Some sights and sounds of the Pedagogic Research Conference 2026

Posted on: 2 February 2026 by Sian Etherington in 2026

It's been a couple of weeks now since the Pedagogic Research Conference took place in mid-January. Now in its 11th year, the 2026 conference took the theme of Postgraduate Pedagogies, showcasing a huge variety of excellent work from across the university and XJTLU partners with a focus on supporting and enriching the postgraduate experience.

This blog attempts to share some of my personal experiences from the day and provide a flavour of the very small number of presentations which I was able to attend from the many on offer across the three parallel streams. Given that there was so much happening and the experience was such a rich and complex one, I've tried to capture my thoughts and feelings about the conference through some of the sights and sounds that have stayed with me since the day.

Kay Guiccione's keynote 'Maximising Development through a Whole Culture approach' considered how we might better create collaborative cultures of support and empowerment for doctoral students. Her image of the straightforward doctoral 'pathway' that PGRs often imagine for themselves as they start their studies, compared with the later 'lost in the snow' picture hugely resonated with me as I reflected on my own PhD experience. I too had expected a linear path through the PhD experience but found the twists and turns of life and study that inevitably arose to be difficult to manage without support systems and collaboration. Kay's talk explored how we could help students to find the best combinations of support, and to combat some of the hidden curriculum of expectations of doctoral study. Check out our podcast episode with Kay to learn more about her work on developing research culture.

In the second keynote, it was sound that was most important to me; the combined voices of Dr Sarah Wong and Cheng Cui her PhD student detailing their shared experiences of doctoral study captured beautifully their commitment to collaborative and more equitable relationships in supervision. Their research on cross-cultural approaches to supervision unearthed some valuable understandings of this process in relation to power dynamics and student growth. If you missed the keynote, you can hear their voices on our podcast episode with Sarah and Cheng Cui.

Moving on through the day I attended the hugely informative workshop on AI tools for Research led by Tunde Varga-Atkins and Dr Na Li of XJTLU. My main visual take away from this was the somewhat overwhelming list of the AI tools now available for use throughout the research process. We had a brief glimpse at what some of these tools can do and I aim to explore these further when I have some time. You can explore these tools through the Padlet created by Tunde and Na Li.

Back to sounds and the warm buzz of the lunch space as colleagues chatted over plentiful food and drink, sharing experiences and discussing their own research and pedagogic approaches. Time to get together is always too short so we were soon into the afternoon sessions. I attended parallel session 2 stream with excellent presentations about improving the PG experience in several areas. The image that stuck with me here was of MSc Marketing students using VR headsets to become truly immersed in their project on the Zero-Waste Island case study. The impact on their motivation and engagement was clear to see. It was a nice touch that conference could experience this immersive environment for themselves at the end of the session.

The last part of the day was filled for me by some of the MA in Academic Practice presentations. MA participants shared initial stages of their research projects; these included among others, an exploration of working class students' experience of employability teaching, an evaluation of science communication engagement in STEM, a survey of students' awareness of Sustainability development goals. The resounding noise of this part of the day was that of Danny Blair's Clingo game: an interactive demonstration of how pre-placement radiography students are being helped to learn clinical vocabulary and some essential Scouse through Bingo. This was a fun and energising end to an engaging and thought-provoking day.

I am horribly aware that I've only been able to cover a small snapshot here of the presentations from the day. As ever the opportunities to meet and chat with colleagues in relaxing and collaborative spaces was a highlight of the day for me and I look forward to next year's conference with eager anticipation. I hope to see you there!