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Paechter's research has attracted wide interest among educational practitioners and the broader public. As a result of this, she has been invited to contribute to radio programmes, Teachers' TV broadcasts, and other media for professional and general audiences. Her research has been widely reported in the media. It helps to shape public understanding of children and gender, and public debate about young people, both in the UK and internationally. She has influenced both high-level policy through her evidence to the Equal Opportunities Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and practice, through her presentations to groups of practitioners.
Findings from the IOE's substantial body of music research have had a significant impact on policy for successive Governments and NGOs in the UK and overseas, as well as on teaching and learning in the music classroom and outside. Research has led to curriculum innovation, increased participation and investment in music for all ages, including those with special needs, benefiting millions of children and young people attending schools in England and around the world. The impact derives from a wide range of externally funded studies, embracing music learning across all education sectors.
The three studies described here have helped to improve the lives and prospects of girls in six African countries. Thanks to the IOE researchers and their project partners, hundreds of Nigerian families have allowed their daughters to return to school. In Kenya, a tougher approach has been adopted towards teachers who sexually abuse girl pupils. In Ghana, police are encouraging more girls to report assaults. Mozambique is promoting school clubs where issues such as HIV/AIDS can be discussed. Girls' clubs have been set up in Tanzania, and in South Africa education officials have been prompted to look for more effective ways of managing teenage pregnancy. The studies' reach has, additionally, extended beyond Africa, influencing many other countries' thinking on girls' education and two House of Commons inquiries into the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals and violence against girls and women.
Since 2006 Professor Christopher Fox has been engaged in a series of linked projects which explore ways in which the engagement of performers and listeners in texted music for vocal ensemble can be enhanced. The research was initially based on received understandings of the perceptible relationship between music and text but, as the project and its impact have developed, the research has extended into a collaborative scientific study of this relationship, funded by two successive awards from the Wellcome Trust. Each stage of the research has been extensively disseminated through public performance, broadcast, recording, print and on-line media and the impact of the research now reaches into a wide range of communities of interest and the general public.
Jessica Ringrose's research on young people, social media and sexuality has helped raise awareness nationally and internationally about the implications of new media for young people's relationships, self-image and physical and emotional well-being and safety. Studying digital-age phenomena such as `sexting' and `slut-shaming', Ringrose has attracted substantial but overwhelmingly sensitive press coverage and sparked serious public discussion on difficult issues. She has influenced national and third sector guidelines on sex and relationship education and on internet controls and her work has underpinned resources for schools. She has advised on a series of government reports and inspired a very influential speech by Diane Abbott MP on the sexualisation of society.
A sustained and substantial research programme on teacher's lives and careers has influenced policy development, informed communities of practice and shaped leadership training materials and programmes. The work provides new insights into the complexity of teacher development which has been taken up widely around the world and used extensively by government policy makers and school leaders in the assessment of professional competencies and targeting of support to improve performance and enhance retention in the profession.
This group of four research studies has improved access to education in schools and higher education (inter)nationally through changes to policy and practice:
a) a study of online construction of men and women in science, engineering and technology resulted in a practical toolkit that has informed gender equality in online media;
b) the recommendations of an investigation into support needs of parent students in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have informed national policy and practice;
c) material contribution to others' work resulted in development of culturally appropriate pedagogical practices in New Zealand secondary schools and raised Māori students' achievement;
d) research syntheses impacted on teacher professional development in special needs education.