We are pleased to welcome Branwen Bingle to the Worcestershire VCSE Alliance team in the new role of VCSE Community Research Training Lead.
Branwen is a qualified teacher with a PhD, an MA Ed in Applied Linguistics and over 20 years’ experience of partnership development, social science research and course development and design in higher education. She was recently awarded a PG Diploma in Voluntary Sector Management, which she has used to support a number of VCSE organisations in her role as a Communities Officer for Wychavon District Council.
‘I have always been curious about how people learn about and make sense of the world around them and this has served me well throughout my academic career and beyond. My PhD focused on the way what we read as children influences society’s perceptions of teachers’ professional identity; to fully explore my research questions, I needed to develop a unique approach that drew upon narrative methodologies, as well as tools and techniques from Personal Construct Psychology. This taught me that I needed to be flexible when researching people’s memories and perceptions of their experiences, which will be invaluable in supporting the development of research training modules for VCSE organisations wanting to hear more from their communities.’
Branwen will lead the co-creation and implementation of a community-led research training programme to develop the research and evaluation skills of the existing Worcestershire Wellbeing Roles Network workforce in collaboration with the University of Worcester.