Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Martin has over thirty years' experience as a Community Education practitioner, having worked in various community development and youth work roles throughout the UK (including ten years in Wales, four in Scotland and over twenty in England). Throughout his professional career, Martin has been employed mainly in the voluntary and statutory sectors, working with community groups to design and deliver community-based services, for which he secured several million pounds in funding from public and charitable sources. Martin's practice has been underpinned by a commitment to social justice and to facilitating transformation in the lives of marginalised and excluded groups through informal educative processes.
Over the past fifteen years, Martin’s career has been in transition from being purely practice-based to academia. Martin worked as a contract researcher for the prestigious Leeds-based Policy Research Institute for several years, conducting work on community initiatives for central government departments and agencies, local authorities, national voluntary organisations and local charities. These included evaluations of the New Deal for Communities, the Youth Contract and the Children’s Fund; contributions to national and local policy on public participation and multi-disciplinary working; and research into the children’s workforce, including the role of Directors of Children’s Services and Children’s Trusts.
Martin has become involved increasingly in a voluntary capacity in various roles for community organisations and charities. Currently a Trustee for two charities concerned with ensuring quality youth work provision, Martin was until recently a Trustee for a mental health charity providing services for young people in his home county of West Yorkshire. Since his return to Dundee – where he was engaged in community regeneration and anti-poverty work for four years in the mid-1990s – Martin has continued to develop links with local community organisations, where he continues to work in voluntary roles.
Martin has taught for the past ten years on professionally qualifying community education and other programmes, including Youth & Community Work, Regeneration and Urban Design courses at four English Universities: Leeds Beckett, Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan and Huddersfield. Throughout his time teaching on these programmes, Martin has developed considerable expertise in both his subject area and pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning, all of which inform his teaching practice at the University of Dundee.
Teaching
As a member of the Community Education team, Martin teaches mainly on the professionally qualifying undergraduate and postgraduate Community Education programmes, including the following modules:
- CO10009 Working with People (Lead Tutor)
- CO12002 Youth Work Practice
- CO20016 Community Education & Sustainability
- CO32001 Community Education Practice Learning 3
- CO41002 Community Education Practice Learning 4
- CO40006 Practice Inquiry Project
- CO42001 Critical Reflection
Martin also contributes to the following modules on the BA Professional Development programme:
- PD30077 Leadership & Management Strategies
- PD30087 Professional Inquiry Project
- PP30091 Organisational Learning & Development
Other undergraduate and postgraduate modules in the School on which Martin is a Tutor include:
- ID11001 Values: Self, Society & the Professions
- RD51001 Research Methodologies for Interdisciplinarity
Research
As indicated by details of his publications and contract research outputs (from over 30 contracts), Martin has conducted research in a wide range of areas. Over the past ten years, building his PhD research (which explored the role of professional values in enacting public participation policy), Martin's research has focussed on the role of love as an element of professional practice in community development and work with young people. Martin is developing a network of practitioners and researchers with an interest in this area, and guest edited a special issue of the Radical Community Work Journal in 2020, focussing on professionally loving practice.
In 2020, Martin completed his most recent contract research project, a three-year evaluation of Kirklees Community Learning Works, a voluntary sector-led programme delivering targeted support to some of the most vulnerable and marginalised individuals in the Kirklees district, West Yorkshire. Martin remains interested in conducting contract research for voluntary and community sector organisations, to support the sharing of excellence throughout the sector, in areas related to his own practice and research expertise.
Research interests
Martin would be interested in conducting research into work in the fields of community education in its broadest interpretation, including community development, youth work, anti poverty work and the promotion of social and environmental justice.
Reflecting his ongoing interest in values-based practice, Martin is keen to collaborate with practitioners and academics in fields related to Community Education, exploring the translation of professional values into practice.
In particular, Martin welcomes approaches from potential collaborators in research into professionally loving forms of practice, including attention to 'healing' work for practitioners as well as the groups and individuals with whom they work.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
PGCert THE, Teaching in Higher Education, University of Huddersfield
Award Date: 12 Jul 2016
Doctor of Philosophy, Community Development Values in Practice, Leeds Beckett University
Award Date: 12 Jul 2012
Master of Education, Community Education
Award Date: 17 Jul 2000
Bachelor of Science, Agriculture with Agricultural Economics, Bangor University
Award Date: 7 Jul 1987
External positions
External Examiner, Liverpool John Moores University
30 Jun 2021 → …
Secretariat Member
14 Oct 2019 → 14 Dec 2020
Advisory Board Member
1 Aug 2018 → …
Trustee
31 Mar 2017 → …
External Examiner, University of Brighton
30 Sept 2015 → 31 Jul 2020
External Examiner, Wrexham Glyndwr University
21 Sept 2014 → 31 Jul 2018
Trustee
31 Mar 2014 → 31 Oct 2019
Fingerprint
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 1 Finished
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Learning For Sustainability In Scotland
Beresford-Dey, M., Lakin, L., Purcell, M., Searle, B. & Ward, K.
10/08/22 → 5/12/22
Project: Research
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Learning for sustainability: Young people and practitioner perspectives
Ward, K., MacDonald, T., Birch, R., Beresford-Dey, M., Lakin, L. & Purcell, M. E., 22 Aug 2023.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review
Open Access -
Learning for Sustainability: young people and practitioner perspectives
Ward, K., Birch, R., MacDonald, T., Beresford-Dey, M., Lakin, L., Purcell, M. & Searle, B., 8 Feb 2023, Edinburgh: Scottish Government. 50 p. (Social Research Series)Research output: Book/Report › Commissioned report
Open AccessFile119 Downloads (Pure) -
Hope in ‘Catastrophic’ Times: Participants’ Stories of Nurture and Transformation from an Innovative Community Learning Initiative
Purcell, M. E., 2022, In: Research in Post-Compulsory Education. 27, 2, p. 219-241 23 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile42 Downloads (Pure) -
Love in a Time of Colic: Mobilizing Professional Love in Relationships with Children and Young People to Promote Their Resilience and Wellbeing
Purcell, M. E., Page, J. & Reid, J., 2022, In: Child and Youth Services. 43, 1, p. 3-27 25 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile81 Downloads (Pure) -
Should I be scared when you say that you love me? Youth Work practice and the power of professional love
Purcell, M. E., 3 Nov 2022, Love and the Politics of Care: Methods, Pedagogies, Institutions. Dikova, S., McMahon, W. & Savage, J. (eds.). Bloomsbury Academic, p. 149-168 20 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Prizes
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Mary Edmunds Williams Fellowship
Purcell, Martin (Recipient), 14 Jul 1985
Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively
Activities
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Love Research Network
Martin Purcell (Speaker) & Christina Straub (Speaker)
17 Feb 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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Winter Festival for CLD
Martin Purcell (Invited speaker)
16 Feb 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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Values-based university teaching: talking the talk but are we walking the walk?
Di Cantali (Speaker), Tracey Colville (Speaker) & Martin Purcell (Speaker)
8 Jun 2022Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
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Research in Post-Compulsory Education (Journal)
Martin Purcell (Peer reviewer)
24 Aug 2022Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Publication peer-review
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Purdue University Transformative Scholarship Research Generator: TREKS (External organisation)
Martin Purcell (Member)
31 Aug 2022 → 31 Dec 2028Activity: Membership types › Membership of group