School progression, school choice and travel to school amongst urban South African secondary school learners

Lead Research Organisation: Northumbria University
Department Name: Fac of Engineering and Environment

Abstract

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Description The most immediate beneficiaries of this project were the members of the research team, from the two Universities involved. Impact from these benefits relates primarily to skill transfer and to research and knowledge capacity building. In addition, dissemination of findings from this project has targeted both academic beneficiaries, and non-academic beneficiaries. Academic dissemination included presentations at 3 conferences, as well as the publication of journal articles in two international peer-reviewed journals (one published and one currently under review). Our first publication at the Journal of Children's Geographies is available as an Open Access article and has been viewed almost 1000 times (DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2013.812304). A second publication has been submitted to an International Journal and is currently under review. To ensure that non-academic beneficiaries can benefit from this project, we also organised a small 2-hour dissemination event in Newcastle and a significant half-day briefing event in Johannesburg, South Africa. The first event was organized on 2nd November 2011 by Northumbria University to coincide with the visit of Julia de Kadt to Newcastle, UK. The event was entitled "School choice and children's travel to school" and supported by the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2011. The second event entitled "Education Research at Birth to Twenty Meeting" was hosted on 3rd May 2012 by the University of the Witwatersrand and attracted fifteen high-level attendees from various Universities and organisations, such as Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), South Africa. The event was timed to coincide with the visit of the PI, Seraphim Alvanides to South Africa for the purposes of this project. The event targeted those involved in educational policy making and the provision of educational services. Representatives from government, civil society, local institutions and selected secondary schools, and donor organizations active in the area were invited. Post-completion, a senior researcher from the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Dr Alastair Van Heerden expressed an interest in the findings of this project and we applied for and secured Newton funding from the British Academy. We are currently working together on two more publications. It is important to stress here that we are committed to publishing all project outputs as Open Access publications and also place them on the Birth to Twenty website, to ensure that they continue to be accessible to interested individuals and organizations over the longer term.
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Government, Democracy and Justice
Impact Types Cultural,Societal
 
Description Newton Mobility Grant Scheme 2015 Round 2
Amount £9,880 (GBP)
Organisation The British Academy 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2016 
End 03/2016