Psychology, Sociology and Education
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Item Does Eyewitness Confidence Calibration Vary by Target Race?(MDPI AG, 2026-02-10) Töredi, Dilhan; Mansour, Jamal K.; Jones, Sian; Skelton, Faye; McIntyre, AlexAfter making a lineup decision, eyewitnesses may be asked to indicate their confidence in their decision. Eyewitness confidence is considered an important reflector of accuracy. Previous studies have considered the confidence-accuracy (CA) relationship—that is, the relationship between participants’ confidence in their lineup decision and the accuracy of that decision. However, the literature is limited and mixed concerning the CA relationship in cross-race scenarios. We considered the CA relationship for White and Asian participants and targets (fully crossed) using sequential lineups. Participants completed four trials (two White targets and two Asian targets). For each trial, they watched a mock-crime video, performed a distractor task, made a sequential lineup decision (target-present or target-absent), and indicated confidence in their lineup decision. White participants had higher identification accuracy with White than Asian targets, while Asian participants were similarly accurate with White and Asian targets. White participants’ confidence was better calibrated for White than Asian targets, except for when they had medium-high confidence (no difference). This finding is not only theoretically relevant—showing support for the optimality hypothesis—but also practically relevant—suggesting that the CA relationship may differ for target races at some levels of confidence.Item Getting to the Art of the Matter: Exploring Autonomy and Relationality in Babies' Right to Be Heard Through the Participatory Arts(Wiley, 2026-02-11) Blaisdell, Caralyn; Drury, Rachel; Matheson, Rhona; Ruckert‐Fagan, ClaireThis paper explores relational understandings of children's participation rights, particularly for babies and very young children under 2 years old. We draw on selected data from the Voice of the Baby research project commissioned by Starcatchers, an early years arts organisation in Scotland (2022-ongoing). The overarching aim of the Voice of the Baby project is to explore how babies' participation rights might be realised through the participatory arts. In this paper, we use observations of artists' creative work with babies to illustrate the relational elements of their listening practice. Artists worked through reciprocal interactions with babies, their families, other people in the spaces, the physical materials and qualities of the space, underpinning knowledge of the communities and their own identities as artists. These findings demonstrate that a relational orientation to children's rights is an essential aspect of participatory work in the very early years. However, while the need to understand interdependence, relationality and fluidity has been a key aspect of debates about children's participation rights for decades, an individualist image of the autonomous participating child continues to rear its head. By bringing the Voice of the Baby project into dialogue with international theorisations of children's participation rights—particularly from Majority World contexts—we argue that the tension between autonomous and relational understandings of the child creates a generative space for reflexivity and transparency about how very young children are being involved in conversations about their lives.Item The leadership paradox: navigating leadership dilemmas at different levels in professional learning communities(Informa UK Limited, 2026-02-07) Oates, CatrionaProfessional learning communities (PLCs) are often positioned as a means of collaborative, situated professional learning and an opportunity for the development of a horizontal structure that might support middle-level teacher leadership. Here, they are considered in the context of teacher professional learning in Scotland, with a focus on relational practices within them. The study uses semi-structured interviews in two school settings to shine a light on how relationships and leadership dynamics play out inside these communities, resulting in some leadership dilemmas that emerge for school leaders at different levels. This qualitative case study, drawn from a broader doctoral study, is grounded in Analytical Dualism to provide ontological depth that allows for the examination of mechanisms explaining how structural, cultural and agential factors have influenced the internal workings of the PLCs in question. Data reported on here represent interviews (n = 8) with participants in two settings. Findings suggest that for teacher leaders and school leaders, some tensions are identified in balancing horizontal and vertical relationships. Finally, implications for practice, policy and research are explored, considering how PLCs might be re-articulated in the light of these findings.Item Teacher Agency: Real-world issues and Home Economics in Scotland(2026) Craig, LindaItem The Confidence of White Eyewitnesses is Better Calibrated with White Targets than Asian Targets(MDPI, 2026) Töredi, Dilhan; Mansour, Jamal K.; Jones, Sian; Skelton, Faye; McIntyre, AlexAfter making a lineup decision, eyewitnesses may be asked to indicate their confidence in their decision. Eyewitness confidence is considered an important reflector of accuracy. Previous studies have considered the confidence-accuracy (CA) relationship—that is, the relationship between participants’ confidence in their lineup decision and the accuracy of that decision. However, the literature is limited and mixed concerning the CA relationship in cross-race scenarios. We considered the CA relationship for White and Asian participants and targets (fully-crossed) using sequential lineups. Participants completed four trials (two White targets and two Asian targets). For each trial, they watched a mock-crime video, performed a distractor task, made a sequential lineup decision (target-present or target-absent), and indicated confidence in their lineup decision. White participants had higher identification accuracy with White than Asian targets, while Asian participants were similarly accurate with White and Asian targets. White participants’ confidence was better calibrated for White than Asian targets, except for when they had medium-high confidence (no difference). This finding is not only theoretically relevant—showing support for the optimality hypothesis— but also practically relevant—suggesting that the CA relationship may differ for target races at some levels of confidence.Item Remaking communities and adult learning: Social and community-based learning, new forms of knowledge and action for change [Book review](Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2025-07-23) Scandrett, EurigRemaking