomeroy and was the second of three such
events being organised by JRF, the others examining
energy and public transport markets respectively. The
roundtables helped shape a major JRF conference in the
autumn that was designed to more publicly discuss the
scope for targeted action around the three markets.
Work Care Share roundtable
TCRU hosted the first Work Care Share
(www.workcareshare.com) roundtable in September.
Initiated by six advocates for equality and child welfare
– three mothers and three fathers – Work Care Share is
planned as an alliance of individuals and organisations
wishing to explore how care and paid employment can
be more equitably shared in the UK - between men
and women, across diverse family groups, between the
generations, within workplaces.
It plans to contribute ideas and evidence to inform policy
development in the public and private sector and for
national government bodies. Peter Moss and Margaret
O’Brien were delighted to host the meeting as TCRU
has a strong interest in parental leave and fathers
through the work of www.leavenetwork.org and fathers
www.modernfatherhood.org/.The UK’s new legislation on
“shared parental leave” is an early focus of attention.
Informing policy debate about the
provision of preschool childcare
TCRU hosted an important event on 24 July 2015 to
launch the key findings of the Provision and Use of
Preschool Childcare in Britain research project. Key
policy makers from the Department for Education,
the Department for Work and Pensions and local
government, practitioner organisations, trade unions and
prominent academics working in the area of childcare
and child wellbeing attended. The event received
considerable interest from national press and specialist
media such as ‘Nursery World’, ‘Children & Young People
Now’, ‘Voice The Union’ and ‘Teach Early Years’.
Influencing the national classification
of the childcare workforce
The Provision and Use of Preschool Childcare in Britain
research project collaborated with the National Day
Nurseries Association (NDNA), a providers’ body, and
the Family and Childcare Trust, a charity campaigning for
childcare for parents. This collaboration had a significant
impact on the direction of the research and the reach of
the key findings. Both organisations were instrumental
in the design and write up of the key findings and
contributed to the study’s dissemination events.
The NDNA and TCRU submitted a letter to the Office
for the National Statistics suggesting areas for improving
their classification of the childcare workforce, which is
expected to directly change the way these workers are
counted and classified in national statistics in the future.
Centre for Understanding of
Social Pedagogy (CUSP)
The Centre for the Understanding of Social Pedagogy
(CUSP) began in 2009 as a local, national and
international focal point for social pedagogy in the UK.
It continues to build its national and international
reputation as the leading UK centre for development of
knowledge and understanding about Social Pedagogy.
Its standing is based on research and development
activities in this country and abroad. This year, aside
from publishing papers and contributing to the Social
Pedagogy Development Network, there have been
two main activities. First, we hosted a doctoral studies
seminar and a very popular evening lecture in June.
Second, we have been focused on generating a grant to
support the development of infrastructure for the scaling
up of social pedagogy. Together with key players in the
field, we plan to develop a social pedagogy professional
association and two qualifications, at Levels 3 and 5, to
ensure that those working with children and young people
and their families have access to accredited career
development options and that communities of practice
develop a UK social pedagogy.
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 19
Consultancies
Care leavers and employment
Claire Cameron was commissioned by
SOS Children’s Villages International to
examine employment opportunities for
care leavers. Outcomes for those young
people who ‘age out’ of the care system
are known to be poor but actual data
on care leavers’ employment is sparse.
This short consultancy aims to gather
such information as there is on care
leavers and employment in five countries
- Austria, Germany, Croatia, Norway and
Hungary - as a first step to generating
recommendations to the EU.
Community-based
Interventions in Ireland
Marjorie Smith continues to act as
a consultant in Ireland, in her role
as a member of the Expert Advisory
Committee for the Area Based Approach
Childhood (ABC) Programme. This
cross-departmental initiative is building
on and continuing the work of the
Prevention and Early Intervention
Programme (PEIP: 2006 - 2013),
in which she was involved as a
member of the expert advisory groups
for each of the three projects in different
areas of Dublin. The new €29.7m
ABC initiative, which is jointly funded
20 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
by the Irish Government and Atlantic
Philanthropies, now extends the previous
work to include a total of 13 areas across
Ireland, building on the learning from the
PEIP programme and best international
practice. The overall aim of the ABC
programme is to improve outcomes for
children, young people and their families
in some of the most disadvantaged
areas of the country.
West London Zone: collective
impact for children and young
The West London Zone (WLZ) is a
place-based intervention that aspires
to improve the life chances of
disadvantaged children and young
people in West London through early
intervention delivered at scale. WLZ is
guided by the principles of collective
impact and based on the Promise
Neighbourhoods initiative. Collective
impact represents the effort of multiple
players to co-ordinate their approaches
around a shared goal over the long term
to address to scale hard to shift issues
and improve community level outcomes.
Claire Cameron and Emily Munro have
been working with West London Zone
to support them to develop a process
evaluation plan.
