Centre for Researching Education and Language

In this post-pandemic era when conventional theories and practices in intercultural education and communication are challenged by forces of de-globalization/de-internationalisation due to rising nationalism globally, there are urgent needs to explore new educational and linguistic strategies and models for sustaining tolerant and liveable societies. At the forefront of international higher education (IHE), we need a new unit to coordinate cutting-edge research conducted to address such needs by UNNC staff, particularly those in the School of Education and English (EDEN). CREL is thus proposed to provide a platform for leading researchers in IHE, intercultural communication, applied/socio-/psycho-linguistics, translation studies, educational leadership and management, multilingualism, translanguaging, multimodality, etc. to share and disseminate research findings and insights related to the contemporary issues in education and language. CREL is output driven and its ultimate aim is to produce research outcomes, in the form of fund capturing, publications, and policy recommendations, that can generate positive social impact and help policy making at regional, national and international levels. 

The Centre Director is Professor Anwei Feng, professor of education in the School of Education and English (EdEN). As a research unit, CREL is EdEn based and hosted and is managed by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS). Thus, it aims to bring the research expertise together, not only from EdEn but from academics and PGR students of the whole faculty, to address issues relevant to Education and Language.

We foresee the following benefits CREL will bring to EDEN and beyond. Firstly, as a merged school with colleagues possessing a wide range of research areas and expertise as listed above, research projects conducted by research-active members could be isolated. CREL, once set up, will turn this into strengths as it will bring the researchers and their expertise into relationship and encourage collegiate collaboration between individuals and existing EDEN laboratories including the newly-established Language and Pedagogy Lab, the Interpreting Lab and the Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Lab. Such collaboration is bound to lead to higher-quality, cross-disciplinary outcomes. Secondly, with the rapid increase of PhD numbers, CREL will benefit these young researchers by strengthening EDEN’s research-based culture with invited lectures by world-leading researchers, seminars and events. Furthermore, with the combined strengths of (pro)active researchers and labs led by world-leading scholars in EDEN and beyond, we are confident that CREL will contribute to a huge increase of the visibility of FHSS and UNNC as a regional hub for researching education and language.

In addition to coordinating research activities and output in the existing EDEN Labs, CREL will be key to a number of key Knowledge Exchange activities which it is uniquely situated to produce.  For example, it will engage in outreach with the local educational authorities through Curricular Reports and Recommendations, and work on Talent Cultivation with the Ningbo International Talent base. It will also make full use of the Language and Pedagogy Lab to produce pedagogical training materials in support of these activities, with the goal of making UNNC a Ningbo hub for educational practice, particularly in the language classroom.

To make the output-driven strategy work effectively, it is envisaged that CREL will be organised on a two-year cycle with the aim to produce the cutting-edge outcomes for maximal social impact. In the first two years, it is planned that CREL will align its research with FHSS and UNNC strategies by focusing on “talent development” specified in the FHSS RKE Strategy 2022-25 as one of four key areas. It was chosen on the basis of solid work already done by a critical mass of researchers led by the applicant. They consist mainly of the researchers of the International Talent Development and Research Base under the auspice of the Ningbo Social Science Academy and of the Local Studies for Education research group. These groups are made up of many EDEN academics and doctorate students. It is expected that, in two years, this focus will lead not only to symposia and events, but solidly to publication, some fund capturing, and a policy recommendation (see below for more detail). After two years, CREL will review the key area project(s) and shift to other key areas that are likely to generate cutting-edge outcomes and positive social impact. 

Strategies

CREL is output-impact driven. In three years, CREL has the plan to, at least:

• host the third international symposium on glocal talents via IHE, scheduled in January 2023. The best-quality papers will be chosen for an edited book (see below);
• co-host the second national conference on local studies for education with Shantou University.
• publish an edited book with the provisional title ‘glocal talents via internationalisation at home (IaH)’ in which a theoretical model to nurture ‘glocal talents’ via IaH in the Chinese context will be established, for internationalisation of higher education in general and for Sino-Foreign Cooperative Universities in particular;  
• capture funding from Ningbo Social Science Academy and/or other funding sources or bodies (there is a likelihood for funding by the Zhejiang government if FHSS succeeds in securing the ‘key discipline’ status of journalism and communication); and
• submit a policy recommendation paper to the Ningbo government which will hopefully be adopted to produce an immediate impact on local communities.

These will be achieved in the first two-year cycle. The third year will be devoted to developing two new key research areas of current significance to keep abreast with the advancement of theories, social needs and FHSS/UNNC strategies. 

CREL envisaged in such a way is sustainable as it adopts three strategies that shall be effective for its growth. The first is the output-driven approach which addresses the usual vulnerability faced by some centres of social sciences for their real values. A research centre often becomes a name, not a reality, without output through collaborative research for both theoretical contribution and positive social impact. The second strategy is to build upon the existing research strengths of the EDEN Labs for cutting-edge outcomes as these labs house key researchers and facilitate research activities in EDEN. Last but not the least is its alignment of research with FHSS and UNNC priority areas of research. This strategy ensures opportunities for collaboration across schools, faculties and campuses and helps fulfil annual School/Faculty KPIs.

As far as resources are concerned, despite the above-mentioned strengths and existing labs, it is foreseeable that CREL will need funds to recruit a research assistant to ensure the timely delivery of the output in each cycle. 

CREL Launch on 15 March 2023

The Glocal Talents Symposium co-organised by CREL and ITRDB on 17-18 June 2023

The Symposium on Local Studies in and for Education co-organised by CREL and the LSFE Research Group on 8-9 June 2024