Susan Jones

Contact

• workRoom B88 Dearing Building
  Jubilee Campus
  Wollaton Road
  Nottingham
  NG8 1BB
  UK
• work0115 846 7186
• susan.jones@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

I have researched and published in the areas of language, literacy and cultural practices, with a particular focus on the way in which these relate to the agency and identities of individuals and communities. I have been awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (which will run between September 2021-August 22). I will be exploring the links between amateur fibre crafts, such as knitting and crochet, and everyday meaning-making.

My previous research includes a British Academy funded ethnographic study of the everyday lives and literacy practices of families living on a Midlands council estate. This research was the focus of an article which won the Wiley-Blackwell Research in Literacy Education Award 2015 and a monograph: Portraits of Everyday Literacy for Social Justice: Reframing the Debate for Families and Communities (Palgrave).

I also work with Dr Kevin Harvey (School of English) and Dr David Peplow (Sheffield Hallam University) in convening a local shared reading group, based in Lenton. Further details about the group can be found here.

I teach on the BA Education and support postgraduate research students working for Masters, EdD and PhD. Having previously worked as a teacher of English in secondary schools in Derby and as a tutor in Children's Literature for the Open University, I have taught on postgraduate initial teacher education courses in secondary English, including PGCE and Schools Direct, as well as on the Postgraduate Certificate in Education Studies.

Expertise Summary

• literacy education
• English education (11-18)
• everyday literacy practices
• informal and community arts practice

Teaching Summary

BA Education: Literacy Learning and Education; Research Methodology and Design in Education, Dissertation

MA Education: Dissertation supervision

EdD and PhD supervision

Research Summary

Crafting Literacy: amateur fibre craft and everyday meaning-making (Leverhulme Research Fellowship)

Amateur fibre crafts, such as knitting and crochet, have long established, yet often tacit, meanings in everyday life. As these crafts surge in popularity, these meanings are changing. This research aims to develop a conceptual underpinning for understanding amateur fibre craft as a communicative practice through which individuals across diverse communities experience everyday life. It does this by developing a conceptualisation of craft as an everyday literacy practice, making the case that this will support a broader understanding of literacy, craft and creativity in policy and practice.

Shared reading group, Lenton (with Dr Kevin Harvey, School of English).

This work explores the collaborative practice of shared reading and the role it can play in supporting inclusive, asset-based models of participatory arts practice within communities.

Recent Publications

• JONES, S., AND HARVEY, K., 2020. Participation, Perplexity and Plurality: exploring the shared reading of a ‘difficult’ poem Changing English. 27(1), 34-49.
• 2018. Portraits of Everyday Literacy for Social Justice: Reframing the debate for families and communities Palgrave.
• JONES, S. and HOOD, P., 2018. Learning from creative bilingual classrooms. In: HOOD, P., ed., Teaching Languages Creatively. Abingdon: Routledge Routledge.
• JONES, S. and CHAPMAN, K., 2017. Telling Stories: engaging critical literacy through urban legends in an English secondary school English Teaching: Practice and Critique. 16(1), 85-96

• View all publications

Past Research

My doctoral research focused on the ways in which young bilinguals made use of literacy practices to explore their cultural worlds and identities. Other research projects include:

• 'New literacies and cross-generational learning: an ethnography of everyday family practices on a Midlands council estate' (funded by a British Academy Small Research Grant). This explored the use of everyday literacies in the lives of three families. This research was the focus of an article which won the Wiley-Blackwell Research in Literacy Education Award 2015 and a monograph: Portraits of Everday Literacy for Social Justice: Reframing the Debate for Families and Communities (Palgrave)
• Right Up My Street: an investigation into the creative practices and pedagogies of the Right Up My Street (RUMS) project which was run by Broadway Media Centre and funded through Creative England. Its aim was to connect young people with their communities whilst giving them professional skills through creative work (with Dr Joanna McIntyre).
• 'Building a City of Literature' project (with Dr Joanna McIntyre). This involved working with creative practitioners and teachers to develop community arts projects in three Nottingham secondary schools. This built upon work that has arisen from our primary research in the Centre for Research in the Arts, Creativity, Literacies and Learning (CRACL), aiming to maximise the impact of existing resources, promote community engagement and develop local knowledge amongst pupils and teachers. The school-based community arts projects involved researching, reading, performing and writing plays about local communities.
• Ethnographic research as part of a partnership between the University of Nottingham and community theatre company Hanby and Barrett.
• I worked alongside Professors Pat Thomson, Christine Hall and Ken Jones as a research associate on the Arts Council sponsored Creative School Change Project, which explored the impact of Creative Partnerships on whole school change.