Promoting the Achievement of
Looked After Children (PALAC)
Following a successful Higher Education
Innovation Funding (HEIF) funded
project last year, the PALAC project team
have tripled the volume of activity this
year. PALAC is a knowledge exchange
programme working in schools to
improve the education of looked after
children. Currently running in South
Tyneside, Nottingham and London,
school staff work with their virtual school
head and an IOE facilitator to identify
and carry out a feasible change oriented
project. This year the team (Claire
Cameron, Catherine Carroll from the
Department of Psychology & Human
Development and Gill Brackenbury
from the Special Educational Needs
Joint Initiative for Training) are working
on a book to support the delivery of
the knowledge exchange programme
and developing a database of
completed projects.
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 21
Doctoral research and teaching:
introduction
The Thomas Coram Research Unit has an active and
thriving postgraduate research programme to be joined by
an exciting new Undergraduate Degree programme.
In September 2016 two new undergraduate programmes
in the social sciences are being launched in the department
we are now part of - BSc Social Sciences and BSc Social
Sciences with Quantitative Methods. Both offer a mix
of social science disciplines, including economics,
sociology and psychology, together with extensive
research methods training.
Last year, members of TCRU staff supervised 36 PGR
students across a variety of programmes such as the
MPhil/PhD in Social Science, the Doctorate in Education
and the Doctorate in Educational Psychology. There were 5
students who successfully completed their doctoral studies.
The students are able to make use of a thriving research
environment which includes a attending weekly seminar
series, presenting as part of the postgraduate research
seminar and engaging with monthly Reading Group
meetings. This last year also saw the introduction of
22 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
a new meeting group for supervisors in the Department
of Social Science.
TCRU staff are involved in teaching at Foundation
Degree, Masters and Doctoral levels. For the Foundation
degree members contribute to the Working with Children,
Education and Wellbeing. Staff also contribute to MA
research methods and health and wellbeing modules.
This includes teaching on: the Education, Health Promotion
and International Development MA; the online Research
Methods in Education MA; the Sociology of Childhood
and Children’s Rights MA; the Participatory Planning and
Project Management of Health Promotion in the Context
of International Development module; and the Developing
and Promoting Health and Wellbeing: Concepts and
Issues module. An important part of TCRU’s contribution
to teaching at IOE involves the teaching of research skills
for the Doctoral School, EdD and MRes programmes,
including quantitative analysis; Interviewing and Qualitative
Data Analysis courses.
Doctoral research and teaching projects:
highlights
©Gabriel Li, flickr
Relationship between early
childhood and primary
education in France
and Sweden
Shifting traditions of
childrearing: Narratives from
three generations of women
in China and language unit
Rethinking the assessment
of applied anatomy
knowledge of medical
students: An investigation
of the effect of visual
resources, through
contextually rich single
best questions, on their
performance and their
views on anatomy
Yoshie Kaga (MPhil/PhD)
Xin Guo (MPhil/PhD)
Mandeep Sagoo (EdD)
Relationship between early childhood
and primary education is intensifying in
recent years. With almost all children
in Western Europe attending early
childhood education (ECE) programmes
by the age of four, there is increasing
demand for primary education to
be better linked with the preceding
stage in the interest of improved
educational transitions and outcomes.
As participation and investment in ECE
grows, the question arises as to whether
this is a distinct phase of education or
an adjunct to primary schooling and
what the consequences of the different
types of relationship might be. This study
aims to understand and compare the
relationship between early childhood
and primary education in France and
Sweden, which have contrasting
histories and approaches in relation to
ECE and schooling. In particular, using
globalisation and the social construction
of the child as key framing concepts, the
study seeks to understand and compare
policy changes over time and the views
and experiences of key stakeholders
in ECE and schooling regarding the
relationship in both countries.
This study aims to explore the
continuity and change in mothering
practices across three generations
in China. The projects focuses on
twelve families from high, middle
and low social and economic status,
who have three generational mothers
(born around 1930s, 1950s and 1980s
respectively). For each family, 3-4
family members (mainly women) are
interviewed individually to explore
mothers’ own accounts of their
childrearing experiences. These three
generations together have witnessed
the huge social transformations as
well as experienced some traumatic
historical events in China. By taking
on the modified Biographic-NarrativeInterpretive Method (BNIM), this thesis
focuses on both women’s biographic
life trajectories shaped by the historical
and structural elements, and mothers’
subjectivities demonstrated through a
detail analysis of both the structures and
content of their narratives. Therefore,
this study is concerned with bringing the
interpretivism and structuralism together
in presenting a) the dynamic and
mundane features of ‘doing motherhood’,
b) the fluidity and complexity of the
subjectivity of mothers, impacted by their
multiple positioning (eg., class, gender,
rural/urban etc), and c) how women
lived the social transformations in
their everyday life.
There is a problem with assessing
the anatomy knowledge of medical
undergraduates, in that it is not practical
for every student to assess actual
patients, so alternative methods have
to be employed, such as photographs,
x-rays or models. But then there is the
question of whether these methods are
effective or valid in actually assessing
students’ knowledge.
This study aims to assess whether
second year medical students perform
on questions without and with various
visual resources. To this end, the student
has constructed an online assessment,
which is being completed by students.
