As part of DelPHE project activities the project team will be evaluating project related activities and conducting research into participants’ views and understandings of community cohesion.

The research questions will focus on two key areas:

• Identifying and analyzing student teacher preconceptions about community cohesion and related topics
• Identifying and analyzing different and differing conceptions and understandings of genocide education and its potential role/s and impact/s in formal and non-formal education settings in UK and Rwandan contexts.

These two areas will be developed throughout Project Year 1 (September 2008-August 2009).

Developing the knowledge base

The overarching research for Project Year 1 (September 2008-August 2009) will focus on the two following overarching aspects:

• How does an international linking programme help to develop beginning teachers’ understanding of community cohesion?
• How does international linking develop initial teacher education providers’ perspectives and understanding of processes of education for developing community cohesion in initial teacher education programmes?

These questions are overarching and will most probably continue to be explored throughout the duration of the project. For the first year of the project, the project will be divided into 2 key research phases.

Research Phase 1: September 2008-February 2009

In more concrete terms, the two following questions will examine the research angles described above at key phases of the project. At the start of the project, the research team will focus in particular on exploring the following question: What are beginning teachers' preconceptions regarding community cohesion? This question also takes into account students’ cultural preconceptions with regards to community cohesion and how these potential preconceptions impact on students’ understanding of community cohesion. Equally, the initial research question requires examination, description and analysis of changes in these preconceptions due to cross-national and cross-cultural learning processes that might appear because of the linking aspect of the DelPHE project.

It is envisaged that these research questions will examined throughout the duration of project year 1. The sub-questions discussed above will be examined in particular in the 1st half of project interactions from September 2008 until February 2009.

Research Phase 2: February 2009-August 2009

For the latter half of project year 1, in parallel with the focus of activities on the development of pedagogies for delivering education about genocide as part of enhancing community cohesion, the sub-research question will focus on examining beginning teachers’ preconceptions with regards to teaching about genocide. Again, it will be considered vital to see if preconceptions about genocide education might be culturally contextualized and whether the linking aspect of the DelPHE project adds to a potential opening and questioning of cultural preconceptions about genocide education towards developing cross-cultural understandings of genocide education.

It is envisaged that Research Phase 1 and Research Phase 2 will each result in the publication of at least one joint academic paper by members of the DelPHE team.

At the end of project year 1, the DelPHE research team will focus on assessing and evaluating impact of the project in general. Overarching research questions will be:

• How does an international linking programme help beginning teachers to develop an understanding of pedagogies for community cohesion?
• How is this increased or changed understanding reflected in beginning teachers’ classroom and/or other pedagogical practices in formal and non-formal settings?

Research Methodology

At the moment, the research methodology to be used has not been finalised yet and requires further discussion. However, it is envisaged that the research methods will be mixed reflecting the multimodal character of interactions in the DelPHE project. The methods will include collection and analysis of some basic quantitative data which allow for a description and analysis of website usage patterns. Additionally, project participants will be able to interact in a series of diverse ways through the Moodle component of the DelPHE project website. These web-based interactions will be analysed for research purposes.

In accordance with ethical procedures, DelPHE project sessions will be observed and video recorded for further analysis. Additionally, it is planned that the research team will conduct some survey research in order to gain a basic understanding of group and individual interactions between project partners. This survey research will be supplemented by the collection of more in depth-data in the form of group and individual interviews, which will be audio- and/or video-recorded for further detailed analysis of interactions and content.

Finally, as a means to further check validity of research findings, the research team will analyse video recordings of lessons and/or microteaching sessions where beginning teachers are delivering a lesson or activity about genocide.