It's Just Research

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Who Is Education For? Child-Centred Teaching and the English Classroom

Season 3 · Episode 4

Thursday, May 28, 2026 • Duration 37:48

In this episode of It’s Just Research, hosts Dr Sara Black and Liam Cini O’Dwyer speak with Dr Simon Gibbons about child-centred approaches to teaching English and the importance of making education meaningful to students’ own lives and experiences.

Simon discusses the history of progressive English teaching and also reflects on his own journey from studying science to specialising in English education and his long-standing interest in how children learn.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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How Students Learn Maths: Representation and Creativity in Mathematics

Season 3 · Episode 3

Thursday, April 30, 2026 • Duration 30:50

In this episode of It’s Just Research, hosts Dr Sara Black and Liam Cini O’Dwyer are joined by Dr Carla Finesilver to explore how students learn mathematics, and how the way we represent maths shapes that learning. While children often encounter maths through everyday experiences like sharing and problem-solving, classroom maths can quickly become formal and procedural. Carla discusses how this shift towards symbols and standardised methods can limit creativity and disengage many learners.

You can read more about Carla’s research in her recent paper: Beyond categories: Dynamic qualitative analysis of visuospatial representation in arithmetic

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Learning Beyond the Classroom: Informal Education and Social Life

Season 3 · Episode 2

Friday, March 27, 2026 • Duration 32:24

Dr Sara Black speaks with Professor Chris Winch about informal education and the ways we learn outside formal schooling.

Drawing on his recent book Civil Society’s Education, Chris explains how children develop language, behaviour, values, and practical skills through participation in family and community life, learning through experience, imitation, and shared activity rather than formal teaching.

The conversation also explores how social practices such as promise-keeping, loyalty, and shared norms are sustained through participation and mutual recognition, and reflects on the tension between social conditioning and human freedom.

Civil Society’s Education Reflections on the Informal Roots of Learning was published in 2025 by Bloomsbury.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The Emotional Politics of Migration: Race, Deservingness and Affective Bordering

Season 3 · Episode 1

Thursday, February 26, 2026 • Duration 33:10

In the first episode of Season Three, hosts Dr Sara Black and Liam Cini O’Dwyer speak with Dr Billy Holzberg about his award-winning book Affective Bordering: Race, Deservingness and the Emotional Politics of Migration Control.

Drawing on his research in Gender Studies, Billy explores how emotions are not simply private feelings but powerful forces that shape political life. Introducing the concept of affective bordering, he shows how empathy, fear, anger and hope work together to construct boundaries between those seen as deserving of care and those positioned as threats.

Affective Bordering: Race, Deservingness and the Emotional Politics of Migration Control received the 2025 British Sociological Association Philip Abrams Memorial Prize.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The Thief and the Cash Cow - Precarity, Migration and the Politics of Work

Season 2 · Episode 7

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 • Duration 25:21

In the final episode of Season Two, hosts Dr Sara Black and Dr Pippa Sterk speak with Dr Panos Theodoropoulos about his upcoming book 'The Precarious Migrant Worker,' which explores how migrant workers come to internalise precarity in the UK’s low-wage economy.

Drawing from his own experience working in factories, warehouses and restaurant kitchens, Panos blends theory with vivid ethnography to unpack why precarious migrant workers are so difficult to organise—and what’s at stake when labour is tied to migration status.

The conversation explores the tension between being seen as either a ‘thief’ or a ‘cash cow’, and how migrant workers are often labelled as these metaphors. Together, the hosts and guest reflect on the institutional forces that shape working lives, the costs of resistance, and the power of telling stories from inside the system.

The Precarious Migrant Worker by Dr Panos Theodoropoulos will be released in Spring 2025

Follow us:

📸 Instagram: @itsjustresearchpodcast

🐦 Twitter: @justresearchpod

📧 Email: justresearch-ecs@kcl.ac.uk

🌐 Website: kcl.ac.uk/its-just-research-an-ecs-podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Defending the Spirit of Youth Work

Season 2 · Episode 6

Tuesday, June 17, 2025 • Duration 35:28

In this episode, hosts Dr Sara Black and Dr Pippa Sterk speak with Dr Tania de St Croix and Louise Doherty about their research into how youth work is being reshaped by impact measurement and policy reform.

Having started off as youth workers, both Tania and Louise journeyed into academia through their desire to research the field within which they worked, which has been the subject of continual budget cuts and changes implemented by policy. They joined forces on the research project ‘Rethinking impact, evaluation and accountability in youth work’ in 2017.

Drawing on their article “Embers and Fragments,” they reflect on the pressures of proving value in a field rooted in trust, relationships, and voluntary participation. Together, they challenge the rise of a deficit-based model that demands evidence from marginalised young people, and explore how creative, critical research can help protect the future of youth work.

