Q: What happens when you empower professionals to critically engage with research in their context and support colleagues to become researchers themselves?
A: Professionals become the beating heart of research into practice.
This webinar will share with colleagues the power of putting professionals at the helm of research application and development and the crucial role academic partners play in this process. Also, participants will learn about the core mission of The Huish Centre, its partnership with Camtree, and ways to get involved.
This webinar will explore the work of The Huish Centre and its collaboration with Camtree – the Cambridge Teacher Research Exchange. The Huish Centre is evolving a national network which supports professional research and collaboration.
This session will share steps colleagues can take to join this important work to re-professionalise practice.
Speakers:
Emma Fielding-Principal Richard Huish College
Emma began her career as an Educational Research Assistant at the University of Cambridge, School of Education, supporting teachers with professional research and inquiry and working with secondary school student researchers, championing learner voice as an integral part of school development processes. Since then, she has worked in the post-16 education sector for over 25 years in a variety of roles, as a History and Sociology Teacher, Head of Teaching and Learning at Varndean College, Assistant Principal for Academic Studies at Exeter College and as Principal of Richard Huish 6th Form College in Taunton since 2020.
She has had a career-long interest in the provision of high-quality professional development and in the meaningful transfer of practice between teachers and student facing staff working together in education. She is passionate about the importance of leading quality improvement through Joint Practice Development models and is incredibly proud to be part of a thriving practitioner research community at Huish, the newly appointed Huish Centre and its collaboration with Camtree.
Alison Twiner, Senior Research Associate, Camtree.
Alison is a researcher at Camtree. In this role she particularly leads peer review of submissions prior to publication in the digital library, and training peer reviewers, alongside working with many partners. She has experience in supporting many projects, practitioners and settings to explore, understand and adapt their practices, and to share practitioner-authored insights for the benefit of the wider education community.
She is also a researcher and steering group member of CEDiR – the Cambridge Educational Dialogue Research group – based at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Her interests are particularly in how we use and allow for different ways of communicating, to support meaning making and learning; alongside supporting professional development that is meaningful and impactful locally and at scale.
Patrick Carmichael, Camtree
Patrick is interested in the application of open research approaches in education and leads the development of the Camtree Digital Library, an open-access repository of close-to-practice educational research based at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge.
Rachel Higginson FCCT -Director, The Huish Centre
Rachel is the newly appointed Director of The Huish Centre. She has significant cross sector experience and in addition to her role as Director she is a freelance educator, speaker and adviser.
Rachel is also the founder of the ‘Finding my Voice’ Oracy approach, a fellow of the Chartered college, and recently lead on the Oracy strand for the ‘Re-thinking curriculum project‘.
She is honoured to be the Director of The Huish Centre and is proud to be leading on an important strand in supporting the re-professionalisation of education.
Sarah Marshall-Assistant Director-The Huish Centre
With just over 30 years of teaching experience within the post-16 sector, Sarah finds the most rewarding moments of her career come from working alongside colleagues to explore, refine, and reimagine practice.
Sarah is Course Manager for A Level Biology and a Professional Learning Coach, and in recent years has helped develop and lead the cross-college Action Research program at Richard Huish College.
She is passionate about the way Joint Practice Development reinvigorates practice—brings fresh thinking, innovation, and shared learning to the professional community.