Conversations of Diversifying Education: Voices from Local Communities (CODES)

CODES is a series of public events aimed at building partnerships and exploring how education can better reflect the diverse nature of 21st-century Britain.

CODES is a series of public engagement events designed to build partnerships with local schools, national bodies, and stakeholder groups.

These events are a chance to explore how our education system can better mirror the diverse society we live in today. CODES celebrates the rich diversity of our community and looks at how this can be expressed in education.

The need to diversify education

As awareness of the importance of our society's vibrant diversity grows, so does the need to reflect this in our schools.

But the pressures of an increasingly dominant examinations system, strict monitoring of assessment outcomes, and political inspection, alongside unquestioned agendas related to the 'knowledge curriculum,' lead to many students' experiences becoming increasingly controlled and narrow.

We're losing the value of diverse knowledge, perspectives, and creative learning

There is a significant need to diversify what and how we teach. Often, the voices of those most affected—students and teachers—are missing from these discussions.

CODES is designed to engage pupils, teachers, community leaders, and academics in conversations about diversifying education and how this might be understood and implemented across subject areas.

The CODES approach

CODES is about changing how we approach the diversification of education, creating a deeper understanding of what this means across the education system. It has a two-fold impact:

Building partnerships and co-producing knowledge: By working closely with local and national education stakeholders, we improve Brunel’s reputation as an institution concerned with education systems and qualifications that reflect the diversity of 21st-century society. This collaboration also sparks new research into the importance and practices of diversity.
Changing institutional practices: CODES events can change the way Brunel engages with diversification agendas. By focusing on the voices of diverse communities, we show our commitment to equity and openness to change. CODES provides a unique chance to learn from the community and act on that learning.

The CODES Sixth Form Conference

Last year, the Global Lives Research Centre kicked off the CODES project with a successful Widening Horizons panel event.

CODES is a series of public engagement events designed to build partnerships with local schools, national bodies, and stakeholder groups, creating opportunities to consider how educational practices, curricula, and qualifications might be developed to more appropriately reflect the diverse nature of 21st-century Britain.

As part of Phase Two of CODES, we aim to organise a Sixth Form Conference in partnership with some of the Widening Horizons panel, including Guru Nanak Sikh Academy. This will help us continue engaging with local schools and create new mutual learning opportunities. The Conference will also allow us to engage in new and meaningful ways with young people and potential students of the University, providing them with the opportunity to voice their experiences and visions of diversity in education.

This Conference will be held on the Brunel University London campus in April 2025 and will engage students from a broad range of subject areas in local schools and Sixth Form Colleges, along with their teachers.

Continuing the conversations started with the Widening Horizons event is essential for working towards an equitable and enriching educational experience for the students of tomorrow. This goal aligns with Brunel’s commitment to diversification and excellent educational practices, as well as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education.

Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Dr Shona Koren Paterson - Building on an academic transdisciplinary background in Natural Sciences (Marine Biology, Resource Management) and Social Sciences (Climate Adaptation, Social Justice, Environmental Policy), Shona’s guiding focus remains the generation and translation of defensible research informed by the needs of society and co-created with the intended beneficiaries. Her research is motivated by international frameworks such as the UN 2030 Agenda, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the COP21 Paris Agreement. She has spent her working career building partnerships and knowledge exchange networks with local communities and stakeholders to achieve mutually beneficial social and ecological goals. With a special interest in marginalised communities and social justice and equity, Shona’s recent research has focused on global flood risk and resilience, climate risk assessments, adaptation and adaptive capacity in urbanising coastal areas. Embracing a transdisciplinary approach, Shona works at the interface of science-policy as well as effective and fit-for-audience communication of data and knowledge to ensure increased impactful discourse around risk. She has research experience in the Caribbean, USA, UK and Ireland, as well as a global perspective through involvement with Future Earth and its associated global research project Future Earth Coasts.

Dr Andrew Green - Andrew Green taught English in a variety of schools in Oxfordshire and London before becoming Head of English at Ewell Castle School, Surrey. He now leads the BA Education at Brunel University London. His research interests include literary education, the teaching of English post-16 and issues surrounding the transition between the study of English post-16 and at university. Career History Presentations Green, A. (2015) Approaches to Developing critical reading. School of Advanced Study, University of London. Green, A. (2014) School Direct: Ideology and Impact. The Battle for Teacher Education: an international conference. University of Bergen, Norway. Green, A. (2012) Enhancing the Quality of Independent Study in Higher Education. Learning in Higher Education Symposium. University of Akureyri, Iceland. Green, A. (2012) Reimagining Poetry. Creative Approaches to Poetry Teaching. Brunel University. Green, A. (2011) The Use of Audience Response Systems in the English Classroom. NATE Conference. British Library. Green, A. (2011) Elements of Gothic: Wuthering Heights and Macbeth. Sutton Grammar School. Green, A. (2011) The Poetry of Philip Larkin. Dulwich College. Green, A. (2011) The Edmonds Lecture: English Pastoral and modern verse. Wellington College. Green, A. (2010) Wuthering Heights. Slough Grammar School Green, A. (2010) From Sixth Form to University: Supporting transition into Higher Education. 11th Symposium on Learning & Teaching. Brunel University. Green, A. (2010) Students’ experience of Creative Writing at A level. NATE Conference. Leicester. Green, A. (2009) The Poetry of William Blake. Slough Grammar School Green, A. (2008) Gothic Literature. Wellington College. Green, A. (2008) The Problems of Independent Study. Launch event of Pedagogy. Higher Education Academy English Subject Centre. Green, A. (2008) Creative Writing and A level English Literature. Creative Writing and How to Teach It. Brunel University. Green, A. (2007) The Poetry of William Blake. Wellington College. Green, A. (2007) Use of Directed Activities Related to Texts in higher education. Renewals Conference. Royal Holloway University of London. Green, A. (2006) Developing undergraduate reading skills. Languages, Linguistics and area Studies Conference. London. Green, A. (2005) Managing change between school and university. Higher Education Academy National Subject Centre Conference. Nottingham. Book reviews Starting an English Literature Degree 'This unusual, detailed, and thought-provoking book will help students of English Literature come to grips with their studies and take a share of responsibility for their own learning. It thus has the potential to make a major impact on the way English is studied.' - Professor Ben Knights, Director, English Subject Centre 'I liked this book a lot - It covered a vast amount, ranging from applications and interviews, Preparatory exercises, through its materials that will prove useful when a student starts their course. Great sections on suggestions for group activities that instructors may find useful.' - Matthew Woodcock, University of East Anglia. Becoming a Reflective English Teacher This timely and valuable textbook will be of enormous help to students and trainee teachers on a variety of courses and routes into the English teaching professio0n. Its crucial emphasis on the importance of theory and reflection as well as on practice represents a considered and powerful riposte to prevailing reductive approaches to English teaching in our schools. I will certainly be recommending it to my students. (Dr Andrey Rosowsky, Director of Initial Teacher Education, University of Sheffield) Research group(s) Pedagogy and Professional Education (PAPE)

Related Research Group(s)

Pedagogy, Policy and Professional Education - Focusing on pedagogy, policy and professional education, including the education of teachers.

Global Lives - Research conducted in the Centre addresses the challenges facing society, helping to change the lives of people around the world by bringing economic, social and cultural benefits.

Partnering with confidence

Organisations interested in our research can partner with us with confidence backed by an external and independent benchmark: The Knowledge Exchange Framework. Read more.

Project last modified 02/12/2024