Agents of Hope

In this episode I meet Dr Alexandra Sewell who has recently published a fantastic book called 'Diverse Voices in Education'. Allie is also going to be hosting an Agents of Hope Podcast mini series in which she will interview her co-authors and explore the practice of giving voice to different voices within educational practice. 

In our episode we discuss the importance of diversity within our profession and the ways in which we can improve 'meaningful voice practice'. 

In this episode I chat with Gavin Morgan, an Educational Psychologist, Academic Tutor and member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group, who helped the Government make evidence based decisions during the pandemic. It was fascinating conversation and explored the different types of role taken up by EPs as facilitators of change to outright advocates for change.


References

Gavin Morgan (2016) Organisational change: a solution-focused approach,
Educational Psychology in Practice, 32:2, 133-144, DOI: 10.1080/02667363.2015.1125855

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jun/20/school-closures-will-trigger-uk-child-mental-health-crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/20/childrens-mental-health-will-suffer-irreparably-if-schools-dont-reopen-soon

In this conversation Tim speaks to two Southampton university graduates who swapped the South Coast of England for Glasgow in Scotland, Francesca and Larissa. We talk about Glasgow's journey to become a 'nurturing city'. 


References 

Education Scotland & Glasgow City Council (2017).  Applying Nurture as a Whole School Approach. Crown Copyright. 

https://education.gov.scot/improvement/self-evaluation/Applying%20nurture%20as%20a%20whole%20school%20approach%20-%20A%20framework%20to%20support%20self-evaluation

• Kearney, M. & Nowek, G. (2019).  Beyond Nurture Groups to Nurturing Approaches:  A Focus on the Development of Nurture in the Scottish Context.  The international Journal of Nurture in Education.  Volume 5.  
• March, S. & Kearney, M. (2017). A psychological service contribution to nurture: Glasgow’s nurturing city. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 22(3), 237-247. 
• Kearney et al., (2020). The nurturing establishment: Gathering children and parental/carers views of their experiences of a nurturing establishment. The International Journal of Nurture in Education. Volume 6. 
• Cunningham, L., Hartwell, B., & Kreppner, J. (2019). Exploring the impact of nurture groups on children’s social skills: A mixed methods approach. Educational Psychology in Practice, 35(4), 1-16.
• Education Scotland (2018). Nurture, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma Informed Practice: Making the links between these approaches. https://education.gov.scot/improvement/self-evaluation/inc83-nurture-adverse-childhood-experiences-and-trauma-informed-practice/
• GEPS website: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/glasgowpsychologicalservice/nurture/
• Twitter: @GlasgowEPS @GlasgowNurture

I had a conversation with Jonathan Solity because of my interest in developing curricula that supports student learning. In this talk, Jonathan and I discuss how to support children using instructional psychology, rational/ content analysis, Pareto’s principle, and Haring and Eaton’s (1978) Learning Hierarchy. Jonathan emphasises the importance of teaching the most useful knowledge/skills first using the inherent generative principles within a particular body of content. At the end of the talk Jonathan makes suggestions for how EPs can support teachers in promoting early reading and maths skills.

I hope you enjoy the talk!
Dr Nazam Hussain (Educational Psychologist)
See below for links to references (I could have added many more!)

 Darnell, C.A, & Solity, J.E., & Wall, H. (2017) Decoding the phonics screener check. British Educational Research Journal, 43 (3) 505-527
 Solity, J.E. (1991). Special Needs: A discriminatory concept? Educational Psychology in Practice, 7(1), 12-19
 Solity, J. E. (2008). Michel Thomas: The Learning Revolution. Hodder & Stoughton. London.
 Solity, J.E. (2020). Instructional psychology and teaching reading: Ending the reading wars.
Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 37 (2) 123-132
 Ward, J, &; Crawford, S & Solity, J.E. (2017). Assessment through teaching and instructional psychology. An alternative model of service delivery to raise attainment in primary schools.
Educational & Child Psychology, 34 (1) 94-109

I had a conversation with John Hattie because of my interest in using the teaching strategies and approaches that can support learners to gain knowledge and skills whilst promoting intrinsic motivation and habits for lifelong learning. In this talk, John and I discuss; what is Visible Learning, the use and misuse of effect size calculations, factors that accelerate learning, interpretation of research and the purpose of education. We finish the conversation with John’s hopes for the future in his personal and professional life. 

I hope you enjoy the talk!

