Research

Rachel Nicol

Director of Governance and Clerk to the Corporation rnicol@bedford.ac.uk

Sam Jones MSc (Oxon)

Advanced Practitioner - Research and Scholarship Lead TES FE Awards - Teacher of the year 2019 sjones@bedford.ac.uk

Corporation Research Paradigm

The Corporation are continuing to achieve excellent governance oversight through a full cycle of virtual meetings. The retirements from the Board of Stewart Briggs and Sulaman Sunny were noted in December 2020.

The Board is currently recruiting to a number of external governor vacancies and continues to work closely with Anastassia Parsons to develop a board that reflects the diversity of our student population and inspire tomorrow’s leaders. Please support us by passing on contacts from your own networks and by forwarding any recruitment material when it is posted on LinkedIn.

All Governors miss contact with staff and students on campus but are delighted to be joined in meetings by staff Governors, Amanda Wagstaff and Melissa Peacock and students, Lauren Newman and Abi Stevens. If there are any online events you feel they would enjoy, particularly with your students, please send me the details.

As well as overseeing management of Group operations the Corporation continue to work with the Executive to develop the strategic plan from 2022. A development afternoon in November saw presentations and discussion with Rob Bridge (the new CEO of North Northamptonshire Unitary Council) and Bob Harrison (from Support for Education and Training) on the digital future for FE. The Group’s digital strategy will be taken forward as part of the strategic planning process. Governors will receive briefings on the internal research projects, as well as the wider strategic context such as that set out in the Skills for the Future White Paper. Such briefing will inform the strategic decisions in due course.

For more information on Corporation matters please contact the Director of Governance & Clerk to the Corporation, Rachel Nicol on rnicol@bedford.ac.uk Research can be an off-putting word. If you Google the word it’s actually defined in fairly simple terms; studying an issue in an organised way to establish facts and new conclusions.

The problem, is that research doesn’t really look that simple. Educational research for example is often hidden in journals, written in language which can be excluding and restricted by gatekeepers who have very definite ideas of ‘what counts’ as research. Alternatively, it is huge pieces of work, so large in scale that no one person could undertake the work alone, and as such is served up as a monolithic, incontestable ‘truth’.

Both discourses can lock out the practitioners themselves, pushing those actually undertaking the educational work to the position of consumer of a higher level of knowledge that is so carefully gatekept and curated. But this doesn’t need to be the case.

If research is about taking a sensible, organised approach to establishing facts, can’t things be done at a small scale and built, in the same way knowledge based case law is built?

Can’t out conception of it be broader? Why isn’t updating your subject knowledge and systematically building it into your curriculum or classroom practice counted if you can get a PhD from trying out one person’s theory in a new context?

The fact is it could. In fact there is no reason why we could not begin to develop models of research or enquiry that fit our sector. This would allow staff working in the sector to build up banks of knowledge of what we do that is good and worthwhile, rather than being told what is good and worthwhile but outside agencies. This would allow us to refute and rebut rather than passively or grudgingly accept. It is an interesting proposition and one that could benefit our students and their educational experiences.

Caroline Biddle

Executive Director of Human Resources cbiddle@bedford.ac.uk

Be Kind

The death of celebrity Caroline Flack a year ago, brought the notion of ‘Be Kind’ to the fore again, with many online campaigns and initiatives. Little did we know at that point how hard a year we had ahead of us and how important kindness would be to all of us.

Research from The Harvard Business School shows that carrying out an act of kindness provides people with greater happiness than having kindness shown to them and furthermore, because of this feeling of happiness they were more likely to carry out more acts of kindness.

So, if you’d like a little happiness boost try some of these, or come up with some of your own – the more variety the better!

Contact someone who may be lonely

The pandemic, and particularly lockdown, have left some people alone and isolated. Take time to telephone or video call someone for a chat on a regular basis.

Support a Neighbour

There may be an elderly person in your street, or someone who has difficulty getting to the shops – offer to do their shopping when you go to the supermarket, or add it to your online order. Maybe just take them some flowers or a sweet treat.

Drive with kindness

Lots of opportunities here, stop in a high street to enable someone to park easily, let someone out into traffic, smile and acknowledge other drivers being kind or just be patient when somebody gets in the wrong lane or makes an error.

Pay a few compliments

Let your partner know they look great or next time you video chat a friend find something nice to say about them. We all like a compliment here and there!

Smile

Smiling is infectious – the more you smile, the more those around you will smile as well.

Express your gratitude

Saying “thank you” and “please” are like the oil that lubricates the engine of human interaction. Works every time!

Donate to charity

There is an intrinsic value in helping others who need support and at the same time you’ll give yourself a mental boost.

Try to do one or two of these acts of kindness every week. Change it up each time. Look at what you get for a few acts of kindness. Your mental and physical health will improve. You are less likely to suffer from heart disease, blood pressure, stress, and depression. It’s a bargain- go for it! Source: Robert Locke, author of Ziger the Tiger Stories, a health enthusiast specialising in relationships, life improvement and mental health.