⭐ ⭐Two Stars and a Wish⭐ by lesley

hillydavies — 2026-05-09 09:43:10 UTC

never ending state of getting there - what an inspirational concept

My take away from today already ' turn research progess into purpose'

2026-05-09 09:46:02 UTC

Such valuable encouraging words Jane Doka. Amazing

Dogs who help humans discover humans

fabulouslyrelevant — 2026-05-09 09:50:50 UTC

Grainne's description of her research and how assistance dogs changed the way humans see one another added more to my developing understanding of diffractive practice. Thank you.

Key theme emerging from all is 'building'

2026-05-09 09:53:11 UTC

Several of the presentations highlighted that the PhD/EdD research was just the beginning rather than an ending - ongoing papers, research, conferences and building upon that initial work

2026-05-09 10:00:44 UTC

The art of silence

The keynote presentation

lesley_fearn — 2026-05-09 10:05:53 UTC

I loved the idea of a jazz ensemble. All the speakers were interesting and they spoke for long enough, but not too long, to give us a taste of their research and make us reflect upon it. My only suggestion would be to consider publishing an edited book on this theme. It would be interesting for research students, and older people who would like to do research but feel unsure about it.

progress tp purpose

welsprofdocs — 2026-05-09 10:12:47 UTC

'reframe progress' ... to 'purpose' - we can use some of this superb knowledge to support induction for students from Jane Doka's presentation - my wish is to include in student induction and support groups

Being in the band

welsprofdocs — 2026-05-09 10:13:45 UTC

We are all members of the band ...but we are all also potential conductors ... leading listening and driving what can be brought together for real life issues - my wish - can we think about this metaphor re PGR community?

Reconsidering our language

2026-05-09 10:28:08 UTC

I liked Gráinne’s suggestion of extending the idea of “Putting your best foot forward” to “Putting your best foot, crutch, wheel or paw forward”. Reconsidering how we speak can be truly transformational.

The nature of research

2026-05-09 10:32:59 UTC

Research is lineal and iterative, planned and improvised, noisy and silent, individual and collective, completed but never ending…

Ensuring equity and inclusion

2026-05-09 10:38:29 UTC

Taj Gill presentation on nurse education for Black and Asian students has some parallels with the research which is being done regarding entry into doctoral programmes. A team of researchers at the OU are looking into this as part of the Equity in Doctoral Education through Partnership and Innovation (EDEPI): Equity in Doctoral Education through Partnership and Innovation (EDEPI) | Nottingham Trent University

fabulouslyrelevant — 2026-05-09 10:58:28 UTC

Portia, thank you for reminding me of the ethics of relationships, built through research, beyond the research.

Parents and the Home Learning Environment

2026-05-09 11:06:29 UTC

Loved the simplified and context specific representation of Brofenbrenner's ecology.

Really made the influences and the connections explicit.

Great range of methods to get a varied and nuanced picture - particularly liked the thought you'd given to the permanence of responses and how you've designed the methods to allow for change.

Important points about historical trauma related to parental reading experiences and the sense of disclosure - how can you soften the potential negative impacts of these potential effects?

Researching WITH children

2026-05-09 11:10:24 UTC

I really loved the way that you had consciously thought about the role/ position of researcher as co-learner. This element of joint enquiry seems to be a particularly relevant one, especially when working with participants who often feel like their voices aren't heard.

I'm interested and would love to know more about how the iterative and reflexive element of methodological design impacted the outcomes that you were able to generate - do you have any recommendations for being genuine collaborative but also keeping on track? It seems to me to be quite easy to go down rabbit holes when being led by children and I'd love to hear your thoughts on avoiding this.

'Knock, Knock ...let me in'

2026-05-09 11:19:41 UTC

Fantastic research findings emerging from Tajinder Gill's doctoral research. This has implications for both instutitional and regulators practice and where we can move from performative allyship to tangible actions to reduce barriers to learning and employment.

Whilst it is important to progress, support to turn this into purpose by sharing intial findings with SWE and APPG's Modernising Employment should be encouraged.

The power of silent spaces for meaning making in the researcher journey

2026-05-09 11:36:43 UTC

My reflection: loved the morning keynotes and the concept from Dr Jane Doka and Dr Lijing Shi that silent spaces within the researcher journey are opportunities for learning, reflection and I suppose these pauses enable creativity. Silence is also a neurolinguistic programming technique which we use in careers counselling. It shows how such meaning-making from one field i.e. research adds value to another i.e. practice and vice versa.

strengths-based

welsprofdocs — 2026-05-09 12:28:58 UTC

Love Hilly Davies approach to academic practices - reframing deficit approaches to plagiarism etc

Absolutely love Hilly Davies strength based approach to her research. I was always a 'carrot' rather than 'stick' learner so this I believe will work really well. Brilliant Hilly.

2026-05-09 12:32:01 UTC

Felicia Boateng I really enjoyed your presentation around 'classroom talk'. Interesting how teaching practice can be further developed to support students through further engagement and 'talking'.

2026-05-09 12:46:50 UTC

Today's experience

lesley_fearn — 2026-05-09 12:56:32 UTC

While not having been able to listen to all the presentations, the ones I have listened to have been really interesting and well presented. As Judith Davies suggested in her presentation, student-colleagues have considerable impact on non-student colleagues. I think that this conference has been a good example of how much the presenters today have to teach us all:)

welsprofdocs — 2026-05-09 13:01:31 UTC

Making Learning Analytics really interesting - Nicola McDowell!

2026-05-09 13:09:43 UTC

The underlying motives of research shape knowledge production more significantly than is often acknowledged

Perthyn - belonging

2026-05-09 13:19:06 UTC

It's wonderful to belong to this fantastic community of PGR students at the OU.

Session 2 - Methodology Focus

2026-05-09 13:24:14 UTC

In the afternoon session focusing on methodology, one speaker could not attend, and the last speaker’s recording was poor quality (quiet and difficult to hear due to inflections in her voice). This made any engagement a difficult process. It felt like we missed out on greater interactivity and better use of time from this segment of the day. Perhaps we could have some contributors on stand-by or additional pre-recorded sessions with some involvement of others from the research if the speaker cannot attend, to take and answer questions?

Inspirational!

hillydavies — 2026-05-09 13:24:15 UTC

What wonderful research and presentations - totally focussing on making things better. So much light shining on positive change.

Learning from Learners - Judith Davies

janiceansine1 — 2026-05-09 13:35:49 UTC

Really enjoyed your talk! The summary of your methodological approach, insights on your choices i.e. case studies, reflexive thematic analysis and progress so far was insightful. It really resonates with my work which is also exploring learning, from another context, but also around the concept of communities of practice.

2026-05-09 14:09:53 UTC

I really enjoyed the jazz metaphor :). The book 'Thinking in Jazz...' (Berliner, P. 1994) is here - looks interesting!