Mr Neil Hume
Job Title
PhD Student "Positive transitions for all: Using action research to improve multi-agency support for young people at risk of making a poor transition to secondary school"
Research interests
Research interests
Theories and discourses of transition; collaborative action research; realist evaluations of interventions with children and young people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in education settings; Cultural-Historical Activity Theory.
Background
Funded by a SGSSS Collaborative Studentship, I am supporting the social innovation charity People Know How on an collaborative action research project seeking to improve how they and education staff in two pilot areas improve the support provided to young people who struggle with their transition to secondary school. Drawing on realist evaluation principles and a multi case-study research design I am using a range of qualitative research methods including participant observation, interviews and documentary analysis to investigate the experiences and perspectives of different stakeholders regarding the effectiveness of this support. My theoretical approach is influenced by Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), notably the ways in which practitioners in different settings make use of various mediating tools and resources to carry out their role. I am supervised by Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh in Social Work and Professor Gillean McCluskey from Moray House School of Education.
By way of background, I am a qualified social worker with fifteen years practice experience in children's and adult services. In 2020 I completed the MSc in Applied Professional Studies (Social Work Practice Education) at the University of Stirling. My dissertation looked at the perspectives and experiences of social work students with regards to organisational culture in their assessed practice placements. Between 2019 and 2021 I worked as a sessional tutor on the BA Hons Education and Social Services course at the University of Strathclyde. I have also published on the relationship between moral panic theory and state social work.