Overview

This session is part of Newer Researcher Work in Progress Webinar series. These sessions are open and free for all to attend. SRHE aims to provide a platform to present the most stimulating and innovative research taking place in higher education studies and practice. The Newer Researcher Network recognises the body of exciting research being undertaken by newer and early career researchers and seeks to create a supportive space in which such researchers can present their work-in-progress, receive feedback, and develop connections with national and international peers. Questions and feedback from attendees are warmly welcomed. We aim for this to be a constructive space for work in progress. 

Schedule  

Speaker Bios

Alexander Vaniev (Sasha), AFHEA, is a doctoral researcher in higher education in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, nearing the completion of his PhD. His research examines how UK early-career academics learn to teach, with a particular focus on how people, policies, technologies, concepts, and spaces come together to shape early lectureship experiences. Drawing on actor-network theory and visual network analysis, he develops graph-based visual maps of academic practice that make visible the often hidden relationships, pressures, and support mechanisms involved in becoming a university teacher. His longitudinal study with lecturers across two different UK universities highlights that “it takes a village” – e.g. colleagues, PGCert peers, students, and academic developers – but also “what the village is made of” – e.g. learning technologies, teaching materials, learning spaces, and expectations of PGCert – to foster competent, confident, and well-supported junior faculty. More broadly, his work argues for relational approaches to pedagogy and more inclusive institutional policies to support early-career academic development in the UK higher education.

Jessica Benson-Egglenton is a Research Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University whose research experience spans small-scale qualitative studies through to large experimental trials. Her research examines educational inequalities, particularly access to higher education, and how intersections of class, gender and race shape students' experiences and subjectivities. This academic focus builds on extensive experience in widening participation evaluation roles across several HE institutions. Her doctoral research uses Foucauldian discourse theory, critical approaches to education policy analysis, and narrative methods to explore how young women from white, working-class families understand and narrate their journeys to becoming university students.