It presents a whole series of anatomical
and diagnostic questions, either with or
without visual resources. The research
draws on the work of Wolfgang Schnotz,
in seeking to explore whether the
influence of the form of visualisation
on the structure of mental models and
the learners’ pattern of performance
after knowledge acquisition is modified
by the availability of a further external
representation when solving tasks after
knowledge acquisition.
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 23
© Steven Gray, flickr
© Barney Moss, flickr
Positioning South Asian
girls in a multicultural
school setting: identity
constructions, negotiations
and constraints
Environment and children’s
lives in India and England:
everyday experiences,
understandings and
practices
Veena Meetoo (MPhil/PhD)
Catherine Walker (MPhil/PhD)
This study explores how South Asian
girls’ are positioned by teachers and
position themselves in relation to
multicultural discourses in an inner city
secondary school. Conducted over a
period of 3 years with 9 girls aged 15-18,
this case study draws on ethnographic
methods to explore the accounts of the
girls, teachers and other educational
professionals. In particular, the girls’
learning, migratory paths and issues of
gendered risk (e.g. forced marriage) are
focused on to further understand how the
intersections of ‘race’ and gender play
out in a multicultural school environment.
This study is attached to the NOVELLA
Family Lives and the Environment project
and is funded by the ESRC. It explores
the everyday experiences of eighteen
11-14 year old children living in a variety
of contexts in Andhra Pradesh, India and
the UK, in the environments in which
they live. Working closely with the Family
Lives and the Environment project,
the study has generated narratives
of children’s everyday experiences,
understandings and practices in relation
to their environments through multimethod case-based research with
children, their family members and their
peers. These narratives are used to
explore children’s perspectives on their
environments and the local-global spatial
scales children imagine and interact
with within these environments, as well
as considering children’s environmental
concerns and their assessments of their
capacities to act upon these as a way of
re-examining children’s situated agency
in a variety of cultural and socioeconomic
contexts.
24 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
The role of school for
children who have relocated
following domestic violence
and abuse.
Constructions of ‘parenting’
and social support;
narratives of parenting
identities and practices
in online and face-to-face
contexts’
Amy Stanton (DEdPsy)
Joe Winter (MPhil/PhD)
There is a national disparity in the
educational outcomes of children and
young people experiencing domestic
abuse (DA) (CAADA, 2014). These
children are said to be at greater risk
of: social, emotional and behaviour
difficulties, absenteeism from school,
poor health, cognitive delay, self-harm
and death (Sterne & Poole, 2010).
There remains a paucity of research that
explores the role of school for children
who have experienced DA, and the
perception of professionals working with
them. Research that specifically takes into
account child and professionals’ views
following a child’s transition into a new
school is markedly limited. DA is cited
as a common reason for homelessness
(Shelter, 2004) and it follows that children
frequently relocate school for this reason.
This project aims to qualitatively explore
children’s and teachers’ perspectives of
the role of school following relocation
because of DA.
This PhD studentship is linked to the
ESRC-funded NOVELLA National Centre
for Research Methods node through
the Parenting Identities and Practices
project. The research examines how
online support is made available to
parents on popular web forums and
explores mothers’ identities and practices
through the stories they tell about using
parenting websites and their everyday
lives as parents. The first two parts
of the analysis explored the brand
identities of popular websites for parents,
including Mumset and Netmums. This
was followed by a narrative analysis of
interviews with those who set up the
websites and continue to manage them.
The third phase of analysis explores
experiential accounts of those who use
the websites. In particular this analysis
illuminates turning points in women’s
identities as mothers in relation to their
use of popular parenting websites. The
thesis also examines the use of online
parenting forums as a social practice.
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 25
26 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
Funders and funding
The Unit’s total research income for the financial year 2014-2015 amounted to £995,010.12 an increase from last year. Figure
1 shows the Unit’s sources of research funding for the year, with research councils accounting for the majority of our total
funding with a growth in EU funding to £175,475.50 from last year’s lower base (£19,312). Members of TCRU continue to be
part of DfE’s Analytical Associates pool, reflecting their specialist knowledge and expertise in one or more of the following areas:
quantitative research and secondary data analysis, qualitative research, evaluation and dissemination.
As part of the previous Department of Childhood, Families and Health other income for the year includes: tuition income from
doctoral and masters teaching (£154,363); consultancies (£100,768), knowledge transfer (£145,044) and income generated
from miscellaneous activities including organising conferences and teaching (£18,102).
