About
Helen Simons is Professor Emeritus of Education and Evaluation at the University of Southampton, UK. She specializes in programme, policy and institutional evaluation, qualitative methodologies, democratic evaluation, case study, and ethics, across all sectors of education and the practice professions. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, UK (FAcSS) and of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and, in 2009, was an Orator for the University of Southampton. Before becoming an Emeritus Professor, she taught research and Masters courses in the School of Education, Southampton in all her specialist areas, supervised numerous PhD and Masters students' theses and published widely in her research fields of evaluation, qualitative methodology and ethics. Currently she is mentoring colleagues and students who are conducting evaluations besides continuing to publish on case study evaluation, evaluation ethics, and qualitative methodology and extending her research exploration into the use of art forms in evaluation. She continues to be a keynote speaker and present papers in her specialist fields at conferences in the UK and abroad.
Research
Research interests
- Democratic Evaluation
- Ethics in Research and Evaluation
- Programme, policy and institutional self-evaluation
- Case study and qualitative methodologies
- Creative arts in Evaluation
Current research
Helen Simons' research in the field of evaluation over forty years has focused on democratic processes, ethics, programme, policy and institutional self-evaluation, case study, and qualitative methodologies. Her research and evaluation practices embody humanistic methodologies and participatory principles that give autonomy and skills to organisations to continue their own development. She has written widely on the theory and practice of evaluation, case study methodology and the ethics and politics of research, publishing several books and over ninety research reports and academic papers, several of which have been published in other languages, notably Spanish and Polish. Her book Getting to Know Schools in a Democracy: the politics and process of evaluation (Lewes: Falmer Press, 1987) was awarded an International book prize for the 'most outstanding contribution to the social purposes of education'. Case Study Research in Practice, published by Sage (2009), makes explicit the theory and practice of case study for researchers new to this methodology. For further readings on case study research and evaluation see the 2010 citing in the publications list of the key note paper on ‘Democratic Evaluation: Theory and Practice’ for Virtual Conference at the University of Witwatersrand South Africa.
In furthering her research interest in ethics, Helen has played a major role nationally and internationally, particularly in the generation of professional ethical guidelines and standards. When on the Executive Councils of the British Educational Research Association and the UK Evaluation Society, she co-authored each society’s ethical guidelines. For twelve years, as Convenor of the Capabilities working group of UKES, she led a team to produce a Framework of capabilities outlining the capabilities evaluators required to conduct quality evaluation. The revised edition was completed n 2021. She continues this interest in the professionalization of evaluation internationally through conference panels and working with colleagues as a Council member on the recently established (2022) International Academy of Evaluation.
A further current research interest is exploring the creative arts in evaluation and research. Helen has always been a passionate follower of the arts and, following retraining at the Institute for Arts and Therapy in London in 1999, introduced the use of poetry, narrative, image, metaphor and movement into her teaching and course evaluations. She continues to research the role of the creative arts in evaluation methodology, most recently,2020-2022, on the international advisory committee of the European funded Traction Project https://www.traction-project.eu/ which is researching the co-creation of opera with disadvantaged communities in three European countries. She also finds time to explore her own creativity through music, poetry and dance, as well as yoga and meditation.
Selected Examples of Research and Evaluation Consultancy:
` International Advisory Committee of the European Traction project (2020-2022) https://www.traction-project.eu/.
` Council member of the International Evaluation Academy (IEAc) ( 2021- ongoing
`Evaluation Consultant (2010) to the New Zealand School Review Office on Internal and External School Review.
- Evaluation Consultant (2009-10) to Story Links, a research project exploring the effects of parent teacher and pupil co-construction of stories with SEN children.
- Evaluation Consultant (2009-10) to the Larc Project, a project in North Liverpool supporting the self-evaluation of nine arts organizations.
- Evaluation consultant (2009) to UNESCO on Monitoring and Evaluation in Partnerships in Education Programme.
- Evaluation Consultant (2007-8) to the Self–Evaluation of the Double Impact Project which aimed to engage vulnerable people in Nottingham with their creativity and arts in the city.
- Evaluation Consultant (2007) to UNICEF on Evaluation training in South Asia.
- Evaluation consultant (2006-7) to the Rise Phoenix multi-faith project, which worked with primary school children and artists (sculptors and painters) to explore the common values between different faiths, through creating a sculpture trail and mask procession.
- Evaluation Consultant and Academic Adviser (2007) to the Somerset Jumps Project, a partnership group of music organisations in Somerset to provide professional development services to musicians working with young people.
