IOE Insights

In this episode of Academia et al, Zeinab El Khateeb talks to Professor Nicola Walshe about a career that has moved from studying glaciers to shaping climate change and sustainability education. Professor Walshe reflects on the currents that carried her from science into teaching, from classroom inquiry into education research, and from individual practice into collaborative work with schools, pol...

What does a PhD journey look like when you paint it rather than write it? On a hot summer evening, Louise and Tooba meet at Louise's flat somewhere in London to reflect on balancing life and a PhD while painting our thoughts on canvases. Their conversation meanders along the tricky pathway of finding and maintaining the balance between pursuing PhD degrees, consistently striving for career develop...

In this episode of Academia et al, Zeinab El Khateeb speaks with Dr Gideon Sappor about the people and experiences that shaped his academic path. From his early ambitions in Ghana, Gideon traces the influence of his parents, his teachers, his PhD supervisor and senior colleagues who helped him understand how to develop and stay focused. He also reflects on inclusion, academic identity and the advi...

Children with rare genetic syndromes are already in our classrooms, yet many teachers receive little training in how best to support them. So what does meaningful, practical, research-informed support actually look like? As the Department for Education gives renewed priority to children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), experts discuss their research into children with neurod...

Dr Brian Irvine describes himself as an early career researcher, but not someone who is early in life. In this episode, he shares the varied experiences that brought him to the IOE, from teaching and childminding to specialist autism mentoring and doctoral study. His story highlights the value of bringing your whole life into research, including the skills and perspectives developed outside tradit...

In this episode of Academia et al, Zeinab El Khateeb speaks with Professor Martin Oliver about what it really takes to build a career in academia today. Drawing on his own journey and leadership experience, he speaks about the realities of progression, the pressures many early career researchers face and the importance of recognising the human experiences behind academic systems. Professor Oliver...

What does a PhD journey look like when you paint it rather than write it?  Today Louise and Tooba are talking - and painting - about data collection. From paper to implementation, what really goes into designing thoughtful data collection methods, and then putting them into practice? What about how the researcher felt while conducting interviews or travelling to not‑so‑accessible places? These exp...

Professor Richard Freeman joins Zeinab El-Khateeb to discuss the realities many researchers are feeling, and how easy it is to become pessimistic at times. But the heart of his message is supportive, reminding listeners that doctoral skills travel well and that people with doctorates often find satisfying work in many sectors, not only academia. His advice? Try not to lock yourself into only one d...

What happens when a researcher’s own story becomes part of the data? And how do you ethically navigate moments when participants’ emotions – joy, frustration – surface in the interview process? In this episode, Dr Hakan Ergül speaks with Stephanie Hoi-Ying Chan, a PhD student at IOE. Stephanie’s doctoral research explores the lived experiences and professional identity development of primary music...

Professor Caroline Daly explores the powerful pull of the IOE and how it shaped her academic identity over decades. She discusses how returning as a master’s student and then a tutor sparked new curiosity about online professional learning. Professor Daly offers an inside look at building cross‑institutional partnerships and co‑constructing programmes that support teacher inquiry. She highlights t...

Hans Svennevig joins Dr Hakan Ergül to explore the ethical challenges that emerge as researchers use AI tools and wearable technologies. Hakan and Hans discuss how these systems complicate consent, privacy, autonomy, and the researcher–participant relationship. They ask whether existing ethical principles are robust enough for technologies that collect and interpret data continuously, often withou...

What does a PhD journey look like when you paint it rather than write it?  Louise and Tooba explore the first major milestones that shaped their PhD research paths. They think back to what support they had, what might have been different, and how it felt to go through those initial stages.  You can see the artworks they created during this episode on the UCL IOE student blog , and on the IOE Insta...

What does it take to create a study designed to last for generations? Professor Alissa Goodman joins Mark Quinn to talk about Generation New Era, a new birth cohort study that will follow 30,000 babies born in the UK in 2026. She describes how new approaches to data collection, including regular digital contact with families and the use of video data, will provide richer insights into children’s d...

