The Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR) and The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR) have created the Tavistock Chair in Social Science for Education and Change.

The main objective of the Chair, assigned to UNIR Research (the Research and Technology Unit of UNIR) is to research, explore and experiment with policies, behaviours, training, structure, groups and relations, and how these elements interact towards changes and effective improvement, in specific contexts and settings. Through the Chair, both institutions will analyse how technology is engaged with social policies and changes in the relations between human beings and group or classes or categories of human beings, and how all those components can collaborate for a better achievement. Additionally, this agreement will disseminate the results of research, experiments and evaluation.

In addition, the agreement supports, implements and evaluates previous elements, through the inclusion of all kinds of stakeholders and groups as part of the process, outcome, and improvement cycle. The Chair supports spreading Tavistock’s tradition and thinking not only to Spanish-speaker countries but broadly, reinforcing the international perspective both in research and training supported by both organisations. The socio-technical system approach, multidisciplinary teams and partnerships across organisations are embedded in this initiative, where social researchers, consultants, contributors to organisational development, technical and educational experts and academics will be able to research and collaborate in different ways.

The Tavistock Chair in Social Science for Education and Change comes on top of others Special Chairs at UNIR, like IBM Chair on Data Science in Education, UNESCO Chair on eLearning, AENOR Chair on Certification and Quality Standards and Technology and ATOS Chair on Technological Innovation.

Tavistock Chair activities include:

Open-Classes

The Open-Classes are a series of online conference that take place between TIHR and UNIR Research. Participants can register and take part during the live event or can access a recording of the conference at a later date.

The Dynamics of Evaluation
These dialogues first began as part of TIHR’s successful Lunchtime Talk series held in our London offices. However, to extend their reach and offer a greater international perspective they are also presented as online Open-Classes.

• Communicating Results
  (Milena Stateva, Richard Allen, Laura Stock & Cristina Castellanos)
  28 January 2016
• Handling Complexity (Eliat Aram, Dione Hills & Kerstin Junge)
  30 November 2015  – link to recording of Open Class
• A System Psychodynamic Perspective (Leslie Brissett & Giorgia Iacopini)
  29 September 2015 – link to recording of Open Class
• Evaluation as Reflective Practice (Camilla Child & Dione Hills)
  18 June 2015 – link to recording of Open Class

For more information about the Tavistock Chair in Social Science for Education and Change, please contact Cristina Castellanos, TIHR Senior Researcher/ Consultant.