Associate Dean Student Experience

I am the Associate Dean, Education and Student Experience (Interim) in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences. I lead student experience strategies and initiatives for developing teaching and learning and student voice across our faculty. I work with colleagues, students and partners for continuous improvement in student experience and outcomes. I am also the Faculty lead for embedding equality and diversity and addressing the awarding gap. I have worked at Bedfordshire for over a decade where I began in a research role in the Institute of Applied Social Research (IASR) here at before moving into teaching. Previous roles at Bedfordshire have included Principal Lecturer in the School of Applied Social Sciences, leadership of the Undergraduate portfolio of courses and of the Postgraduate courses, and School Enhancement Lead responsible for teaching and learning.

My teaching interests and experience span a wide range across the social sciences including research methods, childhood and youth, inter-disciplinary and inter-professional perspectives, race, gender and creative methods in teaching.

I have published in the fields of social work, childhood and youth, sociology of education, gender and young masculinities. I am a qualitative researcher with an interest in lived experience, intersectionality, participatory and creative methods and psychosocial approaches. Past and recent research includes harmful sexual behaviours among young boys, an evaluation of a families and community awareness programme against child sexual exploitation and evaluation of a peer programme addressing domestic violence and abuse among young people. My doctoral research focused on teenage boys and school exclusion.

I believe in the transformative capacities of education and the power of a learning community.

Qualifications

• PhD Social Work and Social Care, University of Sussex
• MSc Development Studies, SOAS, London University
• BA Hons Jurisprudence, Oxford University

Teaching Expertise

• Childhood and Youth studies
• Gender and Young Masculinities
• Qualitative Research Methods
• Academic Writing Skills

Research Interests

• Boys and School exclusion
• Young Masculinities
• Children and Families

Research Projects

• Research project – Harmful sexual behaviours in boys (Principal Investigator)
• Luton Violence Reduction Unit Evaluation research project

Publications

• Thomas, R. (2024) ‘They wanted us out’ Young masculinities and school exclusion in England’, in Debating Childhood Masculinities: Rethinking the Interplay of Age, Gender and Social Change (Ed) Mukherjee, U. Emerald Publishing.
• Thomas, R. 2024. Who deserves help and who is bad? Race and class in ‘doing’ school exclusion. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 1-21.
• Wallengren-Lynch, M., Chen, H. L., Muurinen, H., Segev, E., Hollertz, K., Bengtsson, A. R., Thomas, R. and Carrasco, M. B. (2020) Is there a shared social work signature pedagogy cross-nationally? Using a case study methodology to explore signature pedagogy in England, Israel, Finland, Spain and Sweden. European Journal of Social Work, 1-13.
• Forrester D, Westlake D, Killian M, Antonopoulou V, McCann M, Thurnham A, Thomas R, Waits C, Whittaker C, Hutchison D (2019) What is the relationship between worker skills and outcomes for families in child and family social work? British Journal of Social Work, 49 (8), pp.2148-2167.
• Thomas, R., D’Arcy, K. (2017) Combatting Child Sexual Exploitation with Young People and Parents: Contributions to a Twenty-first Century Family Support Agenda, British Journal of Social Work, 47 (6) 1686 -1703
• D’Arcy, K. Thomas, R. and Wallace, C.T (2018) ‘Youth and Community Approaches to Preventing Child Sexual Exploitation: South African and UK Project Experiences’, in The SAGE Handbook of Youth Work Practice (Eds) Alldred, P. Cullen, F. Edwards, K. and Fusco, D: Sage pp 412 -425
• Thomas, R (2018) ‘CSE is everyone’s business? The role of the night-time economy’, in Beckett, H. and Pearce, J. (Eds) Understanding and Responding to Child Sexual Exploitation: Routledge, 95-105
• Thomas, R. (2016) Boy trouble? Motivational interviewing and communication with black boys and their families. in C. Williams & M. Graham eds. Social work in a diverse society : Transformative practice with black and minority ethnic individuals and communities. Policy Press, 201 - 217.

Contact Details

E: roma.thomas@beds.ac.uk