This project brings together insights from history, criminology and urban studies to explore the future prospects of city parks as public meeting places, in both the Victorian period and the present day. The aim of the project is to generate a novel understanding of the future social significance and role of public parks and how social groups (might) live together and commingle safely in cosmopolitan cities. It makes connections between the past, the present and the future importance of these public spaces by exploring how they have evolved over time from their origins as spaces of social mixing between diverse groups in Victorian cities. It investigates official and public expectations of what parks might become in terms of their social possibilities and their desired effects aligned with visions of the future, both in the Victorian and contemporary eras. In these ways, the project connects with and advances the AHRC 'Care for the Future' research theme and its central ambition of 'thinking forward through the past'. The project combines historical analysis with a new contemporary study to explore the experiences and views of people that used and use Victorian parks in terms of their governance, regulation and policing. It therefore engages with the challenges of managing social mixing in public space, including the possibilities for conflict around behaviour, social disorder, and anxieties of otherness in the multi-cultural city. It also explores the outcomes commingling may facilitate in terms of promoting social cohesion and its potential civilising effects. The project will consider how the public park's original design and rationale remains relevant to the needs of the contemporary city and how it has adapted to changing social conditions. This research will allow us to 'care for the future' of the urban public park, not just by understanding its past and its present, but by translating that understanding into concrete policy proposals for its future governance. The project will provide a reinterpretation and reinvigoration of the vision, governance and sustainability of urban parks in cities of the future. In the context of austerity and local authority spending cuts to non-compulsory public services, including city parks, this is an opportune time to rethink the vision and governance of these public spaces. The research is based on three Victorian public parks in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Together, these case studies combine a diversity of park types in terms of their social ideals and purposes, the size and social profile of users and stakeholders, and the diversity of experiences of park life from places of grand show and ceremony to informal community parks. The project contributes new and unique inter-disciplinary insights connecting the arts and humanities with the social sciences. The project findings will feed into public policy debates about the future of cities and engage academic audiences working across disciplines, particularly in social and urban history, law, criminology, sociology, urban policy and cultural studies. The project will engage public audiences through a public exhibition, a free-to-access digital collection of photographs of Victorian parks in Leeds, and via blogs, twitter feeds, and media briefings.

The project will be implemented by international partnership of four institutions/organisations from 3 European countries: Kuopio Education Department (Finland) Ventspils Pilsetas Domes Izglitibas Parvalde (Latvia), Leeds Children`s Service (United Kingdom) and Valmieras pilsētas pašvaldības Izglitibas pārvalde (Latvia).One of the aspects of teachers` professionalism is the network of collaboration among colleagues and, in particular, professional learning communities designed in schools to ensure professional learning and socialization. It contributes to the development of a learning culture for educational establishments, which is a source of innovation in education. It is effective in partnership with local government institutions, education experts, entrepreneurs and other public stakeholders in improving the quality of education.A new, more effective form of professional development that would contribute to changing the role of teachers, understanding the importance of their activities and continuing, meaningful professional development is the active learning of teachers in their workplaces, which provides for the prompt testing of their lessons, reflection with colleagues, evaluation of their work and performance, joint planning of future activities, adjustment according to the educational needs of the pupils, school and city/region. A supportive learning environment needs to be developed in order to succeed in ensuring school embedded teachers` learning and growth. In our case these emphasis is being put on in the exchange of innovative practice of management of introduction of competence-based content in school education, especially – implementation of new methodological approaches in the field of different school subjects; developing innovative teachers` in-service training activities.The main objective of the project is to establish a partnership for the introduction of innovative forms of teachers` professional learning and development and to ensure sustainable performance in line with the requirements of changes in the national education system.In order to promote action to achieve the objective, the project will include:1) to explore and practice the experience of changing European education systems in action, with emphasis on promoting teachers` collaboration in the planning and implementation of the education process in the institution, as well as productive collaboration with local education management