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BU contributes to leading review on flies for heart research

It may surprise you but your heart is nothing new. Insects that evolved nearly half a billion years ago had already developed beating hearts. Much of the genetic machinery that controls our own heart beat and heart’s contraction has been conserved during evolutionary time – nature has not deemed it necessary to change it much. OK, the scale and shape of our hearts has changed a little since flies evolved but the molecular mechanics underpinning each heart beat haven’t. This means we can use flies and their genetics to understand human hearts. This is especially useful for ageing research when other models are simply too challenging to manipulate. Research work funded both in the UK by the British Heart Foundation and the USA by the National Institutes of Health is now being summarised in this review. The image shows the Drosophila (fruit fly) heart tube (HT) with associated kidney-like cells either side of it (purple) and alary muscles which act like guy ropes, pinning the heart to the fly’s abdomen. Remember this the next time you wash your car’s window-screen – you’re scraping away a lot of very cool biology!

Dr. Paul S. Hartley – your local ‘heart Drosophilist’

2019 Good Clinical Practice training dates

NHS, Research assessment, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, Training

Good Clinical Practice, or ‘GCP’, is a requirement for those wishing to work on clinical research projects in a healthcare setting.

GCP is the international ethical, scientific and practical standard to which all clinical research is conducted. By undertaking GCP, you’re able to demonstrate the rights, safety and wellbeing of your research participants are protected, and that the data collected are reliable.

The local dates for the 2019 Good Clinical Practice full day and half day refresher training are now on the Clinical Governance blog!

Get in touch with Research Ethics to find out how to book.

RKEO alternative 12 days ‘to’ Christmas – 5 Ethics gold rings

On the fifth day to Christmas, my RKEO friend gave to me, five ethics gold rings.

Bournemouth University (BU) is committed to promoting and upholding the highest quality academic and ethical standards in all its activities. All research undertaken by BU staff and students must have ethical approval. Please ensure you consult the Research Ethics Code of Practice and gain ethical approval before commencing research.

Find out more here, including how to apply for ethical approval, guidance on the ethics checklist, and much more.

Health Research Authority releases eLearning for student researchers

NHS, PG research, Research assessment, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, student research, Training

The HRA have improved the information provided on their website for student researchers and those who support them, in planning to conduct research within the NHS.

The organisation has provided three bite size eLearning modules with a focus on the following topics:

  • Sponsors’ and supervisors’ role in educational research
  • Applying for HRA and HCRW (Health and Care Research Wales) Approval
  • Setting up research sites in England and Wales.

You can see the update here, and access the modules here.

Remember that support is on offer at BU if you are thinking of introducing your research ideas into the NHS – email the Research Ethics mailbox, and take a look at the Clinical Governance blog.

new article published by Philipp Wassler and Ksenia Kirillova 2018, Hell is other people? An existential-phenomenological analysis of the local gaze in tourism

Philipp Wassler and Ksenia Kirillova 2018, Hell is other people? An existential-phenomenological analysis of the local gaze in tourism, Tourism Management, Volume 71, April 2019, Pages 116-126
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.10.005

Abstract

The “Gaze” is a complex and overarching phenomenon comprised of diverse “Gazers” and “Gazees”. This paper adopts an existential-phenomenological perspective to understand tourists’ lived experiences of being gazed upon by local people. Based on thirty experiences collected from interviews with ten participants, we show that experiencing the “Local Gaze” exposes the tourist as Sartrean “Tourist-esque”: an inauthentic experiencer of positivity, discrimination, alienation and self-consciousness. Moments of true human connections are at best ephemeral. Through an existentialist lens, the study questions the possibility of authentic host-guest relationship in tourism and argues that to maintain hopes for an authentic relationship, the concepts of “Gaze” and – perhaps even of “Tourism” – need to be transcended.

Reminder: A Few Places Left for Creative Writing Workshop

PG research

The Creative Writing for Academics Workshop on 11 & 12 January is filling up very quickly!

