FERSA University of Cambridge Blog

May 13, 2019May 7, 2019

‘Creepers in the Classroom’: Emphasising the Poetic Power of Videogames

Videogames can occupy the same space in classrooms as novels and poems do, but this is rarely reflected in the critical literature. Instead, videogames are positioned as a means to an end – a trojan horse to trick students into accepting something they would otherwise resist. Well-intentioned educators debate the merits of running Fortnite-themed exercise camps or whether Minecraft might be used to re-engage readers with Swallows and Amazons, which is proving amazonly hard for modern children to swallow (considering this text’s picnic-hamper-colonialism, maybe this isn’t a bad thing). However, if researchers could entertain the possibility that playing Fortnite has autotelic value, they could explore the aesthetic experiences elicited by Fortnite and illuminate how the text works on the player.

May 6, 2019May 4, 2019

Embracing Open Science

Openness is becoming an integral part of the research process as more and more researchers are adopting its principles and practices. Our research group, INSTRUCT, led by Dr Michelle Ellefson, has been increasingly interested in the idea of Open Science this year. Nearly all of our group members are attending lectures and training sessions across the university with the aim to understand Open Science and create strategies to practice its principles in current and future research projects. In this blog, we will share an overview of what we have learned so far, and encourage those who are interested in learning more about openness in research.

April 29, 2019April 28, 2019

Academia, Depression, and Half-Assing Your Way to Success!

I’m a Cambridge graduate, a scholar, well into my second post-doc year, and I manage anxiety and depression. I’ve managed it all my life, even long before people talked about it, or understood what it was. And yes, I managed it whilst completing a stressful academic programme at one of the top universities in the world.

April 22, 2019April 18, 2019

School Funding Cuts: Stories from the Chalk-Face

When I started my PhD research into teachers’ working conditions, I knew that budgets for England’s schools were shrinking. I had observed this through my own experiences as a classroom teacher. By 2016, the year I left the profession, the heady days of pens and paper for all were over. I accepted that pupils shared core texts, I bought my own board pens, lined paper was a pipe-dream, student counselling hours were sparse, and many other professional services were out of budget. What I did not know was the reach of the problem, nor had I anticipated that it would escalate into a national funding crisis.

March 18, 2019March 17, 2019

Like Son, Like Mother: A Family’s Journey through the M.Ed

Teacher and education consultant Kay Blayney was inspired by her oldest son Matthew to follow in his footsteps and study for a part-time Master’s degree at the Faculty of Education – where her second son, Philip, then joined her as a full-time Master’s student. As they prepare to graduate together, Kay and Philip reflect on the benefits of their mother-and-son educational journey together.

March 11, 2019March 11, 2019

A Blog Post about Blogging Featuring The Thesis Whisperer

Thinking about starting a research blog? Dr Inger Mewburn is the Director of Research Training at the Australian National Universityand the founder of the popular academic blog The Thesis Whisperer. The Thesis Whisperer has been running successfully for several years and contains many helpful articles about the process of doing a PhD. The FERSA blog editors were therefore delighted when Dr Mewburn agreed to a short interview, where she shared some of her insight into how to run a successful blog.

March 4, 2019March 2, 2019

Adulting in Cambridge as an International Student from Undergraduate to Postgraduate: My 4-year and to-be-continued Cambridge Life

In this blog post, Vicky weaves a heartwarming narrative of her journey into the field of education as an international student in Cambridge. She is one of those rare few who has experienced three matriculations at the University of Cambridge. She started as an undergraduate student, went on to do an MPhil and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Faculty of Education.