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Within the Faculty of Education and Theology, all our staff are involved in various research
activities. The importance of research to this university, like any university, is in
order to give our students a learning experience in terms of knowledge and skills, it's very
important that research takes place. So it is about the student experience. It
is about the fact of raising the profile of the institution, of our particular Faculty,
the areas we work in, and also giving staff a sense of developing their own intellectual
ability, which is very important if you are a teacher.
The main strands of research are four: Action Research, focussed on people's personal practice,
the way in which they teach, they help their students to learn. The second strand in the
faculty is Religion, Education and Spirituality, looking at religious education and spirituality.
The third strand is Practical Theology, group of people there looking at Christian theology,
the practice of it by lay people. The fourth one is Religion in Society, looking at issues
of how religion relates to the public sphere, how it relates to issues of politics; economics;
policy makers; how we engage in those dialogues; different world religions and belief systems.
There are two research journals that we run from within the faculty. The first one is
the International Journal of Public Theology, and it draws together academic scholars from
all over the world that are engaging with these issues, predominantly from a Christian
perspective. The second journal, Research In Education -- also an international journal
-- is edited by one of our visiting professors, Professor Ivor Reid. The journal provides
a forum, where scholars within the education sector can actually discuss research methodologies,
methodologies to do with education pedagogies, practice... all those types of things.
There are also two annual conferences that run: The International Conference on Peace
and Reconciliation is held in various locations around the world. This is a conference that
takes different themes, looks at different aspects of how religion, and peace building,
and conflict resolution, and reconciliation can operate in reality.
The second annual conference is Values and Virtues Conference, which is an education
conference, which allows people to come together and look at the way in which we deal with
different values, and how we promote those values and virtues within an educational context.
The Faculty of Education and Theology has over twenty doctoral research students. The
students participate in research seminars, we encourage them to attend conferences, we
encourage them to develop their skills in terms of not only research, but teaching skills.
They're a rich body of people in terms of their knowledge and expertise that they're
developing, and we're working with them as academics to push the boundaries of knowledge.