University of Sunderland

Recent Research

Currently five members of the research strand are in the final stages of their PhD. Subjects being studied are:

Rick Bowler: Two worlds? - One Youth Work? Countering racisms and developing critical anti-racist intercultural youth work practice in a white highland setting

Jane Davies: A critical investigation of the coverage of 'race' on initial teacher education (ITE) programmes in England and student teachers responses to such provision

Bruce Marjoribanks: The international student experience in the Northeast of England

Kim Syzmanski: Representations of identity in children's literature

Angela Wilcock: An exploration of how help seeking information in relation to domestic violence is communicated to the general public

In addition, five members have recently attained their PhD. Topics studied were:

Nicola Ballantyne (2006) Talking about the National Probation Service and the 'treatment' of intimately violent offenders: questioning the 'what works?' debate

Stephen J Macdonald (2006) Hidden Biographies: dyslexia, disability and social class

John Clayton (2007) Multiculturalism in question: a study of inter-ethnic relations in the city of Leicester

Sheila Quaid (2007) Finding a Place: Negotiating Lesbian Parental Identities

Lynn Keightley-Smith (2009) The multi-agency dynamics of the Final Warning scheme in the North East of England

In the last 2 years (2008-2010) a research income of approximately £200,000 has been secured by members of this research strand. Research projects have included:

• A longitudinal evaluation of the Northern Rock Foundation's Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (Catherine Donovan, Sue Griffiths, Nicola Groves, Hilary Johnson, Jefferey Douglass)
• A qualitative study exploring what the barriers are to referrals of LGBT victim/survivors to domestic violence multi-agency risk assessment conferences. This was funded by Gateshead Domestic Violence Partnership (Catherine Donovan)
• A longitudinal evaluation of Digital Inclusion activity in the city of Sunderland (Stephen Macdonald, John Clayton, Angela Wilcock)
• An evaluation of patient involvement in Primary Care Trusts (Stephen Macdonald and David Taylor-Gooby)
• The North of England Refugee Communities' History and Intercultural Project. This is a partnership between the The North of England Refugee Service (NERS), the University of Sunderland and the Regional Refugee Forum. The first piece of research is exploring the history of NERS (Rick Bowler)
• Research into student retention: two studies, one from the tutors' and one from the students' perspective, exploring retention at first level in higher education (Nicola Ballantyne)
• ESRC sponsored project examining the socio-cultural and learning experiences of working class students in higher education (Gill Crozier, Diane Reay and John Clayton)