• JONES, S., AND HARVEY, K., 2020. Participation, Perplexity and Plurality: exploring the shared reading of a ‘difficult’ poem Changing English. 27(1), 34-49.
• 2018. Portraits of Everyday Literacy for Social Justice: Reframing the debate for families and communities Palgrave.
• JONES, S. and HOOD, P., 2018. Learning from creative bilingual classrooms. In: HOOD, P., ed., Teaching Languages Creatively. Abingdon: Routledge Routledge.
• JONES, S. and CHAPMAN, K., 2017. Telling Stories: engaging critical literacy through urban legends in an English secondary school English Teaching: Practice and Critique. 16(1), 85-96
• JOANNA MCINTYRE and SUSAN JONES, 2017. Connecting community through film in ITE English. In: DAVID STEVENS and KAREN LOCKNEY, eds., Students, Places, and Identities in the Arts Routledge.
• JONES, SUSAN, 2017. 'Words of Wisdom': Text, Voice and Justice in I, Daniel Blake Changing English. 24(4), 399-412
• HALL, C and JONES, S, 2016. Making sense in the city: Dolly Parton, early reading and educational policy-making Literacy. 50(1), 40-48
• JONES, S., 2016. Constricting or constructing everyday lives? Literacies and inequality. In: BECKY PARRY, CATHY BURNETT and GUY MERCHANT, eds., Literacy, Media and Technology: Past, Present and Future Bloomsbury.
• JONES, S. and HARVEY, K., 2016. ‘He should have put them in the freezer’: creating and connecting through shared reading Journal of Arts and Communities. 7(3), 153-166
• THOMSON, PAT, BARRETT, ANDY, HALL, CHRISTINE, HANBY, JULIAN and JONES, SUSAN, 2014. Arts in the community as a place-making event. In: FLEMING, MIKE, BRESLER, LIORA and O'TOOLE, JOHN, eds., The Routledge international handbook of arts and education Routledge.
• MCINTYRE, J. and JONES, S., 2014. Possibility in impossibility? Working with beginning teachers of English in times of change English in Education. 48(1), 26-40
• JONES, S., 2014. 'How people read and write and they don't even notice': everyday lives and literacies on a Midlands council estate Literacy. 48(2), 59-65
• JONES, S. and MCINTYRE, J., 2014. 'It's not what it looks like. I'm Santa': connecting community through film. Changing English. 21(4), 322-333
• JONES, S., HALL, C., THOMSON, P., BARRETT, A. and HANBY, J., 2013. Re-presenting the “forgotten estate”: participatory theatre, place and community identity Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. 34(1), 118-131
• JONES, S., 2012. Remaking the Curriculum: Re-engaging Young People in Secondary School, M. Fautley, R. Hatcher, E. Millard. (Book review) Thinking Skills and Creativity. 9,
• JONES, S. and HALL, C., 2009. Creative partners: arts practice and the potential for pupil voice Power and Education. 1(2), 178-188
• JONES, S., 2007. Land of “My 9”: Welsh-English Bilingual Girls Creating Spaces to Explore Identity Changing English. 14(1), 39-50
• JONES, S., 2006. One body and two heads: Girls exploring their bicultural identities through text English in Education. 40(2), 5-21
• JONES, S., 2006. A Tale of Two Literacies: Girls growing up biculturally literate in two UK communities. In: HICKEY, T., ed., Language Learning and Literacy RAI. 99-113
• JONES, S., 2004. Shaping identities: The reading of young bilinguals Literacy. 38(1), 40-45
• JONES, S., 2003. Making meanings from Macbeth Use of English. 54(3), 217-231