Research

Staff research interests

Untitled Document

Dr John Bamber

Senior Lecturer in Community Education (Secondment)

Education, Community and Society (ECS)

Email: john.bamber@ed.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)131 651 6116

Location:

Paterson's Land

Background

2007: Doctor of Education (University of Edinburgh)
1989: Master of Philosophy - Social Policy (Cranfield Institute of Technology)
1987: PG Diploma in Management Studies (Lancashire Polytechnic)
1977: PG Diploma in Youth and Community Work (Manchester Polytechnic)
1976: Master of Theology (St Andrews University)

Following some 15 years in the field of youth and community work, including senior management experience, I built on my interest in training to enter Higher Education. I am now Senior Lecturer Community Education, and currently Programme Director for the MSc/PGDip in Community Education. My MPhil by research was concerned with understanding good practice at unit level in youth and community work. I have over 10 years of experience of research in widening access to Higher Education. I recently completed my EdD thesis, which drew on Habermas's ideas about communicative action, to develop a conceptual framework for a discursive approach to training of community educators. I am particularly interested in teaching and learning in HE, and in work-based learning. In the past 10 years I have published regularly in these areas, but I am also interested in youth work, educational groupwork and voluntary sector management.

Principal interests

I am interested in enhancing teaching and learning in a variety of settings. Specific areas include:

Widening participation
Work based learning
Youth work
Educational groupwork
Teaching and learning in HE
Voluntary sector management

I am happy to supervise research under the headings above.

Current and recent research

I am currently involved in three main areas of personal academic research:

Discursive approaches to teaching and learning in HE
Developing CPD initiatives for CLD practitioners
Rethinking widening participation: towards a sufficiency model of non-traditional students

Publications

Publications list for Dr John Bamber

Teaching

John is currently on secondment until July 2013 to the Centre for Effective Services in Dublin.