Dr Matt Finn
Senior Lecturer in Human Geography
5917
Amory C253a
Amory Building, University of Exeter, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4RJ , UK
Overview
Matt explores the contemporary conditions of education through approaches informed by a participatory action research ethos. He is interested in how childhood and young people's lives vary globally and has researched the rising use of data in education settings.
As an Education Exeter Incubator Fellow 2017-2018 Matt has worked with students to research experiences of transitions to university following the introduction of the reformed A Levels in England. The team are using the findings to inform effective undergraduate transition support.
His Masters and PhD studies were enabled by an ESRC Quota Studentship and he is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers, a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy, a member of the Geography Education Research Collective and Education Officer for the RGS-IBG Geographies of Children, Youth & Families Research Group. He is also a member of the editorial collective of Geography - the Geographical Association’s international journal for lecturers, teachers and students in post-16 geography.
Matt lectures on a wide range of courses from thinking about 'growing up global' to the power and problems of using numbers in geography and in helping students prepare for their dissertations. He seeks to combine enthusiasm for geography with opportunities for academics and students to shape learning together.
Before academia Matt had a variety of jobs including being a Human Resources administrator with a city council, a teacher, a local education administrator and a church-based pastoral worker with students.
You can follow him on Twitter @MattMattFinn.
For tweets relating to University of Exeter geography courses please see @MFGeog.
Broad research specialisms:
- Geographies of education and schooling
- Childhood, youth and young people
- Participatory Action Research (PAR)
- Critical geographies of data
- The globalisation of education
Qualifications
BA Geography (Durham)
MA Research Methods - Geography (Durham)
PhD Geography (Durham)
Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (Exeter)
Office hours
Office hour details can be found here.
Research group links
Issues concerning data and education are increasingly hitting the headlines.
Matt worked alongside pupils to develop their own research projects about their school which they presented to school staff and members of the Geography Department.
Research
Research interests
Matt is a member of the department's Space, Politics and Society Research Group and contributes to the Spaces of Education Research Programme. His research has had two main themes.
Geographies of Education
Matt's research has explored the place of data in the process of education and the production of futures in schools. This is connected with a wider interest in the contemporary conditions of education and learning, and the ways in which education is 'going global'.
An open access reading list he is involved in maintaining on the Geographies of Education is available here: www.tinyurl.com/GeogEd.
As an Education Exeter Incubator Fellow 2017-2018 Matt has worked with students to research experiences of transitions to university following the introduction of the reformed A Levels in England. The team are using the findings to inform effective undergraduate transition support.
Gentle Geographies and particiatory action research
A second interest is in forms of participatory action research and co-produced research and how this has provoked reflection on 'gentle geographies', conceptually and methodologically. With Jayne Jeffries and a range of collaborators we have been problematising the notion of gentleness using this to explore the opportunities this concept offers for re-examining diverse empirical interests as well as academic practice. Details including audio from the first of two seminars on gentle geographies can be found here.
Review work
I have reviewed for the following journals: Area; Annals of the American Association of Geographers; Political Geography; Geographica Helvetica, Sage Publishing; European Educational Research Journal; British Educational Research Journal; Learning, Media and Technology; Big Data and Society and Contemporary Social Science.
Presentations
Matt has had the opportunity to present his work at various conferences and organise various sessions and events:
Upcoming presentations
2018
Invited speaker: Provincializing the European Child, Child Studies Multiple 30th Anniversary Research Workshop, Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies at Linköping University, Sweden
2019
Invited keynote: A-level reform and implications for transition to University: the case of Geography - IGU CGE Conference, London
Previous presentations
2018
A-level reform and implications for transition to university: the case of Geography - RGS-IBG Conference, Cardiff, in Tear down the walls? Cross-disciplinary engagements with geographies of education, Geographiedidaktik and young people’s geographies session organised with Dr Itta Bauer (University of Zurich)
A-level reform and implications for transition to University: the case of Geography - 3rd International Conference on Geographies of Education, Loughborough
A-level reform and implications for transition to University - Enhancing Student Learning Through Innovative Scholarship Conference, Bristol, with Katie-Boyd Lee and Finlay Simmons
Transition to University following the reformed A Levels - EduExe2018 Education Conference with Alice Clarke, Scott Lewis, Connor Spence, Bella Tull, Sarah Tyrrell
Beyond frenemies: contact and collaboration with universities, Teacher-to-Teacher Session at the GA Annual Conference, Sheffield Hallam University
Data and schools spaces – materialisations, circulations and temporalities - Materialities and Mobilities in Education Day Conference, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford.
Workshop on Module Design, GCYFRG Educating under- and post-graduate geographers for/about/using the geographies of children and youth Day Teaching Workshop, RGS-IBG, London
2017
The awkward geographies of schooling – working at the intersection of geographies of education, childhood and youth - AAG, Boston, USA, in Theorizing the Geographies of Education and Learning session, a session I organised. You can see a storify of tweets from the session here.
2016
Invited presentation: How can we think about data in schools? Atmospheres of progress and forging futures in a data-based school. Audio, slides and handout available. Research seminar at School of Education at the University of Brighton
Invited session: Student Voice in schools with Dr Sara Bragg, Blatchington Mill School, Hove
The awkward geographies of schooling – working at the intersection of geographies of education, childhood and youth - RGS-IBG Conference, London, in The nexus between Young People`s Geographies and Geographies of Education session
Growing up global – children, young people and the geographies of global change - RGS-IBG Conference, London, in Educating undergraduate geographers for/about/using the geographies of children and youth session
Introducing Gentle Geographies - University of Exeter, in A Gentle Alertness to Geographies of the (Non)human & (Ir)Responsibilities seminar - details including audio from the day
The two-part seminar series is co-organised with Jayne Jeffries (Newcastle University) and funded thanks to the Spatial Responsibilities Group at the University of Exeter, the School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape and Open Lab at Newcastle University, the Participatory Geographies Research Group and the Geographies of Justice Research Group.
