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Staff Profile

Dr Deborah Ralls

Lecturer in Education

Background

I joined the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences (ECLS) at Newcastle University in October 2021, as a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow and Lecturer in Education.

Prior to this, I was a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at The University of Manchester, where I completed my PhD studentship in 2017. 

In 2018 I was awarded an Early Career Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust, and was Principal Investigator on a 3 and a half year international comparative research project - Redefining Education for an Urban Social Solidarity Economy: Becoming Relational.

I am interested in the inter-relationship between socio-economic policies and education theory, policy and practice in urban contexts, in particular how education can help build stronger relationships with urban communities for more inclusive urban places and economies. 

My research focuses on relational approaches to engagement that reposition communities, particularly children and young people, as vital expert collaborators, educators and change makers in the development of more inclusive places and economies. 

I'm a member of several working groups where I am able to link my research to policy and practice: 

The Academic Advisory Group for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Political LIteracy. 

The OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 Thematic Working Group on aligning pedagogies and assessment with future-oriented curriculum changes,  related to the implementation of the OECD's Learning Compass. 

The Eurocities Working Group dedicated to policies for Children and Young People

The Participatory Research with Children and Youth sub group of the Converge COVID-19 and Children, Youth, and Schools working group. 

My Doctorate investigated forms and understandings of engagement between a large urban Co-operative secondary school and its stakeholders: the students, parents and community members. The research explored the possibilities and challenges of developing more relational approaches to engagement and considered the impact of the broader English political context of polices of marketisation of education and socio-economic policies of austerity. 

I have a Masters in Urban Education from Manchester Metropolitan University that explores identity and professionalism in the Teach First initiative.

Before beginning my research career, I gained a PGCE and a Diploma in Teaching English as Foreign Language. I worked as a teacher and teacher educator in both Further and Higher Education for twenty years, managing, developing and teaching on Literacy, ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programmes and as the centre coordinator for an inner-city alternative education provision for 13-19-year-olds.

 

Research

Research interests 

  • Education polices and practices (curriculum, pedagogy & governance) that support the development of inclusive urban places and economies
  • Relational approaches to engagement in urban places
  • Building democratic decision-making relationships between children and young people (CYP), policymakers, schools and communities
  • Developing opportunities for CYP and policymakers to build a shared understandings of a place in all its dimensions, and to position CYP as key partners in urban decision-making processes 
  • Alternative economic approaches (social solidarity and solidarity economies, inclusive growth economies, wellbeing economies, doughnut economies)
  • Artistic and participatory research methods 

 

Current Research

My research focuses on the development of new relational concepts in the study of inclusive urban economies and education theories, policies and practices. It makes the link between relational approaches to place-focused education and the development of inclusive economic strategies and policies, addressing gaps in education, economic and urban studies research and in education and economic policymaking.


I use visual and artistic methods and participatory approaches, such as participatory mapping, to promote the expert opinions and everyday experiences of children, young people and community members in the places where they live.


I recently completed an Early Career Fellowship (2018 – 2022), funded by The Leverhulme Trust. My research project, Redefining Education for an Urban Social Solidarity Economy: Becoming Relational is an international comparative study of educational institutions in urban contexts in Barcelona, Berlin, New York and Rio de Janeiro. I have worked with a diverse range of collaborators in the UK and across all 4 cities in the research project (Barcelona, Berlin, New York and Rio de Janeiro), including children and young people, economic and education policy makers, community organisations, university academics, teachers and school leaders. 


The project considers how more relational approaches to policy, governance, curriculum and pedagogy impact on relationships, not only between education institutions and their stakeholders but can positively impact more widely on democracy and social justice in urban places. The project looks at approaches to education that are grounded in notions of social solidarity, of policy-school, inter-school and school-community relationships that are based on doing with, not doing to; the fundamental ethos of a more relational city.


The research focus on repositioning children and young people as experts in their own lives is particularly timely after the global pandemic and aligns with the aims of the international Social Development Goals, the Rights of the Child, and more recent developments such as the EU Child Guarantee and the European Year of Youth 2022.


