Alison Brown

Biography

I teach on the BA in Social work and BA Working with Older Adults degree programmes.

I am University Programme Lead for a validated programme at Blackburn College – both the FdSc and the BSc in Complementary Health Therapies. My interest in this field has allowed me to introduce many of the Nursing and Allied Health professional students to the potential role of Complementary Therapies in maintaining health and wellbeing.

Qualifications and memberships

2013     MA in Education (completing dissertation: University of Cumbria)

2012     Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice (University of Cumbria)

2008     Post Graduate Certificate in Education (Kendal College)

2004     BSc (Hons) Health Sciences and Complementary Therapies (University of Wolverhampton) 1st class honours

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Academic and research interests

For the past 4 years I have taught on the Social Work undergraduate programme, and a social gerontology degree programme entitled Working with Older Adults. 

My areas of research and teaching include exploring social attitudes and discrimination, particularly ageist stereotypes and discrimination. Previous research has also explored how students develop criticality skills and experience transformation of attitudes through learning.

My research dissertation for the MA in Education explored an intergenerational project between primary school children and older adults living in residential care.  The research thesis applies a social constructivist lens to analyse the neoliberal agenda in primary school education and how power is distributed in older adult residential care.  

Publications

Research Publications

Brown, A. (2015) How students make sense of criticality skills in higher education. Practitioner Research in Higher Education. 9 (1), pp.4-17.

Brown, A. (2016) An exploratory study investigating the impact of a university module that aims to challenge students' perspectives on ageing and older adults. Practitioner Research in Higher Education, 10 (2). pp. 25-39.

Conferences

Brown, Alison (2015) ‘Meaning-making in Complementary Therapies.’ Why this and not that? Evidence Based Complementary Therapy Practice.  East Lancashire Hospice with University Centre at Blackburn Collge. 15^th June 2015.

Recent external roles

Current: University Programme Lead for both the FdSc and BSc Complementary Therapy programmes at Blackburn College (validated with University of Cumbria) 

Current: External examiner University of West Coast of Scotland - BA Integrated Health and Social Care Programme

External examiner University of Bolton College – FdSc Complementary Therapies

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