View all news

Education PhD Student Granted Faculty of Social Sciences and Law Doctoral Award 2024

Dr Siân Ephgrave with her daughter, celebrating on her graduation day.

5 December 2024

School of Education alumna Dr. Siân Ephgrave was granted the prestigious award for her doctoral thesis exploring the wellbeing of secondary school English teachers through poetry.

Each year, more than 500 University of Bristol students are awarded doctorates for their ground-breaking and fascinating research.

And each year, a panel of senior University academics have the difficult task of picking six of the best theses to receive Doctoral Prizes.

Prof Tansy Jessop, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Students and Education at the University of Bristol, said: “Our doctoral students are passionate and intellectually curious. They break new ground and drive positive change. More than that, they are at the vanguard of developing new ideas and practices through the painstaking pursuit of questions that matter for society and the planet.

“Well done to the 2024 Doctoral Prize winners, and to everyone who has received a doctorate over the past year.”

Among the 2024 award recipients is School of Education alumna Dr Siân Ephgrave who studied her Education PhD with us. 

Dr Siân Ephgrave’s thesis, entitled 'The dysbeing and wellbeing of secondary English teachers in England: a cocreative poetic inquiry,' was inspired by her own experiences as an English teacher.

As she put it: “It seemed to me that, despite several decades of research into teachers’ high levels of stress and low levels of workplace wellbeing, there had been little improvement and in fact, things seemed to be getting worse.”

Dr Ephgrave worked with 25 English teachers to compose poems and vignettes on the topic of wellbeing, finding that “English teachers conceptualise wellbeing in various ways that can be understood in terms of the importance of diversity, inclusion and authentic self-expression”.

Her PhD was a personal journey too. Her daughter was born at the end of her first year and, after maternity leave, she switched to studying part-time.

At times, she thought she would never finish. But after seven years, and thanks to the support of family, friends and her University of Bristol supervisors, she is not only a ‘dr’ but a Doctoral Prize winner.

Dr Ephgrave has developed the methods she used during her PhD into a group workshop and is now a Lecturer in Education at the University of Bath.

Further information

Words within this newsfeed have been replicated from the University of Bristol press release issued on 04.12.24. For more information and to learn more about the other doctoral award winners for this academic year, please read the release in full.