Researching Young People's Lives

Rachel Brooks is Professor of Sociology and Head of the Sociology Department at the University of Surrey in the UK and co-editor of Sociological Research Online. She has carried out a wide range of research projects on different aspects of education, with a particular focus on higher education and lifelong learning. Most recently, her research has focussed on: international student mobility; the funding of higher education; and a cross-national comparison of the experiences of university students with parental responsibilities. Rachel also has a strong interest in research methods. She co-authored Researching Young People's Lives (Sage, 2009), and co-edited Negotiating Ethical Dilemmas in Youth Research (Routledge, 2013) with Kitty te Riele. Dr Elizabeth Cleaver is Director of Learning Enhancement and Academic Practice at the University of Hull, UK where she leads work in the areas of teaching development, technology enhanced learning and quality enhancement. She returned to the HE sector in 2008 after six years as a senior researcher undertaking policy research and evaluation at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). Her early academic career was in the discipline of sociology where she gained her PhD and taught and researched youth transitions to adulthood (early works are published under the name Kenyon). It was during this period that her interest in disciplinary approaches to teaching began. While studying for her Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning at the University of Portsmouth, UK, she became aware of the importance of teaching sociologically alongside thinking and researching sociologically. This has profoundly influenced her current work at the University of Hull where she is supporting academic teams to explore and develop their own disciplinary pedagogies. Eleanor is a Research Director in the Children and Young People group at NatCen. She has worked at NatCen for four years and works on both qualitative and quantitative projects. Her research areas at NatCen include parental separation and child support, and anti-social behaviour. Prior to NatCen she worked at the National Foundation for Educational Research where she carried out qualitative and quantitative research with children, young people and adults in a range of policy areas.