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Sarah Speight

Deputy Head of School, Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences

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Biography

Sarah Speight is the Deputy Head of School and an Associate Professor of Archaeology and Medieval History. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Institute of Field Archaeologists. In 2006 Sarah received the University of Nottingham's Lord Dearing Award for excellence in learning and teaching. In September 2010 she was appointed Academic Director of the Nottingham Advantage Award, the University's initiative to support Undergraduate students develop their life and work skills (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/Careers/Students/AdvantageAward/Index.aspx). In 2011 she was awarded a Lord Dearing fellowship to carry out work related to education for sustainable development.

Sarah is a member of the Centre for Research in Higher, Adult and Vocational Education (HAVE). She has research interests in the areas of employability and sustainability, particularly as these relate to curriculum and pedagogy. Her current research focuses on two areas; employability as a strand of HEI work and sustainability as a dimension of pedagogy and practice in academic learning.

Sarah served five years as Archaeology editor of Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire (the county's archaeological and historical journal) and three years on the advisory panel of the Archaeology Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy. She has acted as an external reader for the Journal of Education and for Studies in the Education of Adults. She is a doctoral studentship assessor for the Higher Education Academy and an advisor for the HEA's Green Academy change programme.

Expertise Summary

Sarah's expertise lies in the areas of employability and sustainability within higher education policy, curriculum and pedagogy.

Research Summary

Sarah is a member of the School of Education's centre for research into Higher, Adult and Vocational Education (HAVE). Her interests lie in higher education curriculum and pedagogy with a focus at… read more

Recent Publications

  • SPEIGHT S, LACKOVIC N AND COOKER, L, 2013. The Contested Curriculum: Academic learning and employability in higher education Tertiary Education and Management. 19(2), (In Press.)
  • SPEIGHT S, 2012. Loving Learning in Adult Education: Memories of Shakespeare Street 1922-2010. In: MARSH C, ed., Adult Education and Well-Being: Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference of SCUTREA Institute of Lifelong Learning, University of Leicester. 272-283
  • SPEIGHT S, LACKOVIC N AND COOKER, L, 2012. Stakeholder attitudes towards employability in a Sino-British university Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability. 3(1), 26-49
  • SPEIGHT, S., 2012. 'I fell in love with this building' Adults Learning. 24(1), 32-35

Sarah is a member of the Centre for Research in Higher, Adult and Vocational Education. Her research supervision areas include:

  • adult and lifelong education
  • higher education
  • employability in the higher education context
  • historical perspectives on lifelong learning and education
  • education and citizenship
  • community engagement and widening participation

Research proposals: please email Sarah if you would like to discuss the appropriateness of your research topic.

Current Research

Sarah is a member of the School of Education's centre for research into Higher, Adult and Vocational Education (HAVE). Her interests lie in higher education curriculum and pedagogy with a focus at undergraduate level.

Recent research projects are focused upon employability and sustainability, how these themes/concepts are understood by higher education stakeholders, and how they can be integrated into the curriculum. Small-scale projects have explored staff and student views of employability across academic disciplines and campuses of the University of Nottingham, and student leaders' engagement with sustainability. Sarah's current work is taking forward a JISC-funded project (PARiS - Promoting Academic Resources in Society) which has produced a range of e-books on Sustainability and Business, Geography, Engineering and Arts and Humanities. Sarah is currently leading an initiative to further develop these resources as structured learning opportunities that facilitate engagement across disciplines and across spaces. Sarah is interested in supervising students working on employability and graduate attributes in higher education, or upon education for sustainable development.

Past Research

Previous research has focused upon adult education within the higher education sector and has explored the development of academic disciplines within adult education, and the impact of policy change upon adult education provision.

