Post Doctoral Research Associate
Contact
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7848 3974
Email: sarah.lewthwaite@kcl.ac.uk
Blog: http://www.slewth.co.uk
Waterloo Bridge Wing,
Franklin-Wilkins Building,
Waterloo Road,
London, SE1 9NN
Biography
Dr Sarah Lewthwaite joined King’s Learning Institute in December 2011. She is researching student experience as part of the King’s Experience Project. Sarah holds a Masters degree with distinction in Research Methods (Education) and PhD in Education from the University of Nottingham. She is an Honorary Research Fellow of the Learning Sciences Research Institute.
Sarah has worked to promote access and equity in Education since 2001. Following undergraduate studies in English and Related Literature at the University of York, Sarah has worked in secondary and higher education, and in scrutiny, research and web development for regional government. During her postgraduate studies Sarah has contributed to significant projects at a national and European level, on projects commissioned by organisations such as Becta, JISC and the EC.
Sarah received her PhD in 2011. Her doctoral research focussed on student experiences of disability and social networks in higher education. This work identified how student experiences of disability are produced and suppressed by Networked Publics. Alongside her focus on student experience at King’s, Sarah continues to maintain an active research interest in technology enhanced learning, disability studies, social media and accessibility. She has taught at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in Education, Disability Studies and Human Factors.
Research
“We often think that when we have completed our study of one, we know all about two, because ‘two’ is ‘one and one’. We forget that we have still to make a study of ‘and’”.
A. S. Eddington.
My background is in qualitative and critical inquiry. I am particularly interested in participatory methods and the principles of bricolage as a post-structuralist response to both qualitative and quantitative orthodoxies. In other words, I seek to draw together methodologies and methods that supply multiple perspectives on a given research situation. Over the years, I have found myself increasingly committed to Foucault’s conception of Practical Ethics. This acknowledges the problems of hierarchy within research and meaning making. As we divide the known and unknown during our research, problems of normalcy and the effects of categorisation can take hold. In my work, I always try to maintain a focus on the margins of my own practice and wider discourse, to attend to the grey areas at the edge of my research questions. I believe it is only with a situated perspective that acknowledges the excluding tendencies of the research process that we can make sound and ethical judgements about what constitutes new knowledge.
Publications - Full publications (pdf, 12KB)
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Kelly, B., Cooper, M., Sloan, D. & Lewthwaite, S. (2012, in press) A Challenge to Web Accessibility Metrics and Guidelines: Putting People and Processes First. In: Proceedings of the 2012 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A). New York: Association for Computing Machinery.
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Lewthwaite, S. and Swan, H. (2012: in press) ‘Disability, Web Standards and the Majority World’ IN L. Meloncon (Ed.) Rhetorical AccessAbility: At the intersection of technical communications and disability studies. Baywood Publishing.
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Lewthwaite, S. (2011) ‘Viewpoint: Critical Approaches to Accessibility for Technology Enhanced Learning’. Learning, Media and Technology. Vol 36, Issue 1, pp 85-89.