Professor David Hyatt

My interests have a focus on pedagogy, particularly in a higher education context. As a result, my research currently centres around three major interlinked research areas of interest:

• Doctoral Pedagogies
• Higher Education Policy and Pedagogies
• The Impact of Language on Educational Processes.

1. Doctoral Pedagogies

My current scholarship in this work focuses on decentred approaches to doctoral pedagogy, seeking to reconfigure the relationships between supervisors and doctoral candidates. It advocates supervisory practices which support students in becoming members of the academic discourse community, through a process of critical inclusion, through mirroring the authentic activities, repertoires and attributes of practicing academics. This work has been widely disseminated nationally and internationally and has contributed to the development of the field through several conference presentations (from 2015-2019) and publications (Hyatt 2017a, 2017b, 2020 [forthcoming]). This scholarship has impacted significantly on my directorship and teaching of the EdD programme, encompasses a pedagogical initiative, concerned with decentring power relations in doctoral teaching.

2. Higher Education Policy and Pedagogies

My research interests in this area have developed from a focus largely around International English Language education to a wider and ongoing focus on policy and pedagogy, particularly in a higher education context. This has also involved a critical engagement with theoretical aspects of discourse analysis. My work has contributed to the advancement of analytical frameworks in the field as evidenced in my publications Hyatt (2005c, 2013b 2013c,2019).

My current research writing, also linking with my directorship and teaching on the EdD, encompasses a pedagogical initiative, concerned with decentring power relations in doctoral teaching and methodologically involving the analysis of educational policy documents. My contribution to this field, therefore, lies in the synthesis of a well-established theoretical methodology with practical pedagogical & research contexts e.g. Hyatt, D. (2013b). This builds on my previous published works in the analysis of discourse (Hyatt, 2006, Hyatt, 2005b, Hyatt 2005c), drawing on previous work on policy analysis (Hyatt 2007) and offered an innovative framework for the field, including my own publications (Hyatt 2013b, Hyatt 2015).

As an active and researcher and teacher in higher education, with a central interest in teaching, learning and assessment my interests encompass approaches and issues in academic literacies, particularly in terms of feedback at postgraduate level (Hyatt 2005a, Hyatt 2004a), research disseminated through both publication and professional development seminars. Other work on self-assessment produced DVD-based teaching resources. Earlier work included a funded IELTS project (Hyatt 2008, Hyatt, D. 2013a) looking at stakeholders perceptions of appropriate entry levels for HE, and a bid for research into the experiences of doctoral students in relation to entry-level English language proficiency. This scholarship work has also being operationalized in my current work mentoring staff on teaching specialist contracts to support the development of their learning and teaching scholarship.

3. The Impact of Language on Educational Processes

My major research activity in this area is nested in the on-going applied and collaborative work begun through the Arts and Humanities Research Council Connected Communities funded ‘Language as Talisman’ project, where project team worked in schools and youth centres to co-produce materials with young people about language and its power. My aspect of this project involved working with two Rotherham primary schools with children on accent/dialect and achievement.

My work in academic literacies has had an impact on School and departmental assessment and feedback procedures. This work has been disseminated through professional development seminars and publication (Hyatt, 2013a). Historically this drew on my engagement with pedagogical issues around learning at a distance (including my development of innovative DL teaching materials and processes), and through my work on two funded research sponsored by learndirect (Ufi Ltd) which sought to consider the learning of English by adult speakers of other languages under the Government initiatives on Skills for Life and ICT. This work has also had an institutional impact through my chairing of a faculty task and finish group on English language support in 2019.

Funded Research Projects

• Language as Talisman - Funded by the AHRC’s Connected Communities programme and ran from February – November 2012
• Investigating stakeholders perceptions of IELTS as an entry requirement for higher education in the UK; funded by British Council/Cambridge ESOL/IDP:IELTS Australia. March 2007- March 2008.
• Evaluation of Auralog E-learning English Language Package for learndirect (with Sue Webb, Toni Ibarz and Phil Logan); funded by UfI / learndirect. February 2003-March 2004.
• Evaluation of ELLIS E-learning English Language Package for learndirect (with Sue Webb, Toni Ibarz, Pam Cole and Anita Franklin); funded by UfI / learndirect. March 2001 – December 2001.