| Description | Audio cassette sound recording of an interview with Professor Usha Goswami (1960-) FRSA, Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Centre for Neuroscience in Education, for the British Psychological Society's Oral History project.
The interview was conducted by Roland Ackord in 2008.
The following summary is by way of introduction to the full recording held at the British Psychological Society's History of Psychology Centre, London.
Performers:
Professor Usha Goswami (UG)
Roland Ackord (RA)
Topics covered:
Running order:
RA asks UG what brought her into psychology in the first instance
UG talks of her early interest in English Literature, her intention to take English Literature and her Mother's influence on her decision to take psychology as a degree
RA asks UG if in hindsight psychology was the right choice
UG talks of her enjoyment of experimental methods in psychology, how the field is always pushing boundaries, data and finding theoretical constructs
RA asks UG how she would have developed if she had chosen English Literature
UG speaks of probable entry into publishing, the creative field and witing before speaking of her parents' support, the influence of Peter Bryant (her Oxford Tutor) and her Father
RA asks UG if there were any disappointments in her early career
UG talks of teacher training after her degree, the role of an educational psychologist and her return to Oxford to do a PhD after one year's teacher training
UG talks of the benefits of her teacher training, psychology and education and her own teaching at the Faculty of Education
RA asks UG what specific steps has she taken to ensure that the ideas she has developed over the years are accessible to members of the teaching profession
UG speaks of giving talks, writing papers for teacher journals and the respect of teachers
RA asks UG which area of her work (does she feel) has been influential
UG speaks of her early work on reading, her work on analogy, setting up the Centre for Neuroscience, Paul Howard Jones, her work on child development and learning difficulties for the Government's project on Mental Resources of the Nation, neuroscience and education
RA asks UG what influence do you feel psychology should have in terms of influencing policies and ideas
UG speaks of open days for the local community at the Centre, evidence based educational policy, empirical evidence, ethical issues, civil servants and wise councils
UG talks of her collaborations with colleagues, the climate in academia, her colleagues in the dyslexia field, Riemann analogy, her Research Group and York Group, letter patterns and her recent paper with Joe Ziegler
RA asks UG how accessible are your ideas (do you feel) to the general public
UG speaks of her BBC and Radio programmes initiating contact with parents, the range of choices offered to parents, brain science and research
[note: long discussion on this topic]
RA asks UG where does she see the specialism of neuroscience going in the next 20 years
UG speaks of the huge potential of the specialism, her cognition and children book , psychological problems concerning causality and differences, cognitive categories,cross modal correspondence, atypical processing and child development,neurons before speaking of the influence of technology on psychology training in the future
RA asks for her views on the impact of the increasing number of female psychologists on the profession
UG replies that she cannot see any change, how she experienced no gender obstacles in her career, her development as a psychologist, her Fellowship at St John's College and how colleges are looking for women at a higher level
RA asks UG what has been her most influential publication
UG states that she cannot single out one publication and speaks of her publication with Peter Bryant 'Phonological skills and learning to read', her work with Ann Brown and her cross-language paper with Joe Ziegler
RA asks UG for her views on academic publishing, has it changed over the years
UG speaks of the increased pressure to write up quickly, grant funding and papers, the quality of referees and her time spent on administration and committees before speaking of her positive interaction with Neuroscientists
RA asks UG is she wishes to say anything to the future student listening in 20-30 years from the date of the recording
UG gives her advice on balancing the responsibilities of being a parent with the pressure to publish
Ends.
Total Running Time: c 42mins
Summary by Mike Maskill, BPS Archivist. |
| RunTime | On one FXI90 cassette, running time c 42 minutes |
| AdminHistory | Date of Birth: 21/02/1960
University and Professional Training:
St.John's College, Oxford, BA (Hons), Experimental Psychology, 1979-1982
Post-graduate Certificate in Education, IoE University of London, 1982-1983
St.John's College, Oxford, D.Phil. in Psychology, 1983-1986
Junior Research Fellow, Merton College, Oxford 1986-1989
Professional career:
Part-time lectureship in Psychology, University of Warwick, Spring 1985
Acting Fellow for Psychology, St.John's College, Oxford May-Oct. 1985
Lecturer in Psychology, St.John's College and Merton College, 1986 and 1988-1989
University Lecturer in Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, and Fellow, St.John's College, Cambridge 1990-1997
Professor of Cognitive Developmental Psychology, Institute of Child Health, University College London, 1997-2002
Fellow, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, 1997-2002
Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge,
Director of the Centre for Neuroscience in Education, 2005
Awards/Honours
Harkness Fellowship for post-doctoral research in learning by analogy, University of Illinois, 1987-1988
British Psychology Society Spearman Medal (awarded for early career research excellence), 1992
Norman Geschwind-Rodin Prize ( Swedish award for research excellence in the field of dyslexia), 1992
Spencer Fellowship the National Academy of Education (USA), 1990-1992
Fellowship the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany), 1995-1996
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, 2003-
Fellow of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences, 2004
Elected to the Reading Hall of Fame for distinguished contributions to literacy research,by members of the International Reading Association, 2005
One of the Women of the Year, 2006, elected by the Women of the Year Foundation, 2006
British Psychological Society Presidents’ Award – Developmental dyslexia: A temporal sampling framework, 2012
Involvement with BPS and/or other societies and organisations (selected):
Broadbent Lecturer, BPS Annual Conference, Bournemouth, March 2003
One of four speakers invited to represent the BPS at its Millenium Event for public policy makers at the Royal Society, January 2001
Membership of:
Society for Research in Child Development (nd)
Experimental Psychology Society (Life Member)
British Neuropsychology Society (nd)
Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (nd)
Reading Hall of Fame, International Reading Association (nd) |