There are only a few places left. If you can commit to attending both days, email Kip Jones now to hold your place.

Read all about a previous Creative Writing for Academics workshop here: https://goo.gl/3fz2Yu

…then get ready for the next one coming in January! https://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2018/12/05/two-day-workshop-in-creative-writing-for-academics-now-open/

VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLE (FACEBOOK LIVESTREAM): Digital media and the Syrian Crisis.

international

VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLE (FACEBOOK LIVESTREAM):
Digital media and the Syrian Crisis. How development organisations leverage digital technologies to support Syrian refugees & Internally Displaced People.

December 13, 3pm-5pm (GMT)

You are warmly invited to participate to a virtual roundtable/debate on how organisations use digital media to promote peacebuilding, reconciliation and community reconstruction in the Syrian crisis. The following organisations will present their experiences, and discuss challenges and opportunities opened up by digital media for supporting peace-building and reconciliation in the Syrian crisis:

  • Nabil Eid, Strategic Disability Inclusion – Syria
  • Joel Bergner, Artolution.
  • Ali Sheikh and Aida Hussein, Syrian Eyes.
  • Mohammed Al Dbiyat, Salamieh Friends Association.
  • Suha Tutunji, Jusoor Organization.

The event will be live-streamed on the e-Voices: Redressing Marginality facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BUevoices/

The virtual roundtable is part of the AHRC International Network eVoices: Redressing Marginality. To know more about the network please check our website: http://evoices.cemp.ac.uk/

Using drama and storytelling in dementia care: Kick-off meeting for ERASMUS+ 2018 funded project

BU Challenges

Using drama and storytelling in dementia care: Kick-off meeting for ERASMUS+ 2018 funded project

Last week, Dr Ben Hicks, I and the European partners from Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Ireland began the ERASMUS+ 2018 funded project, exploring drama and storytelling in dementia care. The kick-off meeting was held in Bucharest, Romania, where all partners met to discuss the implementation of the project and establish targets for the next two years.

The morning session began with a discussion regarding the process of producing a booklet “Life in a story: creative arts and storytelling use for Alzheimer’s Disease patients and carers”. This will be based on a systematic review, conducted by Bournemouth University, and interviews with professionals who use drama and storytelling as a mean to engage people with dementia. In the afternoon, representatives from The Gaiety School of Acting, Ireland, introduced us to the use of theatre and storytelling. This was by far the most creative and interesting moment from the meeting, as we passed a ball of string amongst ourselves whilst regaling the proudest moment in our life.

The ball of string went around the table and everyone got a chance to tell their story. At the end, we could tangibly see that although we were all individuals, we each had similar stories that bound us together. The partners from Gaiety School of Acting will be creating a training programme using similar methods that focus of theatre and storytelling to train health and social care professionals to better understand, engage and support people living with dementia and their care partners.

 

As the meeting progressed, we also discussed the preparation of a toolkit for family carers to improve communication with people with dementia as well as the policy recommendations required for creating dementia friendly communities and institutions through the use of creative arts.

The meeting went well, and clear targets and future plans were established for the project. Moving forward, Bournemouth University will now begin conducting a systematic review of the area as well as interviews with dementia practitioners. This phase of the research will conclude in April 2019 and will inform the development of a ‘Train-the-Trainer booklet that will supplement the future drama and storytelling workshops (Phase 2).

My first international meeting as a research assistant exceeded my expectations. We received a very warm welcome, tackled the workload with a lot of heated discussions and achieved positive outcomes from the meeting. It was interesting to learn about cross cultural differences in dementia care and the benefits that the creative arts can offer people with dementia and their care partners. However, it was also upsetting to listen to project partners sharing their experiences of battling their Governments to provide even the most minimal of financial support for those living with dementia. Hopefully, this ERASMUS+ 2018 project will not only bring more dementia awareness across European countries, but also enable a wide variety of people to use drama and storytelling in dementia care to improve understanding of dementia and enhance the support provided to those living with the condition. I really look forward to the practical part of this project, when we receive the training from Gaiety School of Acting.

