Dr Marilyn Gregory
Lecturer in Continuing Professional Development (Social Work)
(BA (Hons), MA (Criminal Justice), PGCert, PhD, CQSW, CETTSW Practice Teaching Award)
Room: Elmfield, LG26 | Telephone: 0114 222 6462 (external), 26462 (internal)
Academic Profile
I joined the department in 2000, taking up a half time appointment initially and moving to full time the following year. My experience before that was 16 years working as a probation officer and court welfare officer, during which I developed a specialist role as a practice teacher, teaching and supporting both probation and social work students. Until 1997, probation students undertook the same training as other social workers, but in 1997 probation left social work and their training was delivered separately. I was involved in that for two years, but took the decision to move to the University so that I could continue my involvement in social work education more broadly. I retain an interest in criminal justice, and am a member of the University’s Centre for Criminological Research, I am an external examiner on an undergraduate programme in criminology at another university. I am also currently chair of the Sheffield Domestic Abuse Forum.
Research
My research interests flow from the strands of work developed during my probation career, which included working with offenders, working with children as a court welfare officer, and practice teaching/professional development. Recent work includes:
- Dyadic death: homicide followed by suicide in Yorkshire and the Humber. The focus of this project is upon a phenomenon in which individuals (usually men) murder their partners and children, and then kill themselves. Fieldwork was completed Feb-June 2008. This has resulted in two papers (see below), and further work is in process including a comparative historical study using the University’s ‘Plebeian Lives’ Database.
- PhD: Based upon field research carried out with 15 experienced probation officers.
- Sentencing Research Group: A small group of colleagues within the Centre for Criminology are investigating sentencing practices within the British and European court systems.
- Evaluation of training materials developed by the DoH for practitioners who encounter children whose illness has been fabricated or induced.
- Evaluation of a child protection training programme developed by a local voluntary sector organisation for workers within the voluntary sector.
- A qualitative study of the experiences of newly qualified probation officers during their training on the new Diploma in Probation Studies
- A small evaluation of the debate as a teaching and assessment tool carried out with a colleague.
- A Pilot project with the Social Care Institute for Excellence to deliver and evaluate a training programme for Front Line Managers in Social Services Departments. Four Authorities were involved in the pilot and a report was prepared for the Department of Health.
| Funded Research Projects | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Sponsor | Details | |
| 2008 | University of Sheffield | Dyadic death: homicide followed by suicide in Yorkshire and the Humber. The focus of this project is upon a phenomenon in which individuals (usually men) murder their partners and children, and then kill themselves. | |
Teaching
I teach and supervise students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I take an enquiry based approach to teaching, and have developed an interactive communication skills module delivered to both undergraduate and post graduate students in which they make a video recording of themselves interviewing a fellow student and then submitting a critical reflection of that as part of the module assignment. I draw upon my research experience and my continuing practice as chair of a domestic abuse service provider in my teaching. This includes a session given to both undergraduate and postgraduate students with the Director of Vida, the domestic abuse service provider of which I am chair. Students are encouraged to think about and develop ideas on risk assessment and safety planning in relation to women and their children who are living with or attempting to flee from domestic abuse.
I currently convene the 30 credit postgraduate module SCS 6102, Knowledge, Skills and Values, and am closely involved in the teaching of another 30 credit postgraduate module, SCS 6035, Professional Development. I also teach on postgraduate module SCS 6029 and undergraduate module SCS 250.
I am also involved in supervising post graduate social work dissertations, both qualifying students on module SCS 6140, and post-qualifying students on module SCS 633.
See our Undergraduate degree and Postgraduate taught degree pages.
Postgraduate Supervision
I am currently supervising one PhD student working on the area of transgender and domestic abuse.
I would welcome applications to study for MPhil or Phd research degrees, either full or part time, and would be particularly interested in hearing from applicants who wish to undertake research relating to either criminal justice practice, or any aspect of domestic abuse.
To find out more about our PhD programmes, go to:
Studying for a PhD in Sociology
Practice Interests
I continue to take an interest in criminal justice practice and recently addressed the Probation National Training Conference in a debate about whether ‘targets lead to quality interventions.’ My work as chair of VIDA, a domestic abuse voluntary sector service provider forum involves me regularly in the development of policy and practice relating to victims of domestic abuse.
Publications since 2005
Gregory, M. (2011) 'Practical Wisdom and the Ethic of Care in Probation Practice', European Journal of Probation Vol. 3, No.3, 2011, pp 60 – 77
Gregory M. (2011) 'Masculinity and Homicide-suicide', International Journal of Law Crime and Justice. Vol 40 Issue 2.
Gregory, M (2011) ‘My Probation Career’, Probation Journal, April 2011, 58 (1): 37-51. doi: 10.1177/0264550510388967
Davies K and Gregory, M (2010) 'The Price of Targets: Audit and Evaluation in Probation Practice', Probation Journal, December 2010 57 (4): 400-414. doi:10.1177/0264550510381327
Gregory M J (2010) ‘Probation Practice and the Ethic of Care’ British Journal of Social Work, Vol 40 (7): 2274-2290.
Gregory, M and Milroy, C M (2010) 'Homicide and Suicide in Yorkshire and the Humber: 1975-1992 and 1993-2007', The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, March 2010, Volume 31:Issue 1, pp 58-63, doi:10.1097/PAF.0b013e3181c2172a.
Gregory, M (2008) The Probation Service in Transition: Change, Values and the Nature of Practice. Sheffield, University of Sheffield Thesis.
Gregory, M (2007) ‘Language, politics and values’ in S Hodgson and Z Irving (eds), Policy Reconsidered, Bristol, Polity Press.
Gregory M (2007) ‘Ready for Probation Practice? Newly qualified Probation Officers talk about their training', Social Work Education Vol 26 Issue 1, pp 53-68.
K Gorman, M Gregory and M Hayles N Parton (2006) (Eds) Constructive Work With Offenders, London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Gregory, M (2006) ‘The Offender as Citizen: Socially Inclusive Strategies for Working with Offenders within the Community, in K Gorman, M Gregory,M Hayles and N Parton (Eds) Constructive Work with Offenders. London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Gregory, M (2006) ‘Offenders ‘r’ Us: The Story of this Book’ in K Gorman,M Gregory, M Hayles and N Parton (Eds) (2006) Constructive Work with Offenders. London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Gregory M and Holloway M (2005) ‘The debate as a pedagogic tool in social policy for social work students’. Social Work Education Vol 24, No 6 pp 617 – 637.
Gregory M and Holloway M (2005) ‘Language and the Shaping of Social Work’, British Journal of Social Work Vol 35, 1, 37-53.
A full list of publications can be downloaded by clicking the link on the right of this page.