Supporting Innovative Research

Over the past few tumultuous weeks, as a result of the Lockdown imposed by COVID-19, the Roehampton Business School has had to rapidly transition to more home and digitally based teaching and learning. The research proposed in this application will explore the effect of the changes on the learning journey of commuter students who are the majority in the Business School. The work package will comprise two stages of development:

1. A systematic literature review to gauge existing literature that addresses commuter student learning experiences and engagement. Although academic research in this area is nascent, there are a few papers that are seeking to inform policy on addressing the needs of this category of students.
2. The literature review will be followed by interviews and focus groups. Our concern is with the learning journey of commuter students and how the Business School can meet those needs. The COVID-19 lockdown negatively affected the ‘sticky campus’ strategy causing us, and students, to adapt quickly. This study will provide an opportunity to learn how students coped and what lessons can be learned for the future. Data will be collected on a sample of commuter students studying Business at Roehampton University. Data will be analysed using thematic analysis underpinned by knowledge gained from the literature review.

The findings of the research will be able to provide evidence-based information for interventions offered by Southlands College to the Business School’s large majority of commuter students in this “new normal” era. The research will also enable the Business School to strengthen its learning culture linked to outcomes for its students, such as satisfaction and motivation for learning. Last but not least, the opportunity for dialogue and reflection embedded into the project design will serve as a robust feedback mechanism for the Business School to prioritise time and resources into effective learning journeys for its students.

Lead researcher: Prof Sunitha Narendran, Business School, sunitha.narendran@roehampton.ac.uk

What are the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown on pupils’ outcomes, especially for those who undergo school transition simultaneously? This question can only be asked because we have a single historical event impacting people’s lives at the same time. The aim of this study is to explore the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown on children’s psychosocial and educational adjustment during school transition.

Since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, the subjects of school closure and social distancing measures have become key discussion points, especially as their impact on children is almost unknown. This crisis may have affected children who are in transition from primary to secondary education more, as the lockdown may have impeded schools’ preparation towards this transition. Understanding these impacts will not only be important for identifying potential inventions and support programmes in future major crises, it will also provide a general indication of how transitioning children can be supported this year. To achieve this aim, views from parents and children in interviews six months after the beginning of the lockdown will be gathered. The research will be disseminated to relevant educational trusts, schools, parents and pupils and will likely have an impact at the national and international levels.

Lead researcher: Dr Arielle Bonneville-Roussy, School of Education

This is a research project that focuses on community, grassroots responses to CoVid-19 in the UK and aims to: first, reflect on pandemic-related stories of solidarity, care and mutual support during and after the coronavirus crisis in the UK; and second, document best practices of community resilience and transformational work, as these emerge from stories of care, solidarity and cooperation.

The project consists of two main activities. First: the empirical research (online) and second, dissemination of project’s results (digital database and conferences). In more detail:

1. Digital database/online resource for knowledge sharing.

Digital ethnography refers to Internet or cyber-ethnography (the ethnography of online worlds), including the use of ethnographic research methods in online/digital spaces; the use or adaptation of traditional ethnographic fieldwork methods to study and interpret digitally mediated cultures. For Underberg-Goode (2020)0F[1], this can incorporate the study of real-life cultures using narrative techniques and similar to our case, storytelling.

We draw on digital ethnography to collect ‘lockdown’, inspirational stories of solidarity and care shared by community, grassroots groups in various blogs, online newspaper sites, and digital storytelling platforms (such as social media; Facebook and Twitter). These will be complemented by interviews, conducted on Zoom or other similar platform, with members of some of these identified initiatives.

2. Digital ethnography will be used for the empirical research and particularly the data collection process.

As part of the outputs of the project, we aim to create a digital database, which will constitute an online resource for all the stakeholders of the project. This database will include:

a) inspirational stories, ‘lockdown’ stories of solidarity and care, as these are shared online / social media platforms by community-driven initiatives based in the UK;

b) an online networking space / platform for local initiatives to share knowledge and resources that will contribute to their sustainability and social impact.

Lead researcher: Prof Maria Daskalaki, Business School

[1] Underberg-Goode, N. M. (2020). Digital Ethnography. In Handbuch Soziale Praktiken und Digitale Alltagswelten (pp. 393-399). Springer VS, Wiesbaden.

