Role
Senior Lecturer, BA & MA Youth Work, Nottingham Trent University. Beyond her teaching duties, Frances currently holds two research leadership roles: Youth Research group leader and Deputy Director for the Centre of Policy, Citizenship and Society. She undertakes external research and evaluation activity as part of consultancy in Social Sciences and is S3 Methods Hub Youth ‘expert’. Her role includes teaching and placement supervision, PhD supervision, developing bids for research funding, supporting local Youth Organisations through the Professional Practitioner Network, research publications and project reports.
Frances' teaching and learning profile strongly demonstrates creative pedagogical approaches, which receive positive feedback from students, including the design of practice-based tasks as forms of assessments, supporting work-like learning experiences for students, and creative learning methods such as music elicitation. Due for publication in late 2024 is a co-authored textbook "Researching ‘with’ young people: An introduction to Youth-Centred Research methods", which will support the teaching of research methods across various courses within the Department.
Career overview
Building on her early career as a Youth Worker and Arts Education officer for both local authority and third sector, Frances has over ten years of experience in undertaking research with young people. Her research focuses on the arts and youth work, and as an ethnographer, she frequently draws upon creative methods in youth settings. Her research also extends to other areas where longstanding inequalities within education, wellbeing and youth offending remain problematic. These avenues of investigation have been driven both by national priorities, including her involvement in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) Youth Research Advisory Group, and local needs such as the closure of youth clubs in Nottingham, high rates of First Time Entrants to the Youth Justice system and the lack of cultural engagement in Mansfield and Ashfield.
Her close-to-practice research has been instrumental upon the youth work field in developing evidence for the value of informal education and evaluating programmes that benefit some of the most vulnerable young people in today’s society. In particular, her research on young musicians’ wellbeing during COVID-19, global perspectives on youth arts programmes and Nottingham’s youth homelessness, highlight new patterns of cultural practice that counteract disadvantage and instability.
Research areas
Frances is leader of the Youth Research Group within the School of Social Sciences. Her research interests include youth arts programmes, music-making, health and well-being, youth work and informal education, community engagement / development, youth participation / voice and activism. She is currently supervising Doctoral Candidates on these topics and would welcome any future approaches for postgraduate research towards in these areas.
External activity
Frances is actively involved in research, evaluation and consultancy for local programmes, for example ChalleNGe (Nottingham’s Cultural Education Partnership), Captivate (the Youth Partnership for Mansfield and Ashfield) and the YMCA’s food project for homeless young people. The profile of her youth research activity is visible locally (ChalleNGe, Captivate and Youth Professional Practitioner Network (PPN), nationally (DCMS Advisory Board and Youth & Policy journal), and internationally (monograph, Youth Arts International Research Exchange and bids in development). Frances is on the Advisory Board for the Nottingham Community Artists Network. Her research connects NTU to youth research professional bodies, youth policy-making and youth work practice.
Publications
Books
- Howard, F., 2022. Global Perspectives on Youth Arts Programs: How and Why the Arts Can Make a Difference. Policy Press.
Articles and chapters
- Bennett, A., Sofija, E., Green, B., Guerra, P., Howard, F., and Oliveira, A., 2024. ‘It’s like a hug’: examining the role of music-making for the well-being of youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Youth Studies.
- Howard, F., 2023. “Radio Is a Blank Canvas for Youth Work”: Communication, Creative Agency, Compassion and Empathy. Journal of Applied Youth Studies, pp.1-18.
- Howard, F., 2023. Youth Work, Music Making and Activism. Youth, 3(3), pp.1053-1062.
- Green, B., Bennett, A., Guerra, P., Howard, F., Oliveira, A., Sousa, S., and Sofija, E., 2022. "How live is live?: COVID-19, live music, and online performances." In Remaking Culture and Music Spaces, pp. 34-46. Routledge.
- Howard, F., 2022. Artistic Production and (Re) production: Youth Arts Programmes as Enablers of Common Cultural Dispositions. Cultural Sociology, 16:4.
- Howard, F., 2022. Using and Abusing the Arts with ‘At-Risk’ Youth. Journal of Applied Youth Studies, pp.1-16.
- Howard, F. 2021. “It’s Like Being Back in GCSE Art”—Engaging with Music, Film-Making and Boardgames. Creative Pedagogies within Youth Work Education. Education Sciences, Educating Informal Educators special issue.
- Howard, F., Bennett, A., Green, B., Guerra, P., Sousa, S., & Sofija, E., 2021. ‘It’s Turned Me from a Professional to a “Bedroom DJ” Once Again’: COVID-19 and New Forms of Inequality for Young Music-Makers. YOUNG.
- Howard, F. 2021.Researching event-centred projects: Showcasing grounded aesthetics - Qualitative Research
- Parry, R., Howard, F., & Penfold, L., 2020. Negotiated, contested and political: the disruptive Third Spaces of youth media production. Learning, Media and Technology.
- Howard, F., 2020. Pedagogies for the ‘Dis‐engaged’: Diverse Experiences of the Young People’s Arts Award Programme. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 39(3), pp.672-685.
- Howard, F., Brocken, S., & Sim, N., 2018. Youth Work, Arts Practice and Transdisciplinary Space, Chapter in The SAGE Handbook of Youth Work Practice (eds) Alldred, P., Cullen, F., Edwards, K. and Fusco, D.
- Coles, R., & Howard, F., 2018. Filmmaking education and enterprise culture: an ethnographic exploration of two filmmaking education contexts and their relation to bedroom culture and the creative workplace. Ethnography and Education, 13:3, 273-285.
Special issues
- Seal, M., Gormally, S., & Howard, F., forthcoming 2024. Youth Work Pracademia: Creativity, Community and Meaningful Careers in Journal of Applied Youth Studies.
- McGimpsey, I., Rousell, D. and Howard, F., 2023. A double bind: youth activism, climate change, and education. Educational Review, 75(1), pp.1-8.
- Alldred, P. and Howard, F., 2022. Educating Informal Educators. Education Sciences, 12(5), p.301.
Project Reports
- Howard, F., and Trekkah, B., 2023. Phlexx & Mimm. Youth Music Incubator 2022-23
- Howard, F., and Lyons-Lewis, A., 2023. YMCA young artisan heritage food project: end of project report
- Howard, F., Trekkah, B. and Glasford, P., 2022. Beatknots Project impact report Vol. 1.
- Howard, F., 2022. Under the Bridge pilot project report.
- Howard, F. and Pickford, R. 2022. Nurturing through the Arts Project report.
- Howard, F. 2020. Planning and running an arts project with young people. Trinity College London and Arts Council England.
Press expertise
Frances has press expertise in Youth Work, Youth Services and Arts Education. She contributed to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport's consultation on Youth Services in March 2021 and to the UK Parliament Inquiry on supporting Vulnerable Adolescents in November 2022. She has also been interviewed by NottinghamshireLive on youth club closures.