Figure 1
Sources of Funding 2014/15
175,475.50
8,000.00
363,814.12
411,847.03
UK Government
UK Charity
Research Council
Other
EU
35,873.47
Current research funders
Arts and Humanities Research Council
Department for Education
Department of Health
EU Tempus
Economic and Social Research Council
European Foundation for Living
and Working Conditions
European Research Council
Jacobs Foundation
Leverhulme Trust
National Institute of Health Research
Norwegian Research Council
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 27
Our team
Director Margaret O’Brien BSc PhD AFBPsS
CPsychol
Unit Deputy Directors
Claire Cameron BA PhD CQSW
Emily Munro BSocSc MA PhD
Professors
Julia Brannen BA MSc PhD FRSA AcSS
Claire Cameron BA PhD CQSW
Margaret O’Brien BSc PhD AFBPsS
CPsychol
Ann Phoenix MA PhD DPhil (Hon)
FRSA AcSS
Marjorie Smith BSc PhD AFBPsS CPsychol
Readers
Emily Munro BSocSc MA PhD
Senior Lecturers/ Senior
Research Officer
Emeritus Professors
Sonia Jackson OBE AcSS
Peter Moss BA BPhil
Pat Petrie BEd MA PhD
Ian St James Roberts BA PhD FBPsS
June Statham BA PhD
Visiting Fellows
Professor Monica Dowling BA CQSW
Dr Alison Clark BSc PhD
Ann Mooney BA PGCE
Valerie Wigfall BA PhD CQSW
Dr Qiong Xu BSc PhD
Support Staff
Sabina Ariyadasa (Departmental Administrator)
Joanna Gzik (Project Administrator)
Jonathan Howard BA (Administrator)
Penny Mellor BA MSc (Project Administrator)
Kar-Wing Man (RCKT Administrator)
Mette Louise Berg BA PhD
Sarah Crafter BA PGCTHE PhD
Rebecca O’Connell BSc MA MRes PhD
Charlie Owen BSc
Lecturers/ Research Officers
Heather Elliott MA
Hanan Hauari MA
Katie Hollingworth MSc
Humera Iqbal BSc PhD
Abigail Knight MA MSc CQSW PhD
Veena Meetoo BSc MA
Christine Oliver MA PhD
Katie Quy MSc PhD
Antonia Simon BA MSc
We also thank the following administrative staff who have been so helpful over the year:
Androulla Annis, Ruth Cohen, Clare George, Jason Ilagan,Tracy Modha and Trijntje Ytsma.
28 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
Staff publications 2015-2016
Books
Knight, A. Brannen, J. & O’Connell, R. (2015).
Re-using community oral history sources on
Berg, M. L., Gidley, B. and Sigona, N. (eds.)
food and family life during the First World War.
(2015) Ethnography, Diversity and Urban Space. Oral History 43 (1): 63-72.
London: Routledge.
Knight, A., Brannen, J. & O’Connell, R.
Brannen, J (2015) Fathers and Sons:
(2015) Using narrative sources from the Mass
Generations, families and migration. London:
Observation Archive to study everyday food and
Palgrave Macmillan.
families in hard times: Food practices in England
during 1950. Sociological Research Online.
Cameron, C., Connolly, G. and Jackson, S.
(2015) Educating Children and Young People in 20(1), 9.
Care: Learning Placements and Caring Schools. http://www.socresonline.org.uk/20/1/9.html
Brannen, J. & O’Connell, R. (2015) Data
Analysis I: overview of data analysis strategies.
In S. Hesse-Biber and Johnson, B. (eds). Oxford
Handbook of Mixed and Multimethod Research.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jackson, S. (2015) The Education of Children
and Young People in State Care Abingdon:
Taylor & Francis Books.
Knight, A. (2015) ‘‘A fish in water?’ Social lives
and local connections: the case of young people
who travel outside their local areas to secondary
school’ in Childhood with Bourdieu, edited by L.
Alanen, Brooker, L. and Mayall, B. pp. 99-119
London: Palgrave Macmillan.
London: JKP.
O’Connell, R. & Brannen, J. (In Press, 2016).
Food, Families and Work. London: Bloomsbury.
Editorship of Special issue
of journal
Berg, M. L. & Eckstein, S. (eds.) (2015[2009])
Re-Imagining Diasporas and Generations.
Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies
18 (2 and 3).
Deven, F. and Moss, P. (eds) (2015) Leave
policies in challenging times: reviewing the
decade, 2004-14’, Community, Work and
Family, 18 (2).
Papers in peer-reviewed journals
Milic Babic, M. and Dowling M. (2015) Social
support, the presence of barriers and ideas for
the future from students with disabilities in the
higher education system in Croatia Disability
and Society - http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/
IcCK4jihpRTKjfiUzPVE/full
Moss, P. (2015) There are alternatives!
Contestation and hope in early childhood
education, Global Studies of Childhood, 1-13.
DOI: 10.1177/2043610615597130
Moss, P. (2015) Time for more storytelling,
European Early Childhood Education
Research Journal, 23 (1): 1-4. DOI:
10.1080/1350293X.2014.991092
Moss, P. and Deven, F. (2015) Leave policies
in challenging times: reviewing the decade,
2004-14, Community, Work and Family, 18 (2):
137-144
O’Connor, P, O’Hagan, C and Brannen, J.
(2015) Exploration of masculinities in academic
organisations: A tentative typology using career
and relationship commitment Current Sociology:
1-19 DOI: 10.1177/0011392115574859
Baird, M & O’Brien, M. 2015, Dynamics of
parental leave in Anglophone countries: the
paradox of state expansion in the liberal welfare
Phoenix, A., Howarth, C. & Philogene, G. (in
regime Community, Work and Family, 18, (2),
press) ‘The everyday politics of identities and
pp. 198-217.
social representations: A critical approach’.
