The CILS-KCL postdoctoral program is designed to support recent PhD graduates to develop expertise in research skills in the area of mediating science learning across formal and informal settings.

At KCL, postdocs work on research projects alongside faculty and students. The scope of the research is broad, ranging from work at the macro level on policy and practice, meso level work on institutions and organisations, and work at the micro level consisting of small scale studies of talk and social interaction. Our current projects are concerned with engagement, participation and social interaction in informal learning and address topics such as the role of narrative, the organisation of talk and discourse, and the interaction mediated by educators and exhibits.

As members of the wider CILS community, CILS-KCL post docs participate in monthly teleseminars, and have the opportunity to attend seminars on learning theory, research methodologies, and informal learning practices at KCL, UCSC and the Exploratorium. All CILS postdocs also attend a yearly post doc research symposium, and the annual Bay Area Institute.

CILS-KCL postdoc researchers work with the Science Education Research Group within the Department of Education and Professional Studies (DEPS) and the Center for Public Policy Research, or the Work, Interaction and Technology Research Group in Management Centre. Both DEPS and the Management Centre are part of the School of Social Science and Public Policy. At present, CILS-KCL postdocs working in the area of science education are supervised by Professor Jonathan Osborne, and those working in the area of access, diversity and social justice in relation to informal science learning are supervised by Professors Sharon Gewirtz and Alan Cribb.

More information about the CILS-KCL faculty guiding research can be found at
http://www.exploratorium.edu/cils/partners-faculty.html

Information on the KCL departments of Education and Management is available at:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/education/ (for Education)
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/pse/mancen/index.htm (for Management)

Note: Currently, there are no postdoc vacancies at King’s College London, but for more information about the program, including possible openings in the future, please contact Heather.King (heather.king@kcl.ac.uk)