Research

Staff research interests

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Dr Lorna Hamilton

Programme Director: MSc Education / Senior Lecturer

Education, Community and Society (ECS)

Email: lorna.hamilton@ed.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 131 651 6457

Location:

St John's Land (Rm 2.07)

Background

BA, PGCE, MEd, PhD

Having worked as an English teacher and as a primary teacher, I draw on substantial experience in schools to inform my teaching. However, I am also passionate about educational research. My research profile began to be established while I was still working in schools and my work on perceptions of ability shaped my MEd (1996). This led into PhD study looking at constructs of ability within comprehensive and independent schools working with Professors Sally Brown and Jon Nixon, University of Stirling. From this, my work has developed in relation to (student) teacher beliefs and professional identity, ability and the organization of learning and pupil voice and personhood.

I teach mainly on PGDE primary and PGDE secondary courses as well as MSc Education and MSc Research programmes. A strong focus of my work has been on cross curricular learning (Enterprise inspired learning) and assessment, the integration of theory and practice (leading behaviour, theory and professional development course) and educational research methods. I have a strong background in qualitative research and have a particular interest in the use of case study.

New book on Case study in Education Research just released by BERA/Sage.

Head of Education and Society 2007-2010
President of Scottish Educational Research Association 2007 -2009
Vice-president Scottish Educational Research Association 2005-2007
On British Educational Research Association Council 2007 -2009
Member of planning group newly established UK Strategic Forum for Research in Education (uksfre.ac.uk) 2007 - 2011

Editorial Boards: Scottish Educational Review and International Journal of School Disaffection

Reviewer: British Educational Research Journal, Teaching and Teacher Education, Scottish Educational Review, International Journal of School Disaffection, Teachers College Record.

Leading SERA committee on Knowledge Exchange publication: Researching Education Bulletin

Principal interests

Social construction of identity: drawing on a social constructionist view, my work has been built around concepts of layered narratives of self which reflect a dynamic and fluid view of identity and the importance of contextual narratives and the interactions between the inner and outer world of the individual.

Research Supervision

I have particular interest in teacher beliefs and values (early professional development), giftedness, behaviour in schools, the organization of learning (ability grouping etc) and pupil voice and would welcome students interested in these and related areas.

Current doctoral supervision includes:

Behaviour in Schools

English Language teaching in higher education in Pakistan

Professional identity and english language teachers from China

Personhoood, motivation and foreign language learning

Professional identity and midwives in China

Teachers, parents and the construction of inclusive educational communities in Greece

Service learning and young people's motivation in Malaysia

Research supervision

Projects supervised by Dr Lorna Hamilton

Current and recent research

Previous work includes: Behaviour in Scottish Schools, a survey of the use of setting in Scottish primary schools, pupil voice in the examination process and ability dialogues in high school.

Conference papers include:

McLuskey,G.; Brown,J.; Hamilton,L.; Lloyd,G.; Macleod,G.; Munn,P.; Sharp,S. 'Take more time to actually listen':Trust, power and student voice. Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Conference, Warwick 2010.
Munn,P.; Sharp,S.; Lloyd,G.; Macleod,G.; McLuskey,G.; Brown,J.; Hamilton,L. A comparison of perceptions of behaviour in Scottish schools 2009 and 2006. Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Conference, Warwick 2010.
Hamilton, L. Managing pupil behaviour: preparing student teachers for practice. Paper presented at the Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences, Saskatoon, Canada 2007.
Stack, N; Hamilton,L. & Sutherland, M. Able in Alba. Paper presented at the World Congress for Gifted and Talented Youth, Warwick 2007
Hamilton, L. A Teacher educator self-study: Search for connection and relevance. Paper Presented at the Scottish Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Perth, 2006
Hamilton, L. Setting (regrouping) and broad banding: challenges to the organisation of learning in Scottish primary Schools. Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, Dublin, 2005.

Publications

Publications list for Dr Lorna Hamilton