News and Blog

BBC Radio Wales’s ‘Good Morning Wales’ interview Professor David Blackaby on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Report on Poverty and implication for Wales

Using recent findings from the WISERD Education project, Dr Kevin Smith not only compares how boys and girls perform at school but how they feel when at school. ‘For the past three years, our research group has been analysing the difference in boys’ and girls’ perceptions of their school experiences. Our study, involving approximately 1,500 pupils…

The usual discussions about children’s schooling experiences often focus on academic achievement, personal development and school evaluation. Ask a teacher, parent or policy maker what is the most important thing a school should offer and many will say it is education: they want children to develop the knowledge and skills that will help them build…

Dr Kevin Smith features in The Conversation on how boys and girls perform at school and how they feel when at school: ‘Girls may perform better at school than boys – but their experience is much less happy’. The article is accessed through the link below. https://theconversation.com/girls-may-perform-better-at-school-than-boys-but-their-experience-is-much-less-happy-63161

Professor Stephen Drinkwater was broadcast as part of a feature on Share Radio about whether a cut in the number of low-skilled EU migrants would hurt the UK economy. A recording of the broadcast is provided below. https://audioboom.com/posts/5003441-would-a-cut-in-the-number-of-low-skilled-eu-migrants-hurt-the-uk-economy

  In 2014, I presented a paper at the British Education Research Association’s (BERA) annual conference. Shortly after the presentation, I was approached by an editor with Palgrave MacMillan and asked if I was interested in publishing a book as part of the Pivot series on citizenship education in Wales. I was delighted by the…

New research by Professor Paul Chaney has been published in the leading international academic publication Journal of Civil Society (Routledge, T & F, Impact factor 1.22). It argues that existing studies generally fail to systematically examine the way that contextual factors shape political representation outside of political parties, government and the formal business of electing parliamentarians….

Just 18 weeks passed between the announcement of a UK referendum on EU membership, and the vote for Brexit. In this startlingly short time an intense and competitive environment sprung-up as the two official campaigns Vote Leave and Britain Stronger in Europe made their case. Both sides quickly succumbed to name calling, dishonesties and emotional arguments. As a result…

Dr Sioned Pearce explores trust in relation to voting preference in the EU Referendum campaigns. The study found remarkably low levels of trust for the campaigns on both sides among all age groups, adding to the argument that the campaigns tapped-into mistrust rather than created it over an 18 week period. For Dr Sioned Pearce’s blog post…

On July 19th Dr Dawn Mannay give a well-attended seminar presentation at Cardiff School of Social Sciences. The event was jointly hosted by WISERD and the Social Research Association Cymru. Dr Mannay’s talk explored how different visual and creative research approaches can be employed to work with diverse communities. The seminar focused on the data production…