Professor Debbie Watson
B.Sc.(Ed) (Hons.) (Exon), Ph.D.(Exon.)
Expertise
My research focuses on understanding and improving the lives of children and young people, particularly those in adverse circumstances such as poverty and maltreatment. I utilise creative and sociomaterial approaches to research.
Current positions
Director Brigstow Institute
Brigstow Institute
Professor In Child and Family Welfare
School for Policy Studies
Contact
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Biography
I was previously a secondary school biology and science teacher and have taught trainee teachers, as well as students in Education Studies, Childhood Studies and Social Policy courses. I qualifed as a teacher at University of Exeter and subsequently taught in two Devon schools before gaining ESRC studentship funding for my PhD studies. My PhD was in Education and was a longitudinal study of 50 young people's learning careers with a focus on how young people construct and engage with scientific knowledge.
Since completing my PhD I was employed as a research assistant and teaching assistant at Exeter University- both in the School of Education and in Peninsula Medical School where I was a researcher on a peer led sex and relationships education programme for young people in schools.
In 2007 I secured the post of Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies at the University of Bristol and I have since been promoted to Reader and then to Professor in 2019. I am currently the Head of the Centre for Children and Families Research in the School for Policy Studies and have held a number of other posts since 2007 including Programme Director for Childhood Studies, Impact Director and Director of Postgraduate Research. I currently teach on Childhood Studies and have nine PhD students.
Research interests
Poo Patrol http://www.bristol.ac.uk/brigstow/projects/poo-patrol/
Life Chances http://www.productivemargins.ac.uk/projects/low-income-families/
trove http://www.react-hub.org.uk/projects/play/trove
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
What does nature mean to me?
Principal Investigator
Description
Combining art and nature this project aims to co-produce understandings of the importance of nature for primary aged children in two areas of Bristol following the impact of lockdowns on…Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
01/06/2022 to 31/10/2022
ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Sociology, Politics and International StudiesDates
01/05/2022 to 30/04/2027
VR Dance
Principal Investigator
Description
Researching the experiences of young people at risk of criminal exploitation who engage in a dance and immersive technology programme. Collaboration with East London Dance CompanyManaging organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
01/01/2021 to 31/12/2023
‘Difficult Conversations: developing research-led training in dealing with care experienced and adopted children’s difficult life story questions’
Principal Investigator
Description
This project seeks to co-create training tools and mechanisms of delivery to help adoptive parents, foster carers and social workers deal honestly and directly with difficult questions and conversations around…Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
02/09/2019 to 31/03/2021
My Place
Principal Investigator
Description
Developing distance travelled tools for place based learning. Paul Hamlyn funded project with Architecture Centre. Looking at under 5 year olds sense of place and learning of architectural design.Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
14/01/2019 to 13/01/2020
Thesis supervisions
Ethnography of an educational provision for teenage mothers in Malta
Supervisors
Decision making about sex and relationships education policy by English primary schools' governing boards
Supervisors
An exploration of the interplay between race, class and space in the lives of mothers and mixed ethnicity children
Supervisors
The Voices of Adopted Mixed Ethnicity Children: Ethnic Identities, Experiences of Discrimination and Ethnic Socialisation
Supervisors
Transitions from mainstream education for D/deaf young people
Supervisors
Children’s transitions to school: parents’ voices
Supervisors
The experiences of transition to adulthood for young people with learning disabilities in Korea
Supervisors
Changes to admissions criteria in Gloucestershire secondary schools: what is the likely impact on the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils?
Supervisors
Policy Making about Relationships and Sex Education in English Primary Schools
Supervisors
Publications
Recent publications
06/04/2023Being, Becoming, Belonging
Qualitative Social Work
Interventions to Improve Safer Sleep Practices in Families With Children Considered to Be at Increased Risk for Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy
Frontiers in Pediatrics
Addressing menstrual stigma through sex education in England- taking a sociomaterial turn
Sex Education
Children’s voices in physical activity research
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Child-dog faeces assemblages and children’s engagements in activist art
Children’s Geographies
Thesis
Teaching
I currently teach a Year 2 Undergraduate unit for the Childhood Studies BSc programme called 'Play and Creativity'. I also contribute specialist teaching on other units for Childhood Studies students including related to education. Previously I have taught units on Education, Child and Family Policy and Advanced Qualitative Research Methods. I also supervise undergraduate and masters level dissertations in addition to the PhD supervision I provide.
Related people
Professor Ailsa Cameron
Professor of Health and Social Care
School for Policy Studies
Dr Nadia Aghtaie
Senior Lecturer in Gender and Violence
School for Policy Studies
Professor Pete Blair
Professor of Epidemiology and Statistics
Bristol Medical School (PHS)
Dr Anna Pease
Research Fellow
Bristol Medical School (PHS)
Mr Tom Metcalfe
Honorary Associate Professor
Centre for Innovation