Planning and Undertaking a project at Kingswood High School: Some reflections

In September 2010 I began an ESRC CASE Studentship in the School of Education, University of Manchester, and Kingswood High School (anonymised name). In this paper I intend to present a reflexive analysis of the first year of the studentship, with a particular emphasis on working as a “liquid researcher” (Thomson and Gunter 2011) both inside and outside of the university and school. I intend taking seriously the recognition that research is a “mess” (Law 2004) and that as a researcher it is integral to my project to challenge my own thinking and learning as the PhD is formed and begun. I intend asking the following questions: (a) what does it mean to be an ESRC funded PhD student in the University and the School? (b) how is research understood in the University and the School? and (c) how has my identity as researcher developed through institutional boundary crossing? I entered the UoM and Kingswood after the studentship had been won, and a formal application and appointment process had been completed. Kingswood is officially a successful school, had built a positive approach to research and had worked on developing a learning culture. I worked with my supervisor and school personnel to design and implement a baseline data collection process, and using this data I reported to the school on key findings to support policymaking and to begin negotiations on my PhD project. The baseline study shows how firstly, the school has developed a strong sense of a learning culture amongst members of the school community, and secondly the extent to which this culture differed amongst a significant minority of students, who had been identified as underachieving, with a segment of this group subsequently described as ‘disengaged’ from both the learning process and the cultural life of the school. I will use my research diary to provide a thematic account of the first year and to examine the research questions. Specifically I will examine both practical and philosophical issues regarding learning about my identity as a researcher who moves between similar and different institutions, professionals and organizational purposes. I intend to present a theorizing of what it means to be simultaneously in and out, and between, and what this means for the development of a coherent project that meets the requirements of the school, university and the social sciences.