School of Education

Research Student

(Provisional) Thesis Title: Community Education, Civic Learning, and the Construction of Public Space

My PhD research focuses on the places and spaces (past and present) of importance to residents, particularly those sites that spark actions upon them in a variety of ways. My study looks at the ways residents develop multi-layered explorations that use ‘history’ as the central point of their actions in the present day. In particular, I examine their spatial, temporal and experiential interactions with their place and its history in order to understand the civic learning taking place, which emerges through the enactment of particular forms of citizenship practises. I pay particular attention to understanding the complexities of processes of civic learning occurring in these situations - as learning that occurs for, from and through their civic engagements.  

This research involves two case studies in locations in Scotland: a village surrounded by a planned New Town, and a post-industrial town.

My research interests more generally include the public sphere and public history theories towards a better understanding of community education as public education. I am interested in how historical spaces transform into public and political sites, and how they reveal and reignite debate about contemporary challenges.

I worked for Scottish Enterprise local partnership projects from 1998 until 2007, including ESF Objective 4. My work revolves around exploring different educational spaces outwith traditional institutions and structures, including involvement with the Scottish Enterprise Glasgow-funded Urban Learning Space project, based in The Lighthouse in Glasgow.  From 2007-2012 I worked as a Community Learning & Development Worker for a local council, on a variety of history- and geography-based projects within a semi-rural community centre and set up photography, local history, mapping, walking and environmental projects with residents. This work sought to explore post-industrial place in its transitory, derelict and absent state.  Central to this work is the enactment of local history, contributing to representing confusing and hidden landscapes of historical traces, loss and neglect. I received a departmental 1+ 3 studentship in 2008, and continued my community work in tandem with my studies until May 2012.

Loopmans, M., Cowell, G. and Oosterlynck, S. (in press). Photography, public pedagogy and the politics of place-making in post-industrial areas. Social and Cultural Geography.

Biesta, G. and Cowell, G. (2012). Understanding civic learning through psychogeographic mapping. International Journal of Lifelong Education 31 (1). http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02601370.2012.636587

Cowell, G. and Biesta, G. (2011). From mapreading to mapmaking: Civic learning as orientation, disorientation and reorientation. Paper presented at the symposium ‘Cities, Citizenship and Civic Learning’, European Conference on Educational Research (ECER): Urban Education, Berlin, 13-16 September 2011.

Cowell, G. and Biesta, G. (2011). Understanding civic learning through psychogeographic mapping: orientation, disorientation and reorientation. A paper presented as part of the methodologies roundtable Learning in Public Places: Civic Learning for the 21st Century, University of Gent, Belgium, 19-20 May 2011.

Cowell, G., Oosterlynck, S. and Loopmans, M. (2010). Community Dynamics, Hegemonic Representations and Photographic Interventions in post-industrial urban areas. A paper presented at the Scientific Research Community’s 6th International Seminar ‘Plurality and Diversity in Urban Context: Interdisciplinary Study of Democratic Practices and Governance’ research network, University of Leuven, Belgium, 17-18 September 2010.

Biesta, G. and Cowell, G. (2010). Democratic Learning in Translation: The pipers of Allandale, public history and the politics of community education. A paper presented at the symposium ‘Learning in Public Spaces: Reconnecting Democracy and Education’, European Conference on Educational Research (ECER): Education and Cultural Change, Helsinki, 25-27 August 2010.

Cowell, G. (2010). Theorising the public sphere in adult and community education. A discussion paper presented at the Laboratory for Educational Theory (LET) conference, ‘Theorising Education 2010’, 24-26 June 2010, University of Stirling, UK.

Cowell, G. and Biesta, G. (2009). Putting it on the map: psychogeographic mapping as a tool for community building?  A paper presented at the ESREA Migration, Racism and Xenophobia Research Network conference, ‘Diversity and Social Cohesion: are these incompatible objectives?’, University of Sheffield, England, 2-3 December 2009.

Cowell, G. (2009). Community Walks: Making Connections in Space and Time (Bonnybridge, Scotland).  A paper presented at ‘Facilitating Communities of Those Who Have Nothing in Common’, 4th International seminar of the Scientific Research Community ‘Plurality and Diversity in Urban Context: Interdisciplinary Study of Democratic Practices and Governance, University of Leuven, Belgium, 18-19 September 2009.

Augusto, C., Cowell, G. and Gomes, E. Travels in Theory. Theory clinic to be presented at the Laboratory for Educational Theory ‘The Future of Theory in Education: Traditions, Trends and Trajectories’. Discussant: Biesta, G. University of Stirling, Stirling, 7-9 June 2012.

Co-editing, with Gert Biesta, a special issue for the Policy Futures in Education journal, on: ‘Cities, Citizenship and Civic Learning’. Includes cross-European contributions from Augusto, C. (Portugal); Caris, A. (The Netherlands); Biesta, G. & Cowell, G. (Scotland); De Visscher, S., Steel, R. and Verschelden, G. (Belgium); Gomes, E. (Portugal) and Warren, S. (Ireland).