Blog written by Irma Konovalova (Research Assistant in the ADRC).

 

ADRC launches ageing and dementia friendly environments education workshops to share research and create impact in practice

People with dementia often find it more difficult to understand and navigate built environments. Dementia-friendly environments compensate for impairments to maximise independence and quality of life. During the last week of November Prof Jan Wiener, Dr Michelle Heward, Amanda Adams and Dr Sarah Hambidge from the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) launched the new SustAining residenT NAVigation in care environments (SAT NAV) education programme, running two workshops with 28 local practitioners including care home managers, architects and interior designers.

The aim of the workshops is to enable practitioners to develop strategies to support people with dementia in unfamiliar environments. To facilitate this, practitioners learnt about existing ageing and dementia friendly design principles and audit tools as well as how navigation research can support wayfinding in care environments. This included an overview of the ADRC empirically validated design guidelines, a key output from a two year ESRC grant and over 10 years of research by Prof Jan Wiener, to support effective way finding in people with Alzheimer’s disease in care environments. Design suggestions made by students from the Bournemouth Arts University Graphic Design course led by Alice Stevens were also included to give practitioners ideas for implementing the design guidelines in their own practice.

Feedback from the workshops suggests that the practitioners ‘…have a better understanding about navigation and orientation for people with dementia’ and that the ‘training has given me ideas to take back to workplace’. The team will continue to develop the education workshops and plan to hold several more in 2019. Evaluation of the impact of the workshops in practice will include following up with the practitioners at a later date to explore how they have applied the learning in their own practice.

To register your interest in attending a future workshop please contact Michelle Heward.

RKEO alternative 12 days ‘to’ Christmas – 3 more months in the EU

On the third day to Christmas, my RKEO friend gave to me, 3 more months in the EU.

Or will it be? Who knows with Theresa May quoting The Jam with ‘the public gets what the public wants’ and the rest of her Cabinet quitting.

Assuming it’s all still going ahead, get your Horizon 2020 application in quickly.  Find out what’s on offer here. If you want advice on any of the H2020 calls, please contact Ainar Blaudums for more information. If you don’t know Ainar, see the second day of Christmas blog post to find out all about him.

HE policy update for the w/e 7th December 2018

Student Engagement

Another lively week in HE policy – starting late last Friday night when the Minister resigned..and we had to wait several days for the new one to be appointed.

New Minister

For those watching HE twitter late on a Friday night, the big news was Sam Gyimah’s resignation over Brexit (amid some whispers from the HE conspiracy theorists that fee cuts are nigh and Sam may have been exiting before the blame falls).  The new HE Minister is Chris Skidmore. We’ve compiled a profile on him here.

(more…)

Education Research with Impact: Introducing the 3D Pedagogy Framework

My research, teaching and professional practice have always been centred on equality and social justice, especially in relation to race, ethnicity, culture and gender.

Prior to joining BU in 2014, I established an influential network of intellectuals and scholar-activists committed to the cause of race equality – Black British Academics. A primary consultancy activity we’ve been involved in over the past few years is addressing the lack of ethnic and cultural diversity in the higher education curriculum.

It was from these origins that I developed the final year optional unit in the Faculty of Media and Communication – Media Inequality in 2014/15. The unit centres on critical engagement with historical and contemporary issues around race, ethnicity and culture and their relationship with power across the media and in communications practice. It aims to facilitate the development of cultural competencies that can be applied in a professional context to a range of communication industries.

The unit has run for two academic years in 2016/17 and 2017/18 and during this time I collected quantitative data via an end of unit survey through which students reported high levels of critical consciousness and agency and perception of greater levels of cultural competence. It attracted praise from the external examiner and two SUBU ‘You’re Brilliant’ awards that mention the unit and its focus on social justice. In 2018/19 I won the Academic Excellence Award in the Dorset Ethnic Minority Awards and I was presented with Staff Member of the Year Award by SUBU at their BME Awards last week.