Papers in Social Representations.
Berg, M. L. (2015) “La Lenin Is My Passport”:
Schooling, Mobility and Belonging in Socialist
Poole, E., Svetlana, S., O’Brien, M., Connolly,
Cuba and its Diaspora. Identities: Global Studies
S., Aldrich, M. (in press) Who are non-resident
in Culture and Power. 22 (3) 303–317.
fathers?: A British socio-demographic profile
Journal of Social Policy.
Berg, M. L. & Eckstein, S. (2015 [2009]) ReImagining Migrant Generations. Diaspora: A
Qiong, X. & O’Brien, M. (2015) Fathers and
Journal of Transnational Studies. 18 (2/3): 1–23.
teenage daughters in Shanghai: Intimacy,
gender and care Journal of Family Studies
Eckstein, S. & Berg, M. L. (2015[2009]) The
Diaspora Generational Divide: Cubans in the US DOI:10.1080/13229400.2014.11082014pages
and Spain. Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational 311-322, 30 Jan
Studies. 18 (2/3) 159–183.
St James-Roberts, I., Roberts, M., Hovish,
K. and Owen, C. (2015) Video evidence that
Brannen, J (2015) From the concept of
generation to an intergenerational lens on family London infants can resettle themselves back to
lives. Families, Relationships and Societies 3(3) sleep after waking in the night, as well as sleep
for long periods, by 3 months of age. Journal of
485-491
Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 36 (5)
Brannen, J, Elliott, H & Phoenix, A (in press)
324-329
Narratives of success in migration stories
Ethnic and Racial Studies.
Chapters in edited books
Cameron, C., Reimer, D. and Smith, M. (2015)
Towards a theory of upbringing in foster care in
Europe European Journal of Social Work, DOI:1
0.1080/13691457.2015.1030360
Crafter, S. (2015) Cultural psychology and
deconstructing developmental psychology.
Feminism & Psychology, 25(3): 388-401.
Franceschelli, M. & O’Brien, M. (2015) Being
Modern and Modest’: South Asian Young
British Muslims Negotiating influences on their
identities. Ethnicities, 15 (5): 696-714.
29 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
Berg, M. L. (2015) Transnational School-based
Networks: Diaspora, Mobilities and Belonging.
In N. Sigona, A. Gamlen, G. Liberatore and
H. Neveu Kringelbach (eds.) Diasporas
Reimagined: Spaces, Practices and Belonging.
pp. 136-139. Oxford: Queen Elizabeth House.
Crafter, S. (2015) Can people really
change? Changing self-identity and ‘other’
relationships across the lifespan. (pp 197-240).
In R. Capdevila, J. Dixon & G. Briggs (eds)
Investigating Psychology 2: From biological to
developmental (Vol. 3). Milton Keynes:
The Open University.
Moss, P. (in press) ‘Where am I? Position and
perspective in researching early childhood
education’. In A. Farrell, S.L. Kagan and
K.Tisdall (eds) Sage Handbook of Early
Childhood Research. London: Sage.
O’Brien, M., Connolly, S. Speight, S., Aldrich
M. & Poole, E. (2016) The United Kingdom pp:
161-196 In M. Adler & K. Lenz (eds) Father
involvement in the early years: An international
comparison of policy and practice. Bristol: The
Policy Press
Phoenix, A. (in press) ‘At kombinere narrative
praksis og kanoniske narrativer’ (‘Combining
narrative practices and canonical narratives’).
In A. D. Christensen and T. L. Thomsen (eds)
Narratives - nærmer analyse (Narratives –
approaches analysis).
Gross, C., Gottburgsen, A. and Phoenix, A. (in
press) ‘Education Systems and Intersectionality’.
In A. Hadjar and C. Gross (eds) Education
Systems and Inequalities. Policy Press, Bristol.
Phoenix, A. (in press) Making family stories
political? Telling varied narratives of serial
migration. In by I. Goodson, A. Antikainen,
P. Sikes & M. Andrews (eds) The Routledge
International Handbook on Narrative and Life
History. London: Routledge.
Phoenix, A., Boddy, J., Edwards, R. and
Elliott, H. (in press) ”Another long and involved
story”: Narrative themes in the marginalia of
the Poverty in the UK survey. In R. Edwards,
J. Goodwin, H. O’Connor and A. Phoenix
(eds) Working with Paradata, Marginalia and
Fieldnotes: The centrality of by-products of
social research. London: Edward Elgar.
Other publications and reports
Berg, M. L. (2015) A Report on Fostering
Greater Resident Involvement in Southwark.
London: Southwark Council.
http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200141/
housing_strategy/1890/housing_reports_and_
policies
Berg, M. L. and Gidley, B. (2015) How Do
Local Authorities Deal with the Increasing
Berg, M. L. and Sigona, N. (2015) Ethnography, Diversity of Their Clients and Residents?