The project is an investigation into social control by neglect. That is to say, the absence of institutional control and social support in the lives of certain groups. It is intended that a number of case studies will illustrate the conceptual parameters of this theory. Key informants in four sites: criminal justice, disability welfare, homelessness and migration will be consulted. The funding will pay for the transcription of approximately half the case study interviews; that is, 19 interviews (which will all be done over the phone) conducted in two of the sites of neglect: disability benefits and migration.

Lead researcher: Dr Natasha Du Rose, Department of Social Sciences

This research project examines the workplace experiences, career trajectories and professional identity of Latin American professionals in London – an understudied immigrant group in the UK. It builds on the applicant’s previous research on gender, race and class inequality in professional occupations in Mexico (Ruiz-Castro, 2012, Ruiz-Castro & Holvino, 2016), the long work hours culture in professional service firms in the UK (Lupu, Ruiz-Castro & Leca, in press) and professionals’ career transitions in the UK (Ruiz-Castro, Van der Heijden & Henderson, under review).

Employing qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews and focus groups with Latin American women and men in professional occupations in London, this study will examine Latin American professionals’ strategies of integration into the workplace and of career advancement. It will also identify the ways in which Latin Americans construct their professional identity in the British workplace. Finally, it will consider how Latin Americans’ own gendered, raced and classed practices as well as current contextual factors, such as Brexit and Covid-19, influence their career choices and trajectories. This project will also promote collaboration and knowledge exchange between BAME and immigrant practitioners and students as well as scholars and organisations supporting the Latin American community in London.

Lead researcher: Dr Mayra Ruiz-Castro, Business School

This project consists of an art exhibition and a series of corresponding satellite events. Over the year events and exhibitions will be held both at Roehampton and external institutions such as The Freud Museum (London) and the Royal College of Art (RCA). The project is premised on my practice-based PhD research at the RCA and aims to generate public engagement concerning societal frameworks, historical and contemporary, of the repression of women.

Lead researcher: Sharon Young, PhD student at the Royal College of Art, lectures at the University of Roehampton

In an age of decolonizing research and the curriculum (at all levels) it is important to question the increasing glorification of empire in recent years. Using public engagement tools, the Australian ‘working man’s paradise’ narrative and the continuing belief that convicts transported to Australia in the nineteenth century were ‘better off’, can be challenged. Academic research (which has already been carried out) will be disseminated in an informal and engaging way, and promoted to family historians, crime history enthusiasts, as well as students and academics. This will be done through the creation of bi-monthly life-narratives of convicts who were transported to Australia and died as paupers. This will be published on a WordPress blog and will accrue no cost. To accompany those blogs, podcasts will be created, which will be funded. The podcast will extend beyond the life-narrative to engage with the social and economic aspects of the colony (Australia) and issues surrounding the criminalisation of poverty, vagrancy and stigmatisation. These issues remain today and contemporary links will be made. Individual convicts will be utilised to introduce more complex historical influences and issues, to a lay audience. This is not only about education, but also about challenging long standing myths about empire.

Lead researcher: Dr Emma Watkins, Department of Social Sciences

This project seeks to capture and assess the philosophy and impact of Phiroz Mehta (1902-1994), an Indian spiritual teacher in 1970s-1990s Britain, whose impact remains undocumented outside of his close circle and has not been analysed in an academic context. I will conduct oral interviews with surviving members of the Phiroz Mehta Trust and community, who were his students until his death, in order to capture the social history of the community before it disappears.

I will also investigate the substantial personal library of Phiroz Mehta, currently housed and preserved in a private home in Hammersmith, London, to examine his collection and evaluate how he used Indian philosophical and Sanskrit sources in his work – paying particular attention to his dense scholarly marginalia. This strand will also entail analysis of his publications and talks in order to assess their content, context and reach. I have contacted this community in 2020 and have had a very positive response to this research proposal in principle.

The outputs will be an online social history archive (comprising interview recordings and transcripts and unpublished photos and videos), a peer-reviewed academic article, an online learning resource for religious studies academics, and a public lecture at Southlands College, University of Roehampton.

Lead researcher: Dr Karen O’Brien-Kop, Department of Humanities