CGD Month in Review for April 2023
A slightly late month in review, because we've been so busy! April has been a varied month, with travels, events, webinars and publications. Particular congratulations to the Scottish Literacies Project team!
What's been happening in the CGD this month:
- The Scottish Literacies Project has been granted an additional year's funding by the Scottish Government! The project has already trained 489 Community Adult Literacy Tutors (CALTs) in the social practices approach (SPA) and 17,135 adult learners have graduated from courses using SPA. The team are looking forward to supporting even more CALTs and adult learners over the next year.
- Dr Peter Mtika and Professor Pamela Abbott awarded certificates to the five Professional Developers on the Scottish Literacies Project. They have been instrumental in faciliating the training of Teacher Training College Tutors and District Education Leaders in SPA training, including developing training materials and project evluation. Congratulations Ali, Asterie, Ides, Rita and Prof Wenceslas!
- Prof Pamela Abbott & Dr Lucia D'Ambruoso visited Rwanda to:
- Visit Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) and Literary Centres taking part in the Scottish Literacies Project.
- Team members from the NIHR Project and Scottish Literacies Project took part in a successful Participatory Action Research (PAR) Training Exchange in Kigali between 28th and 29th April 2023. Materials are available online here.
- The CGD, in partnership with the Business School, ran an event to commerate 10 years of the Rana Plaza Tragedy on 24th April 2023. Read the press release here and watch Prof Abbott's presentation on Fashion Retailers’ Unfair Practices During the COVID-19 Crisis here.
- Prof Pamela Abbott took part in 'Into the Headlines's webinar on Fast Fashion. Listen here.
- Congratulations to Dr Lucia D'Ambruoso who has a forthcoming paper accepted for publication. Mabetha D, Ojewola T, Merwe van der M, Mabika R, Goosen G, Sigudla J, Hove J, Witter, S, D’Ambruoso L. Realising radical potential: building community power in primary health care through Participatory Action Research. International Journal for Equity in health (accepted, forthcoming), 2023. Available at: https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-2292188/v1
- On 12th April 2023, Prof Abbott gave a presentation on "Using the Social Quality Model to Measure Quality of Life" for the seminar on "Economics of Wellbeing and Public Organisations: Measuring Social Value", organised by the Ministry of Health and Cultural Affairs, Finland, Wellbeing Services County of Central Finland, University of Eastern Finland, and SosPed Center. The seminar was aimed at the key Finnish ministries (finance, health and social affairs), private organizations (Banks, startups) and third sector NGOs who are interested on economy of wellbeing approach, measurement of social value and impact investing models supporting social innovations. Slides available here.
- Prof Abbott gave a presentation on "Rwanda" to the Royal Northern and University Club on 6th April 2023. Slides available here.
- The NIHR CAMW project registered the second literature review protocol with PROSPERO. The registration is available at: Abbott, P., Shanks, R,, Stanley, I., and D'Ambruoso, L. (2023). 'A protocol for a critical realist systematic synethesis of school climate change interventions designed to promote pupils' wellbeing in Low- and Middle-Income Countries'. PROSPERO 2023 CRD42023417735. Available at: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42023417735 (Accessed 25th April 2023).
- The pre-print for first NIHR CAMW Project is now available at: Abbott, P., Stanley, I., Nixon G., and D'Ambruoso, L. (2023) 'A protocol for a systematic critical realist synthesis of school mindfulness interventions designed to promote pupils' mental wellbeing', medRxiv. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.06.23288255 (Accessed 25th April 2023).
Looking ahead to May 2023:
- Prof Pamela Abbott, Dr Rachel Shanks and Prof Graeme Nixon are speaking about the NIHR Project at the School of Education's Research Seminar Series.
- Our very first end of semester email newsletter will be shared, sharing more about our work and sneak peeks into the exciting news and events coming up later this year. Want to join the mailing list? Sign up here.