The participatory, creative and artistic methods used with children and young people in this project and the creative outputs produced, enable children and young people speaking directly to academics, policymakers, communities, parents, using an approach chosen by the children and young people.



In the latter stages of the project, the children and young people from the 4 case studies were asked to create a public message, in the format of their choice, on how education can help make the city a fairer place. They chose to use a range of creative methods to produce their message: film making, song writing, musical composition, ceramics and kite flying. Rather than focusing on improved exam results or job outcomes as educational priorities for a fairer place, the participants chose to emphasise the role that education has – or could have – in the following areas: challenging racism and place based stereotypes and prejudices, education for social action; eliminating gender violence, sexism and LGBTQ+ abuse and violence; educating to prevent domestic violence; the importance of education as a space for talking about emotions, hopes and fears – to know you are not alone if you are finding it hard ‘becoming the person you want to be’.

 

The children and young people’s messages on how education can help make the city a fairer place demonstrate the importance of recognising our youngest citizens as key experts and educators in the development of inclusive places and economies. Their messages provide an opportunity to better understand how education initiatives can have a lasting impact on local communities and the development of relational citizenship in urban places.


Why Becoming Relational Matters:


Findings showed that although education is key in the evolution of inclusive urban economies, findings showed that there is a need for towns and cities to do things differently. If we want inclusive future towns and cities and more equitable urban economies that are based on solidarity and co-operation, urban education policy needs to move beyond a focus on individual academic achievement and economic outputs, towards a strategy that incorporates the development of ‘relational goods’ (such as interpersonal trust, emotional support, care and social influence).We need to connect economic policies with the type of education theories, policies and practices that can develop the skills, characteristics and knowledge needed for a fairer place.


  1. Education for an inclusive economy should set out to connect children and young people to the information they need – and the people they need to know – in order to participate in informed democratic decision-making in the place where they live.
  2. The places where we live are spaces of educational possibility. There is a need to change how professionals and policymakers learn about the realities of life in areas of socio-economic disadvantage. A relational approach can be used to develop reciprocal learning opportunities that enable children and young people from these areas to act as urban experts and educators capable of shaping public policies in their communities and beyond.
  3. Relational theory provides a helpful and accessible way of understanding the type of policies and institutional structures that:

a) promote social justice and solidarity and a more reciprocal relationship between the

state, civil society and citizens.

b) set out to bridge gaps in culture and power and can build relationships for collaborative democratic decision making and leadership opportunities.



The use of relational theory in the research has proved to be a strength in developing an accessible theoretical framework that is understood by policymakers, educators, academics and children and young people.


As a result of the findings, I am currently piloting a Relational Engagement Toolkit with the Child Health and Wellbeing Network North East and North Cumbria. Relational Toolkit: Working with Communities | Newcastle University (ncl.ac.uk)




Doctorate


My doctorate, Understanding Engagement in a Co-operative School Setting: An Exploration of School-Stakeholder Relationships(2017), considered how schools and stakeholders have, over the past few decades, been repositioned as ‘producers’ and ‘consumers’ within the changing English education landscape of policy reforms and how this affects approaches to school-stakeholder engagement.

 

The thesis analyses the extent to which the relationships between school and different stakeholders are moving towards a more ‘relational’ model of engagement. The wider policy context is also considered, revealing how school-stakeholder relationships are affected by policy framings of ‘what counts’ as engagement.

 

Findings show that whilst the nature of school-student relationships appears to be developing in ways that are more relational, school-parent relations seem to be more unilateral in nature, in spite of school having made the decision to ‘become Co-operative’. Whilst the research reveals the challenges faced when tensions emerge between differing policy, school and stakeholder understandings of engagement, it also examines the spaces of possibility that occur for engagement to be experienced through processes of democratic governance and collective endeavour.

 

The thesis thus surfaces the complex interrelationship between policy and school engagement practice, illuminating the shifts in different school-stakeholder relationships that occur as a result of policy change.

 

 

Teaching
EDU1003 British and Comparative Education
EDU2001 Psychological perspectives on teaching and learning
Publications