Dr George Kunnath (CBG 12.04)

This course is compulsory on the Postgraduate Certificate in Social and Economic Equity. This course is not available as an outside option.

This course is only available to students doing the Postgraduate Certificate in Social and Economic Equity.

This course is to support the independent research project that students on the PGCertification in Social and Economic Equity complete as a part of the programme. The purpose of the project is for students to conduct an independent research project that integrates reflections on the learning they have undergo throughout programme year and applying it to a piece of practitioner-based research.  This research is informed by particular theories in addressing social and/or economic inequalities within researcher in/on/about a particular professional practice in a particular context. The final output project must speak to a particular audience – an audience that could use the finding from the research to of the can take the form of an action research extended essay, a report with policy recommendations, a podcast mini-series, a short documentary, or an e-zine.

2 hours and 30 minutes of workshops in the AT. 2 hours and 30 minutes of workshops in the WT. 3 hours of workshops in the ST.

This course is to support the independent research project that students on the PGCertification in Social and Economic Equity complete as a part of the programme. The purpose of the project is for students to conduct an independent research project that integrates reflections on the learning they have undergo throughout programme year and applying it to a piece of practitioner-based research. 

This research is informed by particular theories in addressing social and/or economic inequalities within researcher in/on/about a particular professional practice in a particular context. The final output project must speak to a particular audience.  Outputs include:

• A policy report with recommendations (8000 words max)
• A draft of an academic article (8000 words max)
• A video documentary (45 minutes) + a literature review / reflection (2500 words)
• A podcast mini-series (3 episodes, each at least 20 minutes long) + a literature review / reflection (2500 words)
• A training handbook for practitioners drawing on research findings (8000 words max)
• An e-zine made up of a seires of short articles / blogs presenting the research and / or graphic art, making arguments for action, etc (total 8000-words max across the articles)

This course consists of 8 hours of seminars, held throughout the academic year.  There are 2.5 hours face-to-face during the first two weeks of September, which focus on project proposals. 

Then, in Winter Term, there are an additional 2.5 hours focused on ethical thinking and reflexivity (and preparing ethical review forms) This will be online because students on this programme are 1) part-time, and 2) distanced.  Therefore, they are not in London during this time. 

The remaining 3 hours are in Spring Term (final week), face-to-face, and it will focus on discussions around the practical implications of conducting research on social change focused on practice.

Students will be expected to produce 1 piece of coursework in the WT.

The formative assessment is a 1500 proposal for the research which is due week 0 of Winter Term.  

• Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2008) Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples 2nd edition. New York: Zed Books Ltd.
• Stuart, K. & Maynard, L. (2022) The Practitioner Guide to Participatory Research with Groups and Communities, Policy Press.
• Campbell, A. & Groundwater-Smith, S. (2007) An Ethical Approach to Practitioner Research: Dealing with Issues and Dilemmas in Action Research. New York: Routledge.
• Gaventa, J. & Cornwall, A. (2006) ‘Challenging the Boundaries of the Possible: Participation, Knowledge and Power’, IDS Bulletin, 3,6, pp. 122-128.
• Bradbury, H. (2015) The SAGE Handbook of Action Research, 3rd edition. Sage. Specifically, the following chapters:

1. ‘Chapter 36: Praxis – Retrieving the Roots of Action Research’ by Olav Eikeland
2. ‘Chapter 47: Knowledge, Democracy , Community-based Action Reseaarch, the Global South and the Excluded Global North’ by George Ladaah Openjuru, Namrata Jaitli, Rajesh Tandon, & Budd Hall
3. ‘Chapter 70: Radical Epistemology as Caffeine for Social Change’ by Alfredo Ortiz Aragon & Juan Giles Macedo

Research project (100%) in August.

The summative assessment is a project output (100% of final mark).  The output can be:

• A policy report with recommendations (8000 words max)
• A draft of an academic article (8000 words max)
• A video documentary (45 minutes) + a literature review / reflection (2500 words)
• A podcast mini-series (3 episodes, each at least 20 minutes long) + a literature review / reflection (2500 words)
• A training handbook for practitioners drawing on research findings (8000 words max)
• An e-zine made up of a series of short articles / blogs presenting the research and / or graphic art, making arguments for action, etc (total 8000 words max across the articles)