The sector, student and community recognition of my pedagogies around social justice and equality created a strong motivation for me to extend impact beyond my own teaching practice. Over the years I have shared my teaching strategies with the international academic community through education conferences in Hawaii, Washington DC, New York and Austin, Texas, between 2016 and 2018. The positive feedback and engagement I received led me to develop the 3D Pedagogy Framework; an inclusive teaching strategy that aims to decolonize, democratize and diversify the higher education curriculum.

In May of this year I applied for ACORN funding through the Early Career Researcher Network and was successful in gaining a major award. This enabled me to develop and pilot a 3D Pedagogy workshop that I delivered at BU, De Montfort University and the Canada International Conference on Education in Toronto to a total of 27 participants.

The findings from this study documented in a forthcoming journal article suggest 3D Pedagogy is an effective approach to enhance the cultural competencies of educational practitioners and promote critical reflection; important steps towards transforming the curriculum and the student learning experience.

My teaching, research and professional practice on issues around race and equality over the past few years have occurred during an era of increased media and political focus on the curriculum and student outcomes. Proportionally, more students of colour attend university and with increased competition for student recruitment, ignoring longstanding racial disparities in higher education has financial implications for HEIs.

It is within this climate that the Office for Students recently announced plans to publish national data on attainment gaps by institution to incentivise HEIs to develop concrete measures to address ethnic disparities in progression and attainment. Access and Participation Plans require HEIs to demonstrate how disparities in progression and attainment are being tackled and evaluated with documented evidence.

The Access Excellence and Impact Committee (AEIC) was formed in 2017/18 in response to these sector changes to lead education activities, replacing the Fair Access Group.  Membership includes all Executive Deans and relevant Heads of Professional Service, the Head of the Centre of Excellence in Learning (CEL), and SUBU representation.

In July this year the AEIC put out a call for projects aligned with its priority themes of access, success and participation and especially strategies to address gaps in progression and attainment. Having just completed my ACORN project, with preliminary findings of the 3D Pedagogy Workshop being extremely positive; I applied and was successful in gaining an award.

As a result, 3D Pedagogy (which is fully endorsed and supported by SUBU), is to be embedded across BU through delivery of the workshop to all 20 departments, as part of a two-year project. The workshop will be integrated into the PG Cert in Academic Practice offered through CEL and embedded into Academic Quality through future revision to 2B: Programme Structure and Curriculum Design Characteristics. It is being developed as a case study for BU2025 (inclusivity) and will also be promoted through the HEA Fellowship route as an opportunity to develop a case study that meets the UKPSF across Activity (A1, A2), Core Knowledge (K2, K3) and Professional Values (V2, V4).

In addition to a forthcoming paper in the International Journal of Technology & Inclusive Education that documents my pilot study funded by the ACORN award; I have also secured a book contract with Routledge for a forthcoming title that incorporates 3D Pedagogy centred on media education. The book is part of a series on media literacy co-edited by Prof Julian McDougall, Head of the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP), of which I am a member and through which I have been developing my education research.

*My AEIC Award provides funding for a research assistant at grade 6 to support the project, working one-day a week for the duration. The role will involve data collection and analysis as well as administration of the project, including assistance in the development of electronic resources. While this post is being advertised externally, internal applications are welcome, ideally from PGRs with an understanding of issues around race, ethnicity and culture in higher education as well as experience of handling quantitative and qualitative data.

I’m pleased to have the opportunity to lead a major project driving changes to education practice at BU, which was facilitated by the ACORN Award, enabling me to pilot the 3D Pedagogy Workshop, and look forward to developing more research in this area.