organisations and education experts, which will result in acquiring new teaching skills and competences and being able to adapt their teaching skills to the changing environment.2) to identify examples of good practice, study and compare opportunities for the transfer of experience to educational establishments, as well as at city/municipal level, and develop a methodological tool to support teachers.3) to promote the results of the project.The project involves: specialists of education boards of the local self-governments, responsible for the implementing education policy and reforms; middle level teachers-leaders, responsible for implementing new methodological approaches in the field of school subjects; teaching new skills, etc., indirectly - education experts, teachers.In different countries, educational reforms are implemented in different ways, consistent with local culture, economics and policies. This means that in each partner country the situation and the level achieved in implementing the reform are different. Consequently, there is a unique opportunity to identify the current situation in each country, to learn from errors and failures, to find ideas for the transfer of experience, to see how teachers and subject field coordinators/leaders work in practice, in partnership with local government, external education experts.The Project consists of:1. Training activities: 2 3-day study visits for partner coordinators (8 participants in each meeting), 3 5-day study visits for subject field coordinators/leaders (36 participants in each meeting); 1 3-day study visit for both - partner coordinators and subject field coordinators/leaders.2. Development and preparing of the Intellectual Output - “Experience Stories” resource for methodical recommendations/training/guidance material. 3. Dissemination activities (including the multiplier event - Final conference).The expected impact are the deeper understanding and greater knowledge of organizing and supporting teachers learning collaboration in the partnership, and its role in the development of learning achievements for both pupils and teachers, as well as in general - school development, in particular the development of school culture.The experience and understanding of each partner will enrich all stakeholders in general, give confidence in continuing the changes that have been undertaken and ensure the very important effects of the teachers` learning network.

This project brings together insights from history, criminology and urban studies to explore the future prospects of city parks as public meeting places, in both the Victorian period and the present day. The aim of the project is to generate a novel understanding of the future social significance and role of public parks and how social groups (might) live together and commingle safely in cosmopolitan cities. It makes connections between the past, the present and the future importance of these public spaces by exploring how they have evolved over time from their origins as spaces of social mixing between diverse groups in Victorian cities. It investigates official and public expectations of what parks might become in terms of their social possibilities and their desired effects aligned with visions of the future, both in the Victorian and contemporary eras. In these ways, the project connects with and advances the AHRC 'Care for the Future' research theme and its central ambition of 'thinking forward through the past'. The project combines historical analysis with a new contemporary study to explore the experiences and views of people that used and use Victorian parks in terms of their governance, regulation and policing. It therefore engages with the challenges of managing social mixing in public space, including the possibilities for conflict around behaviour, social disorder, and anxieties of otherness in the multi-cultural city. It also explores the outcomes commingling may facilitate in terms of promoting social cohesion and its potential civilising effects. The project will consider how the public park's original design and rationale remains relevant to the needs of the contemporary city and how it has adapted to changing social conditions. This research will allow us to 'care for the future' of the urban public park, not just by understanding its past and its present, but by translating that understanding into concrete policy proposals for its future governance. The project will provide a reinterpretation and reinvigoration of the vision, governance and sustainability of urban parks in cities of the future. In the context of austerity and local authority spending cuts to non-compulsory public services, including city parks, this is an opportune time to rethink the vision and governance of these public spaces. The research is based on three Victorian public parks in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Together, these case studies combine a diversity of park types in terms of their social ideals and purposes, the size and social profile of users and stakeholders, and the diversity of experiences of park life from places of grand show and ceremony to informal community parks. The project contributes new and unique inter-disciplinary insights connecting the arts and humanities with the social sciences. The project findings will feed into public policy debates about the future of cities and engage academic audiences working across disciplines, particularly in social and urban history, law, criminology, sociology, urban policy and cultural studies. The project will engage public audiences through a public exhibition, a free-to-access digital collection of photographs of Victorian parks in Leeds, and via blogs, twitter feeds, and media briefings.