COMPAS Breakfast Briefing Summary
Diversity and Urban Space. M. L. Berg, B.
Document. Oxford: COMPAS.
Gidley and N. Sigona (eds.) Ethnography,
http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/events/breakfastDiversity and Urban Space, pp. 1–13. London:
briefings/previous-breakfast-briefings/.
Routledge.
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 29
Domingo, M., Kress, G., O’Connell, R., Elliott,
H., Squire, C., Jewitt, C., Adami, E. (2015)
Development of methodologies for researching
online: the case of food blogs’
http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/3704/
Dowling M. and Hougham C. (2015) At what
age do young people become adults? Criminal
Justice Matters, Routledge
http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/publications/
cjm/edition/cjm-99-poverty-and-institutionalcare
Elliott, H; Edwards, R; Phoenix, A; Boddy, J
(2015): Narrative analysis of paradata from the
Poverty in the UK survey: a worked example
http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/3720/
Iqbal, H., (2015) ‘Socialising Children – A book
review.’ Sociology. 49(1): 198-199
Lambie-Mumford, H. and O’Connell, R. (2015)
Food, poverty and policy: evidence base and
knowledge gaps. Report. Available:
http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/wp-content/
uploads/2015/09/Food-poverty-policy-eventreport.pdf
Moss, P. (ed.) (2015) International review
of leave policies and related research 2015.
Available at: www.leavenetwork.org.
O’Connell, R., Knight, A. and Brannen,
J. (2015) Food austerity from an historical
perspective: making sense of 1950s mass
observation data in the contemporary era.
Discover Society, Issue 16, January
O’Brien, M. (2015) Beyond breadwinners and
authority figures – dads enter the 21st century.
The Conversation June 16th
http://theconversation.com/beyondbreadwinners-and-authority-figures-dadsenter-the-21st-century-43196
O’Brien, M., Moss, P., Koslowski, A. and Daly,
M. (2015) ‘United Kingdom country note’, in
Moss, P. (ed.) (2015) International review of
leave policies and related research 2015.
Available at: www.leavenetwork.org
O’Connell, R. (2014) Families and Food
Poverty in three European Countries in an Age
of Austerity. A Glance into Current European
Family Research. ES-RN13 Newsletter No 4
(2104-3): pp 5-7.
Oliver, S., Hinds, K., Rees R, Knight,
A., Twamley, K., Reiss, M. (2015) Public
engagement with research processes and
findings at UCL Institute of Education (IOE).
Report of activities and learning resulting from
Research Councils UK funding 2012 – 2015.
London: UCL Institute of Education.
Peeters, J., Cameron, C., Lazzari, A.,
Peleman, B., Budginaite, I., Hauari, H. and
Siarova, H. (2015) Early childhood care:
working conditions, training and quality of
services – A systematic review, Eurofound,
Luxembourg: Publications Office of the
European Union, Available at: http://www.
eurofound.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ef_
publication/field_ef_document/ef1469en.pdf
Vincent, C., Neal, S., & Iqbal, H. (2015)
Friendship and Diversity: Children’s and
Adults’ Friendships Across Social Class and
Ethnic Difference. ESRC Final Project Report.
Available at: https://friendshipacrossdifference.
files.wordpress.com/2015/07/mf-finaldissemination-report.pdf
30 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
Conference papers and
Presentations
Brannen, J. (2015) Keynote address Doing
research in intergenerational families,
International Conference on Qualitative and
Mixed Methods Longitudinal Research,
Oslo and Akershus University College of
Applied Sciences (HiOA), 7th May.
Brannen, J. (2015) Fatherhood and migration,
European Sociological Association, Prague
27th August.
Cameron, C. (2015) Evaluating Social
Pedagogy, Social Pedagogy Development
Network, Edinburgh Conference Centre, May
Cameron, C. (2015) Foster care: towards
a theory of negotiated upbringing, 8th
International Foster Care Research Network
Conference, University of Siegen,
17th September
Cameron, C. (2015) Processes leading to
breakdown of foster care placements, 8th
International Foster Care Research Network
Conference, University of Siegen, 17th
September (with Clara Bombach, Renate
Stohler and Andy Jespersen)
Crafter, S., Cline, T., & Prokopiou, E. (2015)
Examining three interdependent transitional
processes as mediating child language
brokering in schools. European Association
for Research in Learning and Instruction,
Limassol, Cyprus. 25th - 29th August.
Crafter, S., Prokopiou, E., & Cline, T
(2015) Child language brokering in schools:
examining the concept of transition and
mediation. Invited talk at University of
Northampton, Northampton, 25th March.
Crafter, S., Cline, T & Prokopiou, E. (2015)
Examining three interdependent transitional
processes as mediating child language
brokering in schools. Invited talk at University
of Oxford, Oxford, 4th February.
Elliott, H; O’Connell, R and Squire, C (2015)
Recipes for Mothering: intimacy, anecdotes
and publics in mothers’ blogs BSA Annual
Conference 15th April.
