Professor David Mearns directs the Counselling Unit which is a dual research and teaching unit. These four units produce research of international quality. The Centre for Equality and Discrimination, which has an international reputation for professional development, is also part of the Department. Staff in Educational Studies contribute substantially to the vocational and postgraduate courses provided by the Faculty of Education, including qualifications in teacher education, speech and language therapy, social work, community work and sport and society. Research activities closely match these major teaching responsibilities and draw on staff expertise in psychology, sociology, history and philosophy, as well as research that is interdisciplinary in approach.
Research is conducted both by individuals and by collaborative groups.
Collaborative work has involved staff from other departments, especially Primary Education, Speech and Language Therapy and Mathematics, Science and Technological Education in the Faculty of Education, and with the Departments of Psychology and History in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The Department participates in the University's Scottish-Irish Research Network. Departmental staff are also involved in a variety of external collaborative research, including projects with Aberdeen, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and Paisley Universities, as well as with Queen's University, Belfast, the University of London's Institute of Education and Roehampton Institute, University of Surrey. The Centre's Director, Professor John MacBeath, sits on and advises a wide variety of UK and European educational committees including the National Government Task Force on Standards and the Scottish Office Action Group on Standards. Still in the area of educational effectiveness and school management, Bryan Peck leads an international network of researchers investigating school organisation and management while Dr Lisa Woolfson is researching the effectiveness of pre-school educational interventions with disabled children.