Publications
Teaching
Helens' areas of teaching expertise fall primarily into five areas which are interconnected:
Democratic Evaluation
Ethics
Case Study Research and Evaluation
Study of Self
Qualitative methodologies
Helen's teaching has followed her research interests integrating her research experience into the courses she has taught. For over forty years she has developed and taught modules to Masters students and Research students in democratic evaluation, programme and policy evaluation, institutional self- evaluation, evaluation ethics and qualitative methods, such as interviewing and observation. Additionally in courses on case study research she has explored the role of the self which is critical in qualitative methodology: as the researcher is the main instrument of data gathering and reporting, it is vital she has an awareness of the impact her values and interests may have on the interpretation.
Helen has also designed and conducted evaluation and research training courses in case study research in a number of countries overseas, in the MSc in Applied Research at the University of Vallodolid, Spain, for instance, and at the University of Aaarhus, Denmark. For many years (for different periods of time) she conducted intensive courses in case study research and evaluation for the New Zealand Social Statistics Network, the Australasian Evaluation Society and the European Evaluation Society, as well as teaching on the MA in Social Research and Evaluation at London Metropolitan University and the MA in Language at the University of Cyprus.
Biography
Professor Simons initially trained as a teacher in New Zealand gaining the Certificate of Teaching ( with distinction) in 1960) and as a psychologist in Melbourne, Victoria , Australia where she practiced as an educational psychologist for six years before emigrating to England. She received her BA degree (English literature and Psychology) and Diploma of Education (with distinction) from the University of Melbourne, Australia and her PhD in Applied Educational Research from the University of East Anglia, UK. Her PhD was titled 'The Democratisation of Evaluation Processes' and featured three case studies of democratic evaluation providing the basis for much of her subsequent work in case study, democratic evaluation, and ethics. Her research positions have included Senior Research Associate, University of East Anglia, UK and Senior Research Fellow, the Nuffield foundation, London researching curriculum innovation in schools and higher education respectively.
From 1977-1990 she was on the staff of the University of London Institute of Education, first as lecturer, then senior lecturer in Curriculum Studies where she was Chair of the Department and the Ethics Committee for several years She taught many research courses during this time, directed several funded evaluation and research projects and published numerous papers, edited several books and singled authored another. In 1989 she became a Reader of the University of London and in 1991 was appointed to a professorship in the School of Education at the University of Southampton, where she was Head of School (1994-6), Chair of Research Degrees Board (2001-4), Director of Research Degrees Training Programme and M. Phil (Research Methodology) Degree ( 2001-5) and Chair of the School of Education Research Ethics Committee (2004-6) in addition to serving on several University related research committees and serving as the University trainer for Appraisal.
Professor Simons has also held Visiting Professorships in the UK at London Metropolitan University, the University of East Anglia, Brunel University and the University of Westminster , in Spain at the Universities of Almeria, Malaga and Granada, in Reykjavik at the University of Iceland and in Melbourne, Australia at the RMIT University. In addition she has been a Visiting Scholar at Universities and Research Centres in the US, Canada ( University of British Columbia ,Vancouver) Australia (Melbourne and Western Australia) New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Norway (Trondheim and Lillehammer), Denmark (University of Aarhus) and Cyprus.
From 1990 - 1992, she held a Research scholarship from The Research Council of Norway based in Lillehammer and from 1993- 2002 she was on the Research and Development Committee, English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting, UK.
During this period of her career, Helen served on the Editorial Board of six peer reviewed research journals and was an elected member of the Executive Council of the British Educational Research Association (BERA); and a founder member of the UK Evaluation Society (UKES) where she served on the Executive Council for twenty-seven years and as President from 2004-6. Currently she is a member of the American Evaluation Association, and the European Evaluation Society.
Evaluation and Consultancy: Professor Simons has conducted many external evaluations of innovatory programmes funded by both government and non-government agencies and directed numerous evaluation training workshops - on case study evaluation, programme evaluation, democratic evaluation and institutional self-evaluation - both in the UK and overseas. The countries in which she has worked include Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Sweden, Norway Iceland, India, Ireland, Norway, New Zealand, Scotland, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Cyprus, Greece and the United States.
She is also an experienced consultant to ministries and organizations on setting up evaluation systems to monitor their policies and practices and to international agencies, such as the OECD and UNESCO, advising on curriculum and evaluation projects. For five years with European Commission funding, she directed a programme of evaluation capacity building and training in Poland and in 2007 was part of a team sponsored by UNICEF to conduct evaluation training and capacity building in South Asia. Further details on Evaluation, Ethics and other research interests are set out under the Research tab.
Community Service: For ten years Helen was a trustee of Charities Evaluation Services, an agency dedicated to promoting quality systems, organisational development and self-evaluation in voluntary organizations and the Development School, an NGO specialising in social development for Central and Eastern European Countries. For a further 20 years she was a trustee of Artswork, a youth arts agency committed to developing creative opportunities for young people aged 12-35.