Holmes, L., Munro, E.R. and Lushey, C.
(2015) Invited Lecture: Adoption processes
and support. DfE Childhood Wellbeing
Research Centre Seminar. DFE London.
30th January.
Lucas, P. and O’Connell, R. (2015) The Great
British Grub Quiz. A Pint of Science. ESRC
Festival of Social Sciences. University of
Bristol. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/fssl/festival/
programme/2015/grub-quiz/ 13th November
Lambie-Mumford, H. and O’Connell, R. (2015)
Food, poverty and policy: evidence base and
knowledge gaps. BSA Food Study Group/
SPERI. Interdisciplinary Centre of Social
Sciences, University of Sheffield. Report
available: http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2015/09/Food-poverty-policyevent-report.pdf 30th June
Moss, P. (2015) Speaker: A fully integrated
system of early child education and care: a
long but worthwhile journey, Korea-OECD
Seminar on ECEC Integration, organised by
Korea Institute of Child Care and Education in
Seoul, 25th February (speech filmed at IOE)
Moss, P. (2015) Speaker: What is a good
school? A truly political question…and a very
personal answer. Conference ‘Quality of
education and/or quality of evaluation. How to
build a good school’, organised by Jagellon
University Krakow and others, Zakopane,
30th March.
Moss, P. (2015) Keynote speaker: “We never
know what a body can do”: conditions for an
education of potentiality, Annual Conference of
Early Education (British Association for Early
Childhood Education), University of Plymouth,
13th June.
Moss, P. (2015) Invited lecture: Early
Childhood Education and care: Valuing
Multiple Perspectives. Conference to
launch the new Research Centre on Early
Childhood Education and Care (Center for
Daginstitutionsforskning), Roskilde University,
28th August.
Moss, P. (2015) Invited lecture: From ‘Beyond
Quality’ to ‘Politics and Ethics in Early
Childhood Education’, Conference of
BAG-BEK, Neubrandenburg University,
16th September (speech filmed at IoE)
Munro, E.R. (2015) Roundtable Event: Making
Policy Work for Care Leavers with Learning
Disabilities and/or Mental Health Needs in
Northern Ireland, Queen’s University Belfast.
7th September.
Munro, E.R. (2015) Invited lecture: Children
and Institutional Care. Dis/Located Children:
Children in/and Care network workshop.
University of Adelaide, Australia 22nd July.
Munro, E.R. (2015) Masterclass: Explorations
in children and care. Dis/Located Children:
Children in/and Care network workshop.
University of Adelaide, Australia 24th July.
Munro, E.R.(2015) The UCL Institute of
Education and NLAFC Special Guardianship
Project. North London Adoption and Fostering
Consortium AGM. London 22nd June.
Munro, E.R. (2015) Invited lecture: Benefits,
challenges and constraints of assessment
timescales for adopters and special guardians
at The Changing Landscape in Adoption and
Permanence Conference, London 18th June.
Munro, E.R. (2015) The changing face of
Special Guardianship. North London Adoption
and Fostering Special Guardianship Training.
London 15th May.
Munro, E.R.. and Owen, C. (2015) Invited
lecture: Children’s Homes. DfE Childhood
Wellbeing Research Centre Seminar, London.
30th January.
O’Brien, M. (2015) Keynote Speaker Modern
fatherhood: fathers, work and families in the
twenty-first century Fathers’ Involvement
across the Life Course Workshop Erasmus/
Max Planck/ Rostock Universities Berlin,
September 3rd - 4th.
O’Brien, M. (2015) Fatherhood in Nordic
Welfare States: discussant. International
Parental Leave network Seminar, Trondheim,
August 31st - September 2nd
O’Connell, R. (2015) Labour Party private
roundtable with Maria Eagle MP: Labour’s
response to the high levels of food bank
dependency in the UK. Tuesday 7th July, 2015,
Westminster, London.
O’Connell, R. (2015) An unfair food system.
Invited presentation: Questioning Time: Food
and Social Justice, UEL 19th March
O’Connell, R. (2015) Researching Food
Practices. Researching the Domestic Nexus.
University of Sheffield, 15th October
O’Connell, R. (2015).Families and Food
in Hard Times. European Sociological
Association Annual Conference, Prague,
27th August.
O’Connell, R. (2015). Changing families,
changing food? Children’s diets in working
families over time. Symposium: Routines
and Disruptions: How Changing Daily Life
Shapes Child and Family Eating and Feeding.
International Society of Behavioural Nutrition
and Physical Activity, University of Edinburgh.
5th April.
O’Connell, R. (2015). Food in Hard Times.
Symposium: Is austerity harming societal
well-being? Evidence from the UK. British
Sociological Association Annual Conference,
Glasgow, 16th April
O’Connell, R. (2015). Families and Food in
Hard Times. Symposium: The emerging social
policy challenge of hunger in times of austerity
and change: national and international
perspectives. Social Policy Association SPA
Annual Conference, MBC, Belfast, 6th July.