communities and adult learning: Social and community-based learning, new forms of knowledge and action for change Rob Evans, Ewa Kurantowicz and Emilio Lucio-Villegas (Eds). Brill, Leiden and Boston, 2022, xix, 257 pp. Research on the Education and Learning of Adults series, vol. 11. ISBN 978-90-04-51802-5 (hbk), ISBN 978-90-04-51801-8 (pbk), ISBN 978-90-04-51803-2 (eBook)Item Collective learning through public sociology and social movement dialogue [Abstract](UNESCO, 2025) Scandrett, Eurig; Giatsi Clausen, MariaCollective learning is essential for social change for justice. This is the process described in social movement studies as cognitive praxis (Eyerman and Jamison, 1991) or social movement process (Cox and Nilsen, 2014) in which “within any specific social context, the ways in which we articulate our understanding of our needs and organise our attempts to meet them are determined – not fixed, but in a faster- or slower-moving process of (often internally unequal and contested) collective learning and praxis” (Cox & Nilsen, 2014 p. 36). This process of collective learning can be driven by deliberative practice (which might include popular education or action research) and also through changes in shared culture from the intervention of emergent social movements from below. The process of dialogue, between subaltern groups in their struggle for justice, and those who would offer the resources of education in solidarity, also constitutes the praxis of public sociology: understanding the (social) world in order to change it. This paper draws on a trajectory of public sociology praxis, from the intervention of educators in community struggles and social movements, through the activities of social movements in redefining what is meaningful in everyday lives. This has been articulated through two (Bristol University Press) publications deploying ‘extended case’ (Burawoy, 2009) methodology: 'Public Sociology as Educational Practice: Challenges, Dialogues and Counterpublics' (Scandrett, 2022) and 'Life and Labour: Contested Occupation and Meaningful Alienation' (Giatsi Clausen & Scandrett, 2025). The paper will explore how social movement praxis provides a rupture of ‘good sense’ into the ‘common sense’ in which people find meaningful those activities and occupations that are also the cause of their alienation.Item Social Movements' Contribution to Discontinuities in Hegemonic Work, Life and Occupation [Abstract](2025) Scandrett, Eurig; Giatsi Clausen, MariaThis paper examines how hegemonic forces shape the meaning of everyday activities that are experienced as meaningful yet reinforce alienation. The concept of “hegemonic occupation” highlights how dominant societal ideologies, particularly under capitalism, define certain activities or occupations as valuable while disconnecting individuals from their labour and its purpose. The historical separation of “work” from “life” in early capitalism has normalized this alienation, especially for marginalized groups, in the interests of the powerful. Social movements challenge these norms, promoting counterhegemonic practices that foster creativity, self-determination, and liberation. Occupational Therapy emerged from such counter-hegemonic practices in Jane Addam’s Hull House public sociology project, before being professionalized in association with the medical profession and orientated towards rehabilitation. Drawing from the dialogue between this thesis and social movements (case studies) based on Burawoy’s extended case method, which took place during the writing of an upcoming book, the paper explores and discusses the themes of meaningful alienation and contested occupation through, for example: a. the role of trade unions, especially in the gig and surveillance economy, in addressing the need to go beyond merely defending work-life, into fighting for meaningful work beyond economic productivity; b. volunteerism, focusing on the experiences of people with lived experiene of mental illness and the coercion of paid employment; c. the feminist movement’s challenge to ‘gendered jobs’ and the division of domestic labour; d, disabled people’s movement’s use of arts to challenge professionals’ insistence on normalization; e, the Mad Studies academic discipline and activism, and illuminating the mental distress resulting from the loss of meaningfulness and exploitative, colonising economic logic; f. decentralising formal, conventional education, proposing community-driven models where children and the youth shape and control their own learning and create spaces for social engagement and democratic participation; g, the everyday practices of Palestinian farmers as a form of resistance to Zionist colonization. Following Raymond Williams these movements constitute emergent selections from social practice to contest meaningfulness in work and occupation. The paper concludes with key discussion points around the importance of distinguishing between activities that sustain existing social structures and those that contribute to emancipatory praxis. The authors argue how the concept of labour enables the analysis of occupations as sites of both alienation and potential transformation. Drawing on social movement theory and historical dialectical materialism, the authors finally argue that participation in counter-hegemonic occupations enables individuals and groups to challenge systems of oppression, and develop radical needs that transcend capitalist structures.Item Trade Union Organizing for Life(Bristol University Press, 2026-01-27) Scandrett, Eurig; Giatsi Clausen, MariaItem Applying Constructivist Grounded Theory to Educational Research(Routledge, 2026-1-22) Dick, SuzieGrounded theory (GT) has evolved into one of the most influential methodologies in qualitative educational research. Emerging from the seminal work of Glaser and Strauss, GT aims not merely to describe but to generate theory that is grounded in empirical data. This chapter explores the application of constructivist grounded theory (CGT), particularly as articulated by Charmaz which investigates the impact of practitioner enquiry on the professional identity formation of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) in Scotland. The study exemplifies the flexibility and analytical power of CGT in unpacking nuanced educational processes within policy-driven environments. This chapter situates CGT as a robust methodological framework in an education setting, interrogating the intersection of individual agency, institutional policy, and evolving professional identity. It traces the philosophical underpinnings, methodological design, data analysis procedures, and theoretical contributions of CGT within the study, while integrating additional academic sources to enhance the discussion.