  • SPEIGHT S, LACKOVIC N AND COOKER, L, 2013. The Contested Curriculum: Academic learning and employability in higher education Tertiary Education and Management. 19(2), (In Press.)
  • SPEIGHT S, 2012. Loving Learning in Adult Education: Memories of Shakespeare Street 1922-2010. In: MARSH C, ed., Adult Education and Well-Being: Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference of SCUTREA Institute of Lifelong Learning, University of Leicester. 272-283
  • SPEIGHT S, LACKOVIC N AND COOKER, L, 2012. Stakeholder attitudes towards employability in a Sino-British university Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability. 3(1), 26-49
  • SPEIGHT, S., 2012. 'I fell in love with this building' Adults Learning. 24(1), 32-35
  • KEMP, S., SPEIGHT, S ET AL, 2012. A National Programme to support Education for Sustainable Development in the UK:University Experiences of the HEA Green Academy. In: LEAL FILHO, W, ed., Sustainable Development at Universities: New Horizons 34. Peter Lang.
  • WRIGHT S, MENDONCA T, BAKER J, STAPLETON S, BEGGAN A AND SPEIGHT S., 2012. Sustainability - The Business Perspective The University of Nottingham.
  • GOSLING S, MENDONCA T, BAKER J, STAPLETON S, BEGGAN A AND SPEIGHT S., 2012. Sustainability - The Geography Perspective Parts I and II The University of Nottingham.
  • SYKES N, MENDONCA T, HARRIS G, BAKER J, STAPLETON J, BEGGAN A AND SPEIGHT S, 2012. Sustainability in the Arts and Humanities Parts I and II The University of Nottingham.
  • EALES A, CLIFFORD M, MENDONCA T, HARRIS G, BAKER J, STAPLETON S, BEGGAN A AND SPEIGHT S., 2012. Sustainability & Engineering Parts I and II The University of Nottingham.
  • SPEIGHT, S.J., 2011. A gentlemanly pastime: antiquarianism, adult education and the clergy in England, c.1750–1960 History of Education: Journal of the History of Education. 40(2), 143-155
  • SPEIGHT, S., 2008. Castles as Past Culture 2: Identity and adaption in the post-life of castles The Castle Studies Group Journal. 22, 268-275
  • SPEIGHT, S., 2008. Castles as Past Culture: Living with Castles in the Post-Medieval World. In: ETTEL, P, FLAMBARD-HERCHER, A.M and AND MCNEILL, T.E., eds., Chateau Gaillard 23: Etudes de castellologie medievale 23. Publications du CRAHM - Caen. 385-394
  • SPEIGHT, S., 2007. Review: A Few Well-positioned Castles. The Norman Art of War Medieval Archaeology. 51, 356-357 (In Press.)
  • SPEIGHT S, 2007. Review of 'Castles'by T.E.McNeill The Castle Studies Group Journal. 20, 246-7
  • SPEIGHT, S.J., 2006. Castles and Settlement in Rural Nottinghamshire, Egmanton, Laxton and Greasley. In: Chateau Gaillarol, 22 Actes du colloque International de Voiron.
  • SPEIGHT, S.J., 2006. Transactions of the Thoroton Society:The Journal for Nottinghamshire History and Archaeology
  • SPEIGHT, S, 2006. Castle Studies Society for Medieval Archaeology Newsletter (Special Anniversary Edition). 36, 3
  • SPEIGHT, S.J., 2006. Castles in The Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway
  • SPEIGHT, S.J., 2005. Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire
  • SPEIGHT, S., 2004. Teachers of adult education in British universities 1948-1998 Studies in the Education of Adults. 36(1), 111-127
  • SPEIGHT, S.J., 2004. Religion in the Bailey: Charters, Chapels and the Clergy In: Chateau Gaillard 21: Actes du colloque international de Maynooth. 271-280
  • SPEIGHT, S.J., 2004. British Castle Studies in the Late 20th and 21st Centuries
  • SPEIGHT, S.J., 2004. Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire
  • SPEIGHT, S.J., 2004. Archaeology in Nottinghamshire: Work Carried Out in the Period 2002-2004 108
  • SPEIGHT, S.J., 2003. Localising history 1940-1965: the extra-mural contribution Journal of Educational Administration and History. 35(1), 52-64
  • SPEIGHT, S., 2003. Residential archaeology and local history in British university adult education, c.1940-1980 Journal of Adult and Continuing Education. VOL 9(PART 2), 149-166
  • SPEIGHT, S.J., 2003. An Officer and an Antiquary: Major Hayman Rooke and the beginnings of archaeology in eighteenth century Nottinghamshire. In: Nottinghamshire Past 1st Edition, 2003. 116-136
  • SPEIGHT, S.J., 2003. Digging for History Adults Learning. 15/2, 20-21
  • SPEIGHT, S.J. and FRANKLIN, G., 2003. Egmanton near Laxton; Nottinghamshire's Second Finest Motte and Bailey Castle? Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire. 107, 65-81
  • SPEIGHT, S.J., 2003. Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire.
  • SPEIGHT, S., 2002. Digging for history: archaeological fieldwork and the adult student 1943-1975 Studies in the Education of Adults. 34(1), 68-85
  • SPEIGHT, S.J. and HENSTOCK, A., 2002. Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire
  • SPEIGHT, S.J. and HENSTOCK, A., 2001. Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire

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