We are delighted to announce that WISERD has teamed up with Cardiff’s Survey Data Users Brown Bag (SURDUBB) Research Group to help promote the research of those working with large-scale surveys and administrative data within the social sciences!

SURDUBB is an interdisciplinary group of quantitative and mixed methods researchers based in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. Once a month, WISERD will dedicate one of its regular lunchtime seminar slots (Tuesday 12-1pm) to showcasing quantitative research from across the social sciences.

Our first WISERD/SURDUBB seminar takes place on 31st January and will be presented by Dr Simon Massey of Manchester Metropolitan University:

Attitudes and beliefs are often difficult to measure. We can’t use a ruler or a weighing scale. We often see statistics about people’s opinions reported and discussed in the media but we rarely see discussion on the measurements used.

Dr Simon Massey is a Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Sociology and Deputy Director of the Manchester Metropolitan Q-Step Centre. He is currently involved in several projects concerning mathematics and statistics education in the UK and Europe. He also teaches quantitative methods to undergraduates and advises institutions across the globe on how to improve their teaching of statistics to social science students.

Simon’s research showcases reliable methods used in research with children to help produce necessary evidence of how cultural and economic capital play a fundamental role in comprehensive education and particularly in mathematics, a subject which is of the highest value when it comes to further and higher education entry, not to mention a wide array of career options.

Simon’s research argues children’s attitudes to mathematics are determined for them, not by them and that this must change if we are to expect our future work force to be proficient in the desperately demanded sectors requiring digital and data skills.

The presentation will introduce techniques inspired from traditional social sciences to help:

  • Measure children’s attitudes reliably and validly
  • Modernise the use of traditional quantitative techniques
  • Produce layers of evidence to show how young respondents can be relied on for self-completion data collection

This presentation is aimed at all students within social sciences, including Sociology, Education, and Psychology.

Email wiserd.events@cardiff.ac.uk for the Zoom link to join us