It’s Just Research: Critically questioning the world we live in is a podcast produced by the School of Education, Communication & Society (ECS) at King’s College London, that demystifies research while offering a critical outlook onto the global challenges we face in the 21st century.
Each month, our hosts Sara Black, Lecturer in Education and Society, and PhD students Liam Cini O’Dwyer and Pippa Sterk, will interview one of their ECS colleagues to bring to light the behind-the-scenes of research and delve into a wide range of social science interests – from sociolinguistics, education technology and its effects on social inequality, youth work, post-colonial community building, health ethics, to science and mathematics, sustainability and ecological approaches to education.
The guests will unpack the research concepts, analytical lenses, and theoretical and methodological approaches they’ve used to explore their subjects of interest. In doing so, the podcast hopes to humanise the research process and show that doing innovative social science requires accepting some trial-and-error. It also explores ambitions for social change, delving into how theory is a tool to produce new insights, rather than dogmatic blueprints to superimpose on the world.
The conversations will question concepts of identity, nationalism, race, ethnicity, gender, but also political economy, social inequality, and education. These broad themes will act as the backbone onto which each researcher will articulate their particular research interests, their analytical framework, their contribution to their field of research, their personal drivers and history, and where future research on their subjects could go.
This podcast will be accessible to researchers and non-researchers alike; anyone interested in questioning and critiquing the way the world works will gain a clearer understanding of the challenges that social science, linguistics and education research can help solve.
It’s Just Research is executive produced by Sylvie Carlos, PhD student in ECS and audio producer.