Dr Caroline Kuhn

Personal statement

Caroline holds a PhD in Education and is a Senior Lecturer in Education and Technology Enhanced Learning at the School of Education. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator of an EPSRC funded project, Understanding data: Praxis and Politics. The project aims to design and pilot a bilingual (Spanish and English) open educational resource for educators in HE to foster critical data literacy across Europe, Latin America, and Africa.

She has a particular interest in open education and social justice framed under a critical pedagogy approach.

Her research focus lies on the intersection of sociology, philosophy, technology and education. She is interested in how technology-driven solutions can be meaningfully integrated into development contexts so that different ways of knowing and beings are respected. This interest stems from her doctoral research, where she examined students’ daily entanglement with digital tools and platforms, particularly open and participatory ones at university. In this examination, she is particularly interested in the interplay between culture, structure and agency from a critical realist perspective. Critical realism is another of her interest. She is involved in developing, together with other scholars, a seminar series to introduce PhD students to critical realism; in this way, she hopes to make critical realism more accessible to those new to this philosophy of social science.

Academic qualifications

• Diploma, Teaching for Understanding (with a focus on student's understanding) - Harvard Graduate School of Education
• Professional Teaching Qualification (Spanish as a second language) - Cervantes Institute
• MA - University of Barcelona (Spain)
• MA - University of Simon Bolivar (Venezuela)
• BA (Hons) - Pedagogical University J.M. Siso Martinez, Venezuela

Professional memberships

• BERA (British Education Research Association)
• Fellow - Higher Education Academy (HEA)
• ALT (Association for Learning Technology)
• SRA (Social Research Association)
• SRHE (Society for Research in Higher Education)
• GOER-GN (Global Open Educational Resources Graduate Network)
• STEM Ambassador

Other external roles

• Lead Organiser - BRLSI Young Researchers programme
• Editorial board member - International Journal for Creative Media Research

Areas of research and expertise

• New literacy studies
• Open education practice
• Critical digital literacies
• Research methods for social science
• Mathematics education
• Education for change
• Social theory
• Qualitative methodology
• Technology enhanced learning

Teaching

Caroline teaches on the following modules:

• Education for Change
• Changing Education
• Research Methods for Social Sciences
• Sociology of Education
• Learning in Mathematics

Awards

• Winner - Best Open Research Practice 2019, Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN), Open University, UK. "Caroline Kuhn embodies open practice throughout her research, and has been one of the most active members of the GO-GN community."

Impact

• Since 2015, Caroline has volunteered on a monthly basis at BRLSI (Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution), where she works with young students (13+) that are interested in pursuing a small research project in a STEM subject. The programme aims to provide opportunities which put the young person and their interests at the centre of their own learning. Through this work, she is able to share her research journey with young researchers, while also inspiring and supporting them with their own interests and improving their research skills.
• She also collaborates with The Dot Project, a charity based in Bath that works to build tech for community and social outreach, with a focus to strengthen organisations and human connections through the conscious use of educational technology.