Staff Profile

Aunam’s research experience and interests align to themes of race/ethnicity, critical pedagogy, participatory research, widening participation and social justice. Aunam holds a PhD in Education from the University of Sheffield. Her thesis adopted a participatory research design, working with teachers and students in schools to redevelop and evaluate aspects of the school curriculum. She explores the concept of ‘British values’ and the knowledge reproduced as part of the English national curriculum, as a prism to reflect on race, identity and nationalist discourse in the UK. Aunam also worked with the Development Education Centre for South Yorkshire (DECSY) as part of her PhD and MA in International Development, where she developed an interest in critical global citizenship education and post-development theory.

Aunam undertook education and policy research for the charity, Edge Foundation. While there she contributed to research on the Meister (Master craftsperson) qualification for Skills Development Scotland, Project Based Learning, Degree Apprenticeships in England and young people’s understanding of employability skills. She also has a keen interest in the philosophy of vocational education.  

Prior to this, Aunam has worked on a number of research projects which include; leading a mixed methods investigation into the ethnicity awarding gap at the University of Sheffield, exploring the under-representation of minority ethnic students in Arts and Humanities, understanding the career decision making of Further Education College students, and an inquiry into algorithmic decision making in children’s social care for the Department of Education. 

Selected Publications: 

Quyoum, A (2022) ‘Access to Higher Education Courses’. Policy Review 11: Learning from the Past Series. London: Edge Foundation.

Quyoum, A., Hordósy, R., Mittelmeier, J., Jones, S and McCaldin, T. (2021) Career Decisions of Further Education College Students: Where Does Higher Education 'Fit In'? Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 23(1), 54–78, DOI.org/10.5456/WPLL.23.1.54 

Jones, S., Mittelmeier, J., Hordósy, R., Quyoum, A and McCaldin, T. (2021) ‘Possible Selves’ in practice: how students at Further Education Colleges in England conceptualise university, Research Papers in Education, 1-16 DOI: 10.1080/02671522.2020.1864765