Situated within the shared Welsh ambition of an anti-racist Wales by 2030, DARPL’s research arm is committed to undertaking impactful research that focuses on race equity from early years into school.
We assert the need to interrogate and challenge racial inequalities in Welsh education and beyond, as well as the structures and cultures that support this. Our ongoing research activities reflect this in a range of ways. Principally, the research DARPL undertakes is both informed by the Welsh Government’s Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan (ARWAP, 2022) and the developing needs of the early years, schools, school leaders and teachers, to meet the requirements of this new policy agenda.
Our work has a direct impact on policy reform. Two foci underpin DARPL’s current workstreams: (1) The initiation new areas of research detailing the impact of our professional learning delivery. (2) The production and dissemination of high-quality scholarly activity that documents and shares the legacy building aspect of DARPL.
Our experienced team of researchers disseminate a range of research outputs in the form of consultancy, academic papers, blogs, book chapters, policy briefings and conference papers. These outputs are all aimed at establishing a body of Welsh research and knowledge exchange that tells the unique contemporary and historical story of anti-racist practice and learning in the Welsh context. Our publications offer examples of professional learning, models of anti-racist praxis and pedagogy. DARPL research papers have been featured in a broad range of prestigious academic journals.
Our broader research efforts are complemented by action research, which embodies a growing community of practice (CoP), that includes practitioners with lived and professional experience, who have the shared goal of implementing anti-racist professional learning in early years and schools across the nation. Currently, members of this CoP consist of practitioners from around Wales and from all tiers of care and education. Over the last couple of years, we have held a sustained series of research conversations with a range of education professionals, leaders and policymakers, in order to gain a better understanding of varying racial equity needs and perspectives. We are collaborating with wider partners such as the National Museum of Wales, undertaking research based on the publication of our e-books on HMT Windrush and associated Windrush exhibition:
Windrush Cymru: Learning resources
We are continuing to grow and embed our DARPL research footprint, seeking opportunities for more partners to come on board and become involved in collaborative research projects.
To ensure that our work continues to inform and impact national policy and practice, we are working towards gaining recognition via the UK Research Excellence Framework 2029.
While the focus of DARPL is currently the Welsh context, our dissemination efforts go beyond the national level by representing the work of DARPL at international conferences such as WERA.