Dr. Joan Forbes, Reader in Education at the University of Aberdeen, and Dr. Elspeth McCartney FRCSLT, Reader in Speech and Language Therapy at the University of Strathclyde, have a new paper published in the journal: Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education.
The title of the new publication is: Educating child practitioners: a (re)turn to the university disciplines. The paper analyses a specific policy space in Scotland in the current moment involving the key children’s social and educational policy agenda, Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC), and the recent national report on teacher education, the ‘Donaldson Report’.
Joan Forbes and Elspeth McCartney’s new article is the most recent in a series of research collaborations and outputs on inter/professional education which have emerged from the two University of Aberdeen, School of Education led Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded research seminar series: The effects of professionals’ human and cultural capital for interprofessional social capital: exploring professional identities, knowledge and learning for inter-practitioner relationships and interprofessional practice in schools and children’s services (2008-09) and the earlier series: Service integration in schools: research and policy discourses, practices and future prospects (2005-07). Dr. Joan Forbes was Principal Investigator for both ESRC awards.
Linked to the current School of Education THEORY SPACE (The Theory Space) and TEACHER in PUBLIC project (The Teacher in Public Project), and to the University of Strathclyde professional education agenda, the series of studies on inter/professional knowledges and identities are designed to investigate forms of professional education and co-practice across the children’s sector which might better serve children and families and address issues of educational, societal and cultural in/exclusions. The series of inter/professional studies is both empirical and theoretical, applying socio-cultural theory and policy sociology and seeking to develop innovative research methodologies.