(Post)qualitative Research in Education

The (Post)qualitative Research in Education group recognises and works across the following areas of activity and interest: ‘Research in Psychogeography, Post-qualitative inquiry, Autoethnography, and Life-Writing in education’ (RiPPALe).

As a CERES research group, (Post)qualitative Research in Education and the RiPPALe remit is interested in exploring the cracks and lost spaces of experience that refract and dissipate through the folds and contours of everyday life across all facets of education and higher education.

(Post)qualitative Research in Education and RiPPALe are interested in research, writing, and ideas, that reach and extend beyond established pedagogic, curricular boundaries and conceptual formulas. Collaborators are encouraged to think/write critically and creatively about movement, space, environment, and memory in relation to education, learning and experience. (Post)qualitative Research in Education/RiPPALe is interested in ‘ontologies of immanence’, and exploring new ways of developing and articulating philosophical concepts. (Post)qualitative Research in Education/RiPPALe aims to avoid the regurgitation of material that already exists, and re-orient research through experimentation, creativity, provocation, and innovation. It is interested in work that grapples with new theories of memory, theories of the self, and debates about literacy, indigeneity and becoming.

(Post)qualitative Research in Education/RiPPALe interprets and critically confronts the notion of ‘education’ by challenging institutionalised and formalised learning models. It recognises work that engages with informal learning and everyday life, along with unstructured approaches to knowledge and learning. Often these experiences belie hidden aspects of discovery and transformation which remain unnoticed and unrecognised. Non-formal explorations of – and approaches to – knowledge and learning are also important, along with hybrid approaches to knowledge, learning and discovery, and the problematisation of curriculum thinking.

Related and connected to (Post)qualitative Research in Education and RiPPALe’s experimental approach to ways of writing, Dr Anne-Marie Smith is associated with SAW’s (Student Advice and Wellbeing) Bibliotherapy programme. She runs monthly ‘Writing for Wellbeing’ (W4W) workshops. These workshops are open to staff and students, offering an hour’s safe and relaxed space to get stuff out of your head and onto paper.

Utilising the freewriting approach the sessions enable participants to focus on the process of writing rather than any product or output: giving yourself permission to just ‘write without rules’ about whatever emerges from your pen or pencil has the potential to lead to insights, revelations, and greater self-awareness. The workshop activities – stemming from Anne-Marie’s experience as a qualified Poetry/Bibliotherapy Practitioner (with iaPOETRY.org) – are based on a mash-up of approaches taken from Poetry/Bibliotherapy, Therapeutic Journaling, and Expressive writing for Wellbeing. 

We welcome internal LJMU (and external ‘affiliate’) membership applications from academics, postgraduate students and researchers working, researching in, and writing as spart of, the areas covered by (Post)qualitative Research in Education and RiPPALe.

You can apply for LIFE/(Post)qualitative Research in Education membership online.

The (Post)qualitative Research in Education research group and RiPPALe research group is coordinated by:

• Dr Craig Hammond
  Email: C.A.Hammond@ljmu.ac.uk
• Dr Anne-Marie Smith
  Email: A.Smith3@ljmu.ac.uk

People

Meet the members of this group.