Robert Henthorn – Rob Henthorn is the Professional Learning Co-ordinator for the Educational Institute of Scotland, leading on the provision of high-quality development opportunities for teaching professionals across all levels of Scottish education. This includes developing and delivering a wide range of courses and programmes for EIS members, recruiting and coordinating a network of union Learning Reps, and engaging with national and international policy and guidance regarding career-long learning for teachers and lecturers. Rob’s professional background is in education policy and activist development across Europe, including roles with the European Students’ Union, NUS-UK and the Quality Board for Higher Education in Iceland. Rob’s interest in practitioner research is led by a commitment to trade union values and community power through self-education, based in the traditions of workers’ inquiry and democratic organisation.
Kevin Lowden – Since 1987, I have been involved in research that has had a focus on understanding what difference educational approaches and innovations can make to learner outcomes, including their achievement, life opportunities and wellbeing. From 1987 to 2002 my work at the Scottish Council for Research in Education (SCRE), an independent research centre, entailed research that was largely evaluative to inform local and national educational policy and practice. The objectives and values of SCRE included a commitment to using research and knowledge to improve educational practice in partnership with teachers, local authority/ district officers and government. Since 2013, with the establishment of the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change (ROC)many of the aims of the SCRE Centre have been reinvigorated within ROC, including developing a model of collaborative action research within our Network for Social and Educational Equity. I am currently part of a team of university researchers in this Centre who work as critical friends to support practitioners and others in the educational community to develop enquiry-informed practice to improve the lives of learners and their communities.
Karen McArdle – Professor Karen McArdle, FRSA, is Emeritus professor of Education at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She is a member of the CARN Co-ordinating group (Collaborative Action Research Network) and is Scotland Convenor of the Workers’ Educational Association. She is also on the organising group for a CARNival, the CARN 2021 conference to be held in October 2021.