This conversation traces Professor Li Wei’s path from classroom teacher to Director and Dean of the UCL Institute of Education, showing how lived experience drove his research questions. He explains language shift in three generations and why some children become English‑dominant despite living in multilingual homes. With deep expertise in bilingualism and multilingual education, he shares evidenc...

In an increasingly digital landscape, what can teachers do to guide, safeguard and support their students? Teacher training is largely designed for an analogue world, but teachers now find themselves in exactly the opposite of that. Disinformation and misinformation are on the rise and conspiracy theories have become ubiquitous. In conversation with our hosts Mark and Elaine, Jeremy Hayward weighs...

We explore retirement readiness, gender gaps in pension wealth, and the real-life consequences of inequality across the life course. Dr Amy Harrison speaks with Dr Sam Parsons about what long-running birth cohort studies can reveal about people’s lives as they approach retirement. Full show notes and links to research: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2026/mar/worked-more-still-got-less-research-rea...

What does a PhD journey look like when you paint it rather than write it? Louise and Tooba are two international doctoral students at the UCL Institute of Education, and in 2026 they are navigating the third year of their PhD programmes. Each month they will meet to sit down, talk, and paint. These sessions turn reflective conversations into visual stories, using art to bring their PhD experience...

10-year-old Sofia hosts a friendly conversation with her guest Shania, a 9-year-old from Mumbai, about what sleep looks like in their day-to-day lives and compare bedtime routines. Full show notes and links: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2026/mar/childrens-sleep-routines-bedtimes-dreams-and-how-sleep-affects-mood-and-school Podcast produced by UCL Sleep Education Research Lab .

High school teacher Mustafa Sakarwala speaks with Nandini Adusumilli (PhD student at Sleep and Education Research Lab at UCL) about why sleep is a core foundation for children’s and teenagers’ attention, learning, and exam recall. Full show notes and links: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2026/mar/sleep-memory-and-academic-performance

Chloe Morgan and David O'Connell share their journeys to becoming UCL advanced facilitators. They join this episode’s hosts, Mark Quinn and Nancy Karmali Belmonte, for a discussion on the power of facilitators in supporting other teachers to learn. Early career teachers all have busy school days; Chloe and David reflect on how facilitators can create safe spaces for ECTs to reflect on their practi...

Peter tells the story of how he was diagnosed with dyscalculia at 10 years old. Liz and Helen chat with Peter about his dyscalculia diagnosis. They explore the barriers people face as children and adults to identifying this under-researched and misunderstood specific learning difficulty. Peter shares the impact the diagnosis had on his experiences at school, expressing feelings of shame, and his j...

Mark Quinn speaks with Dr Gergo Baranyi about researching environment and health with a lifecourse approach, using data that follows people over time. Dr Baranyi describes how linking cohort data to administrative and geospatial sources can paint a richer picture of exposure than using a single home address alone. They discuss how these methods can connect housing and neighbourhood conditions to o...

Scott and Mia discuss the negative impact dyscalculia has had on their wellbeing. Scott and Mia talk to Liz and Helen about the negative emotions they associate with mathematics in and outside of the classroom. They explore how this differs from the way adults without dyscalculia might feel. They mention anxiety, panic, shame, anger, and frustration, as well as low self-esteem that follows them lo...

Rose shares the daily challenges she faces as an adult living with dyscalculia. Liz Herbert and Helen Williams speak with Rose about how dyscalculia affects her day-to-day life. Touching on school, employment, friendship, shopping, and even splitting the bill, they explore the barriers and difficulties one can face when living with this specific learning difficulty. Full show notes: https://www.uc...

What if we could trace the arc of a generation from the very beginning to understand how our earliest environments shape our adult lives? Coming up on Research for the Real World , we explore the work of the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies by following cohorts born in the 1950s all the way to a new generation arriving in 2026. Join our IOE researchers as they unpack decades of unique data to r...