Invited presentation: Ran and facilitated half-day training event on Participatory Action Research, Plymouth University Social Science Doctoral Training College.
2015
Towards more gentle geographies - RGS-IBG Conference, Exeter, in Gentle Geographies session organised with Jayne Jeffries (Newcastle University)
Report from Enhancing Student Learning Through Innovative Scholarship: The Role of Teaching Focused Academics in driving the evolution of HE - RGS-IBG Conference, Exeter, in GEES LTHE Network Annual Meeting
2014
Forging futures in a data-based school - Futures in Question International conference as part of the ESRC Austerity Futures series, Goldsmiths, University of London
Forging futures in a data-based school - RGS-IBG, London, in The co-productions of data-based living session organised with Nat O'Grady (Southampton University)
Co-producing methods/knowledge in geographies of childhood and youth session organised with Grace Sykes and Thomas Grant (University of Leicester) for the RGS-IBG, London
Invited presentation: Forging futures in a data-based school - 2nd ESRC code acts in education seminar, University of Edinburgh
Forging futures in a data-based school - St. John's College Durham University, Broaderlands Seminar
Forging futures in a data-based school - AAG, Tampa, USA, in Data-based living: peopling and placing 'big data' session, a session I organised
Atmospheres of progress in a data-based school (revised) - Education, Emotions and the Future Seminar, Geography Department, University of Leicester
2013
Atmospheres of progress in a data-based school - RGS-IBG Conference, London
Governing futures in a data-based school - RGS-IBG Conference, London, in Governing the self: young people's futures, aspirations and ambiguous agency session organised with Jo Pike
2012
(In)dividuals and data-based futures in schools - 2nd International Education Conference on Geographies of Education, Loughborough University
How to hear a voice? 'Student Voice' and Participatory Action Research - RGS-IBG Conference, Edinburgh
How to hear a voice? 'Student Voice' and Participatory Action Research - St. John's College Durham University, Broaderlands Seminar
2010
Engaging Geography students in participatory action research with communities - with Rachel Pain, RGS-IBG Conference, London
Faith, encounter and confession: an undergraduate's experience of the lecture theatre as a site of geographies of religion, Geographies of Religion: a new dialogue conference, Newcastle University
Publications
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
Key publications
Publications by category
Journal articles
Chapters
Publications by year
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2013
Teaching
Matt lectures on a wide range of courses from thinking about 'growing up global' to the power and problems of using numbers in geography and in helping students prepare for their dissertations. He seeks to combine enthusiam for his subjects with opportunities for academics and students to shape learning together. He is also invited to facilitate training on Participatory Action Research, mostly recent for the Plymouth University Social Science Doctoral Training College.
Undergraduate modules 18/19:
- Geographies of Global Change - GEO1106 - ELE page, Course Twitter feed/hastag
I contribute to the module with the 'Growing up Global' section exploring why as geographers we might look to the lives of children and young people to make sense of globalisation. - Study Skills for Human Geographers - GEO1309 - ELE page, Course Twitter feed/hastag
As a tutor and lead tutor I work with students to develop the key skills they need for university and beyond. - Research Methods for Geographers - GEO1315 - ELE page
With Dr Ewan Woodley I teach the introductory statistics component. - Human Geography Fieldtrip - GEO2308D - ELE page
As part of one of the fieldtrip teaching teams, I work with students to prepare them for the New York fieldtrip and provide guidance in the field. - Research Methods for Human Geography - GEO2325 - ELE page, Course Twitter feed/hastag
Again, with Dr Ewan Woodley, we take students on from introductory statistics to more advanced techniques and through examples seek to show some of the potential and difficulties with these techniques. I also act as an academic tutor on this module. - Research Design in Human Geography (Convenor) - GEO2326 - ELE page, Course Twitter feed/hastag
In this module, which I lead, I help students learn about the practice and principles of designing research and help students to prepare for their dissertations. I also act as an academic tutor on this module. - Geographies of Education and Learning (Convenor with Dr Sarah Dyer) - GEO3140
In this module we explore key concepts that geographers use to understand education and learning at different scales, from the local sites/spaces of learning to the international. We examine different concepts and theories of learning and how these might influence understandings of our own educational experiences and how we communicate geographical knowledge to others. - Dissertation advisor - GEO3311/GEO3312
I work to support students in carrying out their diverse dissertation projects with fortnightly tutorials and individual meetings.
Previous teaching:
- Research Methods for Geographers - GEO1315 - ELE page
I contributed to the section of the course that helps students think through the process of research before and following the Bristol fieldtrip. - Human Geography Fieldtrip - GEO2308 - ELE page, Course Twitter feed/hastag 1 and 2
As part of one of the fieldtrip teams to Seville, I worked with students to develop the projects they carry out while on the fieldtrip and provide guidance in the field.
Other roles:
- Academic Misconduct Officer for Geography
- Senior Academic Misconduct Officer for the College of Life and Environmental Sciences
- Geography Ethics Committee member
- Admissions Tutor for the BA Geography programme at Streatham campus
- Student Engagement Co-ordinator with Dr Sarah Dyer
Modules
2018/19
Supervision / Group
Postgraduate researchers
- Emma Marshall
- Abbie O'Brien