*Interested parties should contact Dr Deborah Gabriel for further information about the post by email to: dgabriel@bournemouth.ac.uk

MIDIRS reproduced Afghanistan paper

international, PG research, Publishing, writing

Dr. Rachel Arnold’s paper ‘Parallel worlds: an ethnography of care in an Afghan maternity hospital’ [1] originally published in Social Science & Medicine (Elsevier) has been reprinted in full in MIDIRS.  This is quite an accolade and should help this paper reach a wider audience.  Rachel graduated with a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences in 2016, illustrating that some of the best papers get into print (long) after completing one’s Ph.D. thesis.

 

 

Reference:

  1. Arnold, R., van Teijlingen, E., Ryan, K., Holloway, I. (2018) Parallel worlds: an ethnography of care in an Afghan maternity hospital, Social Science & Medicine 126:33-40.

BU-Community Partnership Workshop (Refugee & Migrant Leisure Network)

Funding opportunities, Fusion

Dr. Jaeyeon Choe, Dr. Varuni Wimalasiri, Dr. Nicola De Martini Ugolottiand, and Dr. Jayne Caudwell in Faculty of Management organised the Refugee and Migrant Leisure Network workshop on December 5th with community partners including Dorset Race Equality Council and Unity in Vision.

During the two-hour workshop, we discussed how to support refugee and migrant communities in Dorset including ‘vocation’ and language learning. We also discussed other mechanisms that help their re-settlement and integration such as cooking workshops, community events, music and art, all which might provide a broader scope of support such as social and emotional/psychological well-being.

We agreed that we need to listen to refugee and migrant ‘voices’ for their settlement, integration, meaning making and well-being in order to develop supportive programmes. It’s often seen that existing programmes don’t meet what refugee and migrant populations actually need. There is an urgent need to listen to their problems, challenges, so as to develop effective support programmes.

We also discussed ‘qualitative’ data that community organisations often collect including stories, lived experiences and anecdotes do not communicate well with policy makers. What will be an effective strategy to convert the ‘messy’ data (from community events, sport, music, and art) into policy making? This is a challenge for both community organisations and researchers.

Our community partners also shared that they are facing new challenges (ie funding). All councils and community organisations face difficulties in developing, managing and ‘sustaining’ support systems for refugee and migrant populations. Whilst discussing the role of a local university when supporting refugee and migrant issues, securing some funding can be one area to work on for both researchers and community groups. For example, Dr. Jaeyeon Choe recently applied for a grant with two of the community partners to support their activities as well as her own research. The proposal focuses on Syrian refugee resettlement, belonging, subjective well-being and community ‘food’ events in rural UK. We are also looking into larger/future collaborative funding opportunities together.

For BU academics, it was very fruitful to listen to and learn from community workers about refugee and migrant issues in Dorset and beyond. Besides the productive discussions, it was inspiring to see people who are passionate about supporting and working hard for refugee and migrant communities!

If you are interested in our network, please follow us:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/400355213641367?tsid=0.41635546925909617&source=result

Introduction to Good Clinical Practice – 17th January 2019

NHS, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, Training

Are you interested in running your own research project within the NHS? Good Clinical Practice, or ‘GCP’, is a requirement for those wishing to work on clinical research projects in a healthcare setting.

GCP is the international ethical, scientific and practical standard to which all clinical research is conducted. By undertaking GCP, you’re able to demonstrate the rights, safety and wellbeing of your research participants are protected, and that the data collected are reliable.

The next GCP full day session is scheduled for Thursday 17th January, at Bournemouth University, Lansdowne Campus (Executive Business Centre) – 8:45am – 4:30pm.

The day will comprise of the following sessions:

  • Introduction to research and the GCP standards;
  • Preparing to deliver your study;
  • Identifying and recruiting participants – eligibility and informed consent;
  • Data collection and ongoing study delivery;
  • Safety reporting;
  • Study closure.

If you’re interested in booking a place, please contact Research Ethics.

Remember that support is on offer at BU if you are thinking of introducing your research ideas into the NHS – email the Research Ethics mailbox, and take a look at the Clinical Governance blog.