Aims, Objectives, and Methods
Aims and objectives
The overall aim is to map both physical as well as conceptual and pedagogical spaces, including those identified as residential colleges and others which stand outside this tradition, over the course of the last 100 years, and to chart where their pedagogical innovations migrated since their closure. Through documentary analysis and written testimony from archival records, this will document the influence of key visionary figures, educationally and pedagogically, who have influenced their development.
Through the bringing together of archival material and oral history interview material with former students and teachers, the information will create this living memory archive. This will form the basis of a book on ‘lost spaces in adult education’.
Methods
Twenty former students, teachers and educationalists will be interviewed from twenty former colleges identified through Sharon Clancy's research conducted between 2014 and 2017. The research will use narrative/oral history techniques on a semi-structured interview basis. This will access the interviewees through the Research Circle of Fostering Community Democracy and Dialogue, SCUTREA (Standing Committee for Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults) and the Centenary Commission for Adult Education networks. The interviews will be recorded digitally and will form the basis of the living history archive.
The physical changes to these spaces will be documented and recorded through a photographic record employing the photo voice method and utilising visual/film footage.
Finally, documentary and archival thematic analysis will be undertaken of all relevant documents such as Board of Governors reports, students records and written testimonies from named educators, including their substantive pedagogical works, for example An Epoch in Education: An Administrator’s Challenge (1985) by H. Martin Wilson, to chart the development of their thinking in relation to the role and importance of residential education.