Dr Nazam Hussain (Educational Psychologist)

See below for links to references discussed in the talk.  

• Hattie, J. (2012). Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximise Impact on Learning. London: Routledge.

• Hattie, J., & Yates, G.C. (2013). Visible Learning and the science of how we learn. New York: Routledge.

• Hattie, J., & Donoghue, G. (2016). Learning strategies: A synthesis and conceptual model. Nature: Science of Learning, 1. Accessed from https://thinkplusjourney.info/images/Hattie_and_Donoghue_-_Learning_strategies._A_synthesis_and_conceptual_model.pdf

• Hattie, J., & Zierer, K. (2018). 10 Mindframes for Visible Learning. Teaching for Success. London: Routledge. 

• Nuthall, G.A.  (2007). The hidden lives of learners. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research. 

• Website with all the data for Visible Learning. Accessed from https://www.visiblelearningmetax.com/

Sponsored by Bethan Elisa Proofreading (@bethanelisa) and Handmade Home by Ruby (https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/HandmadeHomeByRuby)


References 
Denborough, D. (2008) Collective narrative practice, Dulwich Centre publications, Adelaide, Australia. 
Elhassan, O., and Yassine, L. (2017) Tree of life with young Muslim women in Australia, The international journal of Narrative Therapy and Community work, (3) 27-45. 
Gallagher, B., & Green, A. (2012). In, out and after care: Young adults' views on their lives, as children, in a therapeutic residential establishment. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(2), 437-450. 
Jacobs, S.F.M., (2018) Collective Narrative practice with unaccompanied refugee minors: “The Tree of Life” as a response to hardship, Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry vol 23(2) 279-293 
Portnoy, S., Girling, I. and Fredman, G. (2015) Supporting young people living with cancer to tell their stories in ways that make them stronger: The Beads of Life approach, Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 21, 255-267 Shotton, G. (2010). Telling different stories The experience of foster/adoptive carers in carrying out collaborative memory work with children Adoption and Fostering, 34(4), 61-68. 
Shotton, G. (2013). “Remember when…”: Exploring the experiences of looked after children and their carers in engaging in collaborative reminiscence, Adoption and Fostering, 37(4), 352-367. 
Shotton, G. (2021) A session by session guide to life story work, Routledge, Abingdon. Staines, J., Selwyn, J. (2020) I wish someone would explain why I am in care: The impact of children and young people’s lack of understanding of why they are in out-of-home care on their well-being and felt security, Child and Family Social Work, 25, (1) 91-106. 
Vermeire, S. (2017) What if….I were a king?: Playing with roles and positions in narrative conversations with children who have experienced trauma, The International journal of Narrative Therapy and Community work (4) 50-61
 Watson, D., Hahn, R., and Staines, J. (2020) Storying special objects: Material culture, narrative identity and life story work for children in care, Qualitative social work, Vol 19, (4) 701-718 Willis, 
R., & Holland, S. (2009). Life Story Work: Reflections of the experience by looked after young people. Adoption and Fostering, 33(4), 44-52.

I had a conversation with Professor Joe Elliott, Durham University, and Principal of Collingwood College, because of my interest in supporting children and young people with reading and spelling difficulties. 
In this talk, Joe and I discuss; the challenges of identifying dyslexia using pre-defined
criteria, highlight factors that maintain the need for a diagnosis of dyslexia, and explore the role of intelligence tests. We finish the conversation with the role of the educational psychologist and how to instill hope to support all learners with reading and spelling difficulties.

I hope you enjoy the talk!

Dr Nazam Hussain (Educational Psychologist)
See below for links to references discussed in the talk.
 Elliott, J.G. (2020) It’s time to get scientific about dyslexia. Reading Research Quarterly, 55(1),
61—75. https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rrq.333
 Elliott, J.G, & Grigorenko, E.L. (2014). Dyslexia Debate. Cambridge. UK: Cambridge University
Press.
 Elliot, J.G, & Gibb, S. (2008) Does dyslexia exist? Journal of Philosophy of Education, 42 (3-4),
475-491 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227704059_Does_Dyslexia_Exist
 Guardian Article by Sirin Kale on 17 September 2020.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/sep/17/battle-over-dyslexia-warwickshire-
staffordshire
 Vellutino, F., Fletcher, J., Snowling, M., Scanlon, D. (2004) Specific reading disability (dyslexia):
what have we learned in the past four decades? The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry,
44(1), 2-40. https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.0021-9630.2003.00305.x