Category: Luke McCrone

Reflections on ISA World Congress of Sociology 2023

By Julianne Viola and Luke McCrone, Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship

Julianne Viola and Luke McCrone remotely attended the International Sociological Association (ISA) World Congress of Sociology held on 25th June – 1st July 2023. The conference theme centred on ‘Resurgent Authoritarianism: The Sociology of New Entanglements of Religions, Politics, and Economies’.

The conference focussed on how sociologists worldwide contribute to the understanding of resurgent authoritarianism (a shift away from democratic principles, such as individual rights and freedom of expression, toward centralised power) and engage (physically and critically) in the formidable social movements we are witnessing today in different parts of the world. We presented on our work on the Belonging, Engagement, and Community (BEC) and Imperial Bursary projects.

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Combining worlds: a mixed method for understanding learning spaces

By Luke McCrone, Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship

This blog reports on a mixed method approach combining qualitative methods with space occupancy datasets recently published in a research article in the International Journal for Qualitative Methods. The mixed method was developed in my doctoral research (supervised by Professor Martyn Kingsbury) which explored how undergraduate students perceive and engage with different learning spaces and the transitions between them. (more…)

Engaging students as partners: an approach for reimagining our campus spaces

Dr Luke McCrone and Dr Mike Streule

This blog reports on two ‘transitional space’ redesign projects recently published in a research article in the International Journal for Students as Partners. Both projects concerned spaces in the Blackett Building of Imperial’s South Kensington campus and help to demonstrate the power of a research-based, student-centred approach to education-space redesign. The first pilot project was completed just prior to COVID-19 and the second project carried out during the pandemic.

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Learning Connections 2019: Spaces, People, Practice

Luke McCrone, PhD student

I attended the Learning Connections 2019: Spaces, People, Practice conference held on 5-6 December 2019 in University College Cork (UCC), Ireland.

The conference set out to answer two central questions:

  1. How can we connect across disciplinary boundaries, and break down barriers between academia, administration, community and industry to strive for optimal student learning in Third Level Institutions?
  2. How can learning in different spaces– physical, active, virtual, off campus, enable all students, as global citizens, to think through and solve big problems?

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Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Conference: Reclaiming Study Practices

Luke McCrone, PhD student, Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship

I attended the Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Society conference held on 18-20 September 2019 in Leuven, Belgium. The conference focused on ‘Reclaiming study practices’ and followed an alternative format to usual.

The idea of the conference was to provoke thought about the present state and future modalities of those study practices that define university life for both staff and students: academic writing, lectures, academic research, seminars etc. (more…)

A PhD in educational research: making the transition

Luke McCrone, PhD student, Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship

If someone had told me 6 years ago that I would one day be studying for a PhD in Higher Educational research at Imperial College, I would have smiled back at them in disbelief.

My acceptance of one of the first PhD studentships under the Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship illustrates an important point: educationally speaking, we have come a long way in a relatively short period. Yet being new to this field has required me to adapt. Given that educational research adopts paradigms from psychology, sociology and philosophy, the approach to methodology, data collection and analysis is initially alien to a geoscientist like myself. Learning about these fields has made me recognise the transformative potential of putting yourself out of your disciplinary comfort zone. (more…)