Contrasting decolonial and traditional methods in researching coloniality and history education’
In this Qual Methods Hub, current (Zaiba Patel) and former (Abigial Branford) DPhil students discuss their doctoral methods in history education, both exploring teaching and learning about the British Empire. 
Zaiba’s research focuses on decolonising pedagogies in the school history curriculum. She completed her transfer of status and is moving on to the research phase of her project. She will reflect on her process so far, what decolonial research methods may entail, and the ethical issues that have arisen surrounding participant anonymity. 
Abigail explored how secondary school students in England learned about and perceived the British Empire. She will discuss her mixed methods design including classroom observations, surveys, focus groups, and interviews (and offer some cautionary tales about juggling too many research methods!) This range of methods provides fodder for a conversation about what each method contributed to the overall research project and some of their drawbacks. 

Teams link may be requested from the convenor, Velda Elliott (velda.elliott@education.ox.ac.uk)
Date: 2 November 2023, 12:50 (Thursday, 4th week, Michaelmas 2023)
Venue: 15 Norham Gardens, 15 Norham Gardens OX2 6PY
Venue Details: Seminar Room B and MS Teams
Speakers: Dr Abigail Branford (University of Oxford), Zaiba Patel (University of Oxford)
Organising department: Department of Education
Organiser: Dr Velda Elliott (University of Oxford)
Part of: Qualtitative Methods Hub
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Hannah Freeman