John Goldring

Background

About John Goldring

I am the Co Director of the Manchester Met's Q-Step Centre. Why not follow us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/MMUQStep Our main focus is on pedagogic practice working with sociology and criminology students who perhaps don't really like stats, and turning them onto them. We do this by taking a narrative approach. Think about it, what are numbers if they cannot tell a story. We have a strong focus on social justice with a key element of the Q-Step project being to get Manchester Met students into local organisations to conduct some quantitative research. Often, this is to work with the organisations data or collecting new. The important thing is that the research matters, is used, can can do some good. We're working with a variety of organisations, such as MASH, The Men's Room, Her Majesties Inspectorate of Probation, LGBT Foundation, City in the Community, The Children’s Society, Citizens Advice Manchester, etc. We are always looking for other organisations for 3rd year and MSc student placement so please get in touch if you feel we could help us help you. I teach on quite a few methods units. I am unit leader for the first year core methods unit 'Working with Quantitative Evidence' which provides the basis for the next three years by looking beyond statistics to show how numbers are needed to explain societal structures. I also teach on the second year core unit - Becoming a Social Researcher – this builds on year one but also includes a term of mixed methods. The third year work is the Applied Quantitative Dissertation coordinator. Finally, I teach Stats in Practice, a masters level unit where we work with ideas of using stats and community engagement. My pedagogic philosophy is to operationalise Bronfenbrenner Ecological Theory using Freire's conscientization as the starting point and Vygotsky's Scaffolding as a way of supporting student success.