O’Dell, L., Crafter, S. & Abreu, de.G. (2015)
Examining child language brokering in
healthcare settings. European Association of
Developmental Psychology Braga, Portugal,
8th-12th September.
Owen, C. (2015) Patterns of childcare use.
Presentation at the ‘Provision and Use of
Preschool Childcare Key Findings Seminar’,
UCL Institute of Education. 24th June.
Owen, C., Simon, A. & Hollingworth,
K. (2015) Provision and use of preschool
childcare in Britain Key Findings. Presentation
to the National Day Nurseries Association
Policy Meeting, March.
Phoenix, A. (2015) “Doing Social Identities:
Gender, intersectionality and narrative
research”. Inaugural Honorary Professorial
lecture, Aalborg University, Denmark,
12th February
Phoenix, A.(2015) Colloquium panel
Discussion “Home is where we start from”:
Intersectional positioning in childhood
narratives of home, School of Human &
Community Development and the African
Centre for Migration & Society, University of
the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,
South Africa, 18th February.
Phoenix, A. (2015) Public Lecture Adult
narratives of ‘non-normative’ childhood
experiences: Using autobiography to claim
liveable lives Talk in Colloquium on the Idea
of Home, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, South Africa, 20th February.
Phoenix, A. (2015) Transnational families:
Adults looking back on childhood serial
migration, language brokering and visible
ethnic differences’. UCLA Center for the Study
of International Migration, Los Angeles, USA,
5th March.
Phoenix, A. (2015) ‘Approach to
superdiversity and how it relates or not to
intersectionality’, Roundtable discussion,
Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS)
Round table, Birmingham University, 30th April.
31 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016
Phoenix, A. (2015) ‘”Haven’t they grown?”
Motherhood and children in short-term
longitudinal studies’, International Conference
on Qualitative and Mixed Methods Longitudinal
Research, Oslo and Akershus University
College of Applied Sciences (HiOA), 7th May.
Vincent, C., Neal, S., & Iqbal, H. (2015)
Encounters with Diversity: Children’s
Friendships and Parental Responses.
Centre for Family Research Seminar Series,
University of Cambridge.
Phoenix, A. (2015) International Migration,
Ethnicity and Gender: Intersectional
Perspectives on Labour, Power, and
Citizenship, REMESO Graduate School in
Migration, Ethnicity and Society. Linkoping
University, Campus Norrköping, 20th May.
Phoenix, A. (2015) Researching Inequalities
and Education: Intersectionality, positionality
and the NOVELLA research programme.
Invited talk to: Rights, Inequalities and Diversity
Research Network Seminar, Drammen,
Norway, 26th/ 27th May.
Phoenix, A. (2015) Multiple Border Crossings:
Educational Research in Changing Times’
Keynote address to The Bristol Doctoral
Conference: Research in Education Across
Boundaries, Bristol University, 1st June.
Phoenix, A. (2015) Living racialisation and
ethnicisation in transnational families. Keynote
address to Critical Race and Ethnicities
Network Annual Conference, University of
Sheffield, 19th June.
Phoenix, A. (2015) Coming to understand
positioning: Social representations, identities
and racialised othering’. Paper in BPS
Social Invited Symposium. The relevance
of Social Representations Theory today:
towards inter-disciplinarity and criticality’,
BPS Developmental section & Social section
Psychology Annual Conference,
9th September.
Phoenix, A. (2015) Keynote address to
8th International Foster Care Research
Conference University of Siegen, Germany,
17th September.
Simkiss, D. and Munro, E.R. (2015) Looking
after Young people in Care: The LYNC Study.
How can health services effectively improve
the mental health and wellbeing of young
people leaving public care? DfE and DH
seminar. London, 1st June.
Simon, A. (2015)The formal childcare
workforce. Presentation at the ‘Provision and
Use of Preschool Childcare Key Findings
Seminar’, UCL Institute of Education. 24th June.
Simon, A., Hollingworth, K. & Owen, C. (2015)
Is the quality of preschool childcare, measured
by qualifications and pay, improving in Britain?
Presentation to the EECERA 25th Annual
Conference, Barcelona, 9th September.
Simon, A., Hollingworth, K. & Owen, C.
(2015) How does childcare usage compare for
different family types in Britain? Presentation
to the EECERA 25th Annual Conference,
Barcelona, 9th September.
Smith, M. (2015) Arguing, Separation
and Child Wellbeing, invited discussant at
international workshop of Well-being over the
Life Course. OECD/CEPREMAP Well-being
Observatory, and the Centre for Economic
Performance, LSE. London, July.
Smith, M. (2015) The early years - surviving or
thriving? Invited presentation at Hands Up for
Children event. The Importance of Prevention
and Early Intervention. Dublin, Ireland:
September.
Annual Review 2015 - 2016 | 31
Contact us
Thomas Coram Research Unit
UCL Institute of Education
27-28 Woburn Square
London WC1H 0AA
Tel: 020 7612 6957
Email: tcru@ioe.ac.uk
www.ioe.ac.uk/tcru
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32 | Annual Review 2015 - 2016