Dr John Lean PGCLTHE SFHEA
Senior Lecturer
My profile
Biography
I’m a Senior Lecturer in Educational Innovation and Initiatives and the Programme Lead for Rise, Manchester Met’s award-winning space for experiential learning in the extended curriculum. Along with designing, delivering and curating innovative learning experiences, my team also administer the accreditation framework that enables students to enhance their degree outcomes through Rise.
I completed my PhD in 2019, and my research focused on how participation in higher education might be transformed through the use of playful metaphors to encourage freedom, agency and democracy. This work directly feeds into my work leading Rise.
My research interests are innovative higher education practice, Deweyan pragmatism, play and games. I’m a committee member for the Playful Learning Conference and a member of the Manchester Games Centre. I’m also an organiser and trainer for Manchester Bright Club, the comedy club where academics share their research through stand-up.
Research outputs
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Journal articles
Lean, J. (2023) '2022 Playful Learning Conference Special Issue: Editorial.' Journal of Play in Adulthood, 5(1) pp. i-iii.
Lean, J. (2021) 'The Twenty-Third Triennial Conference Games: Playing with competition at an academic conference.' Journal of Play in Adulthood, 2(1)
Lean, J., Illingworth, S.M., Wake, P. (2018) 'Unhappy families: using tabletop games as a technology to understand play in education.' Research in Learning Technology, 26
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Theses and dissertations
Lean, J.J. (2019) Total play! exploring participation and play in higher education.