
Dr Kristen Reid is a member of The Open University's Centre for Public Leadership and Social Enterprise.
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I have 15 years of engagement in third sector research, practice and policy development, including research on social enterprises, microenterprise and small business creation. I have a Masters in Social Work (1999) from the University of Texas at Austin (US) and earned a PhD in 2004 following a network analysis study of 257 multi-sector, US asset development collaborations in a federal demonstration project supporting community enterprise and wealth creation. I moved to the UK in 2003 and began working at the University of East London in 2004, eventually leading their Masters in International Social Work programme. I have been working as a Lecturer in Work-Based Learning at the Open University Business School since 2006 and currently lead the school’s Teaching Innovation Group.
I am a management generalist with a focus on practice-based and online learning approaches, and my teaching interests are primarily focused on management learning and learning design. I lead the school’s Teaching Innovation Group and have helped to design Open University Business School modules at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Specifically, I have contributed to the design and development of a level 2 module on Business organisations and their environments (B201), as well as writing two of the four units. I led the development of the online learning approach and materials for the new Stage 1 MBA module (Management: perspectives and practice), which I currently chair. With a background in social work, community development and the public and voluntary sectors, I have contributed to OUBS module resources related to these subject areas. I also serve as an Academic Reviewer for the Open University Validation Services.
I have an eclectic set of research interests related to my practice background and my teaching interests. Related to the third sector, I have published research on social enterprises and took part in a funded study to evaluate the Sustainable Funding Project of the Wales Council of Voluntary Action. Throughout my time at the Open University Business School, I have performed research that analyses and evaluates the teaching practices and learning approaches in management education. Recently, I joined the Management Team of the Educational Innovation in Business and Economics (EDiNEB) network, an international group aiming to support educational innovation research and practice in business and economics higher education through dialogue, networking, and an annual conference. EDiNEB publishes a yearly peer-reviewed, edited book, Advances in Business Education and Training, through Springer.
My current research focus is on later life learning and the learning that people do post-retirement. I am currently collecting data and will be writing a chapter on this subject, in the first instance, for a book Beyond Teaching and Learning, with later journal articles planned.
Currently I supervise a PhD student on the topic of European funding distribution in Wales.
I am a member of the Management Team of the Educational Innovation in Economics and Business network association, which was established in 1993 and became a membership association in 2010. EDiNEB has historical ties to Maastricht University in The Netherlands and US educational practitioners, and its annual conferences bring together members from across the globe. The association aims to provide mutual support to its international membership in three areas: 1) strengthening members’ institutions in their realisation of innovative programmes; 2) strengthening faculty capacities related to innovative education; and 3) development of technologies, pedagogies, methodologies and tools appropriate to business and economics curricula. Strategies to achieve these goals can be summarised in three areas: an emphasis on institutional support and capacity building through exchanges, dissemination of information, improved communication and publications; an emphasis on partnerships between universities; and a focus on research and development, in particular regarding questions of relevance to education in economics and business administration.