Follow us:

📸 Instagram: @itsjustresearchpodcast

🐦 Twitter: @justresearchpod

📧 Email: justresearch-ecs@kcl.ac.uk

🌐 Website: kcl.ac.uk/its-just-research-an-ecs-podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Becoming a Teacher, and the Everyday Performance of Teaching

Season 2 · Episode 5

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 • Duration 30:47

In this episode, hosts Dr Sara Black and Liam Cini O’Dwyer are joined by Dr Sarah Steadman to explore her research into the emotional and complex journey of becoming a teacher.

Dr Steadman, a lecturer in English Education and Programme Director for PGCE courses at King’s College London, shares how her doctoral research unexpectedly led her to a deeper exploration of teacher identity—an area often overlooked in mainstream educational research. Rather than focusing on programme designers or institutional structures, her work centres the voices and lived experiences of the trainees themselves.

Our hosts and guest reflect on the pressure trainee teachers face, the complexity of navigating one’s sense of self in the classroom, and the individualistic nature of teaching in an increasingly standardised policy environment. Dr Steadman underscores the importance of acknowledging teacher identity in efforts to tackle recruitment and retention, especially as the profession continues to weather crises—from pandemic disruptions to policy shifts.

Follow us:

📸 Instagram: @itsjustresearchpodcast

🐦 Twitter: @justresearchpod

📧 Email: justresearch-ecs@kcl.ac.uk

🌐 Website: kcl.ac.uk/its-just-research-an-ecs-podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

War Stories and Fairy Shrimp — Interrogating the Military in Everyday Life

Season 2 · Episode 4

Tuesday, April 15, 2025 • Duration 30:07

On this episode of ‘It’s Just Research: Critically Questioning the world we live in,’ In this episode, hosts Dr Sara Black and Dr Pippa Sterk are joined by Dr Antonia Dawes to discuss her critical research into the presence of the military in the UK and its enduring imprint on the national psyche.

We delve into how military power is normalised in public life, through everything from Remembrance Day rituals to the symbolism of the poppy. And Antonia reflects on the contradictions of military expansion framed as ecological stewardship—such as protecting fairy shrimp in tank-made ponds—while questioning the secrecy around military spending and access.

Antonia's latest book, England's Military Heartland: Preparing for War on Salisbury Plains, is out now and shifts focus to the sprawling Salisbury Plain Training Area—the largest military training site in the UK.

Instagram: @itsjustresearchpodcast

Twitter: @justresearchpod

Email: justresearch-ecs@kcl.ac.uk

Website: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/its-just-research-an-ecs-podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Instagram: @itsjustresearchpodcast

Twitter: @justresearchpod

Email: justresearch-ecs@kcl.ac.uk

Website: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/its-just-research-an-ecs-podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Critical Geography and Education Justice

Season 2 · Episode 3

Tuesday, March 18, 2025 • Duration 31:04

On this episode of ‘It’s Just Research: Critically Questioning the world we live in,’ hosts Liam Cini O'Dwyer and Dr Sara Black discuss Sara's PhD research into critical geography and the sociology of trust.

This conversation explores how education is deeply tied to social justice through the lens of time and space. Dr Black explains how schools act as a microcosm of our relationship with the state, revealing broader patterns of mistrust in public institutions. She also unpacks how critical geography helps us understand who benefits from education and who is left behind, touching on issues of wealth, class, and access. The discussion also delves into how poverty manifests in time—how far ahead someone can plan their future—and how this affects everything from school applications to daily commutes.

Instagram: @itsjustresearchpodcast

Twitter: @justresearchpod

Email: justresearch-ecs@kcl.ac.uk

Website: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/its-just-research-an-ecs-podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Instagram: @itsjustresearchpodcast

Twitter: @justresearchpod

Email: justresearch-ecs@kcl.ac.uk

Website: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/its-just-research-an-ecs-podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The necessity of unlearning

Season 2 · Episode 2

Tuesday, February 18, 2025 • Duration 25:36

We kickstarted Season 2 of ‘It’s Just Research: Critically Questioning the world we live in,’ with our hosts catching up. And on this episode we have our first guest of the season, Dr Sophie Perry.

Hosts Dr Pippa Sterk and Liam Cini O'Dwyer are joined by Sophie Perry, a Lecturer in the School of Education, Communication and Society. Sophie shares with us her research into transformative educational practices and why she thinks education must change in order to address growing inequalities and accelerating social and environmental issues.

We also dig deep into the prevalence and problematic nature of ‘grind culture’ in the education sector, where Sophie challenges the presumption that ‘grind culture’ is the only way to make meaningful change.

Instagram: @itsjustresearchpodcast

Twitter: @justresearchpod

Email: justresearch-ecs@kcl.ac.uk

Website: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/its-just-research-an-ecs-podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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It's Just Research – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

It's Just Research – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other9

Instagram1

X1

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other9

Instagram1

X1

Apple Podcasts

Spotify