From the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States to the local and national activism over the scandal of the Windrush generation's citizenship in the United Kingdom, the black presence in the transatlantic dialogue is slowly beginning to gain increased visibility. Several black intellectuals have gained increasing prominence in the public arena and have consequently developed a platform for talking, writing, and thinking about black activism and what it means to be a black intellectual in the 21st century. Yet, the concept of the black intellectual - when it has been recognised at all - has historically been gendered as male. Black male intellectuals have often talked for and about black women, subsequently marginalising the significance of the black female intellectual both historically and in the contemporary arena. This network therefore brings together scholars, both early career (including PhD students) and more established academics, working on black female intellectuals in the black Atlantic including Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The key point of the network is to share interdisciplinary understandings of black female intellectuals from both historical and contemporary perspectives thinking through different questions which will be used to frame the workshops. The first workshop will ask, as the central research question and the introductory session, how do we define "black intellectuals" as a concept? Does gender impact on this definition? What is it that the black female intellectual brings to the public debate and what forms are considered credible? The second workshop will consider how geographic and temporal parameters alter the form that understandings of the black female intellectuals take and the ways these differences are articulated. Biracial journalist and author Afua Hirsch has been invited to contribute to this workshop. A third workshop will question how issues of gender and class impact on understandings of black female intellectuals both as a form of activism (doing) and thinking (intellectualism). In particular, it will interrogate the differences between black male and black female intellectuals and explore the ways in which intersectionality functions more broadly within black intellectualism. Black activist and educator, Chardine taylor-Stone will contribute to this workshop. Leading on from this, a fourth workshop will consider the role of social media in shaping the experience of black female intellectuals in the contemporary world owing to the varied and multiple media resources available. Female activists from the Black Lives Matter movement based in the UK and Europe will be invited to share their experiences in addition to contributions from Gal-Dem, an online and print magazine written by women of colour. The workshops will also have a series of public lectures running alongside them located in public venues and pertaining to the individual theme of each workshop with invited speakers from across the interdisciplinary spectrum of the network. The network will apply for follow-on funding to host an international conference on black female intellectuals hosted by the University of East Anglia, bringing together practitioners, academics, and public policy groups namely the Runnymede Trust & the partnership project, History and Policy. The application for follow-on funding will also include a separate seminar event hosted by History and Policy using the project's Runnymede report as its focus and inviting interested policy makers including the Institute of Race Relations and the Black Training and Enterprise group, practitioners such as Chardine Taylor-Stone, journalists from both national and local media including Liv Little (Gal-Dem), Afua Hirsch (Guardian), and members of the network.

The Legacies of War Centenary Project at the University of Leeds is run by academics who have research interests in different aspects of the First World War and wish to share their knowledge widely during the years of the 100th anniversary of the War. The project's research and activities are structured around five thematic strands: Yorkshire and the Great War, Culture and the Arts, Science and Technology, War and Medicine and War and Resistance. The 2014-18 Centenary of what was referred to at the time as the 'Great War' will be a time for reflection and debate about what happened during the war and what its profound and long-term consequences were. The Legacies of War team is a registered partner of the Imperial War Museum's national Centenary activities. As part of the Legacies of War project, the team aims to initiate, participate in, and help to coordinate and publicise a series of events and activities that will take place across the Leeds/Bradford area in 2014-18. The team wants to engage the public with the First World War in theatres, cinemas, museums, galleries, community venues, schools, public spaces and at the University. Shared events will commemorate and explore different histories of the First World War, and will examine its multiple historical, cultural and social legacies. The primary aim of this application to the Research for Community Heritage scheme is to enable the project team to build new and to strengthen existing partnerships with culturally diverse community groups and organisations in Leeds and Yorkshire with an interest in developing heritage activities focused on an aspect of First World War commemoration. We wish to encourage community engagement with University archives and venues, to develop projects with stakeholders, bring together staff, students and communities and to create an accessible repository of materials that would be maintained beyond the Centenary period. We also hope to introduce community groups who do not feel their heritage is connected to this historical event to the international and transnational context, diversity of experience, and ever-present cultural, social and technological legacies of the First World War in order to broaden its meaning for academic and non-academic audiences. It is our overall aspiration to facilitate an innovative, cross-cultural and intergenerational approach to the commemoration of the First World War.