Doctor of Education

1. Doctor of Education Module 1 Education Policy and Social Justice: An Overview Academic Writing at Doctoral Level

2. General advice • Read other people’s work not only for the content of what they write, but also how they write it • Only write what you understand, using your own words as far as possible • Be careful to avoid plaigiarism • Write frequently – the more you do it, the easier it gets • Be self-critical and proof read carefully • Be prepared to write numerous drafts • It can help to write the bits that come easiest first – you don’t need to write in a linear fashion

3. Using ‘I’/ the personal: 1 • I distributed 164 questionnaires and I received 46% back. From the results I found that children from broken homes tended to be stronger emotionally, which surprised me. • Research involved the distribution of 164 questionnaires and a response rate of 46% was achieved. The findings indicated that children from broken homes tended to be stronger emotionally. This contrasts with an emphasis in the literature on the damage caused by family breakdown.

4. Using ‘I’/ the personal: 2 • I will argue that parental separation may lead to a loss of confidence in the child. • However, it should be clear that it is not easy for women to survive as heads of single-parent families. Female-headed households face a situation of relative social isolation. Especially in the early stage of the domestic cycle, single-parent women must both work for money and do all the domestic chores. This leaves no time to establish and extend relationships. Indeed, it is often difficult for them to maintain relationships with kin.

5. 5. Extract from Kamler and Thomson 2006, p. 61

6. 6. Deal and Patterson (1994) argue very succinctly that leadership itself is a paradox as it involves working with so many participants. I could not agree more when I consider leadership in inclusive schools. 7. To help us explore this concept a little further, I particularly like the following quotation: ‘Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary’ (Niebuhr 1994). ibid.

7. ibid. p. 62

8. Using ‘I’/the personal • ‘I’ as the observer commentator, rather than ‘I’ at the centre • Take into account your own ideas etc but stand back from them and relate them to other sources. • Use ‘I’ when it seems appropriate • Don’t pretend you don’t exist, but put yourself in in more impersonal ways, eg: ‘the evidence seems to suggest’...

9. References Kamler, B. and P. Thomson (2006). Helping Doctoral Students Write: Pedagogies for Supervision. London Routledge.