Keynote speech: Researching Professionals and Doing Research Critically - Professor Emerita Helen Gunter
| Dates: | 13 February 2026 |
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| Times: | 15:00 - 16:00 |
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| What is it: | Lecture |
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| Organiser: | School of Environment, Education and Development |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Alumni, Current University students, General public |
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| Speaker: | Helen Gunter |
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Professor Gunter’s lecture will examine what it means for educational professionals to practice as researching professionals, and the risks and challenges of undertaking critical approaches for, within, and about research. She uses a quotation from Alan Bennett’s diaries about “standing on the pavement” as a metaphor for research and professional practice to explain that undertaking research critically involves: first, standing on the pavement; second, studying the pavement; and third, redesigning the pavement. She argues that this is vital because it means that researching professionals and professional researchers are able to see how and why standing, studying, and redesigning the pavement can be characterised as getting in the way of progress. She presents the necessity of productive disruption to ensure that such progress is concerned with working for and securing social justice.
Speaker
Helen Gunter
Role: Professor Emerita
Organisation: Manchester Institute of Education
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
A2.6
Ellen Wilkinson Building
Manchester
