Tribute to Tom Burns

Tom Burns
Tom absolutely lived by his principles. He was passionate about equity – fairness and justice – regarding the whole world.
Despite his huge modesty, Tom achieved a great deal, particularly with regard to the students he cared so much about. He understood where those who had not had the advantages of a good preparatory education were coming from; supported them; and explained this to other staff at London Met so that they could support and appreciate these students.
He, with Sandra took it upon themselves to make up for these failures in the education system. They wrote a textbook , now in multiple editions, which took account, first of the ‘technical’ aspects of study skills. They developed these imaginatively to make study, perhaps for the first time in their lives, enjoyable and fun for their students. They also effectively empowered students to become independent, effective and critical learners.
Unusually, their wonderful study skills book also addressed emotional issues around learning, again showing the sensibility and awareness that made them so special and changed so many lives.
All these ideas of course have been exported to many classrooms nationally and further afield. Not only students, but staff too have been exposed to ideas about learning (and teaching) being kind, inclusive, joyful, creative, liberatory and within everyone’s grasp.
On a personal level, Tom – and Sandra – it is so difficult to separate them – have been caring, delightful, constant, loyal and loving friends. Whenever we met for the great lunches we used to have before Covid, and despite my firm intentions, Tom always managed to trick me so that he ended up paying before I could! I’m sure others will recognise this!
An example of his willingness to put himself out, at great inconvenience and possible risk to himself, was offering to fetch Vic, my husband, and myself in the middle of the night from Luton Airport and drive us to London at the height of Covid, after we had come off a crowded plane, possibly with Covid-infected passengers.
Thank you Tom for your love and friendship, for your passion for what is right, and for your determination and actions to make things better wherever you could. You, and Sandra, have confirmed and strengthened my belief and optimism in the possibility of a world that could be kinder, fairer and more joyful for everyone.
Thank you.

Impact



Tom Burns, 1959-2024: A Pioneer in Learning Development 


 
 

By Social Science Space
November 5, 2024  5865


Tom Burns, whose combination of play — and plays – with teaching in higher education added a light, collaborative and engaging model for learning and learning development, died on October 23 after a short illness.  
Burns’ biography on his institutional webpage at London Metropolitan University (LMU) noted he had “always been interested in theatre and the arts and their role in building identity and community – and the power they can have in teaching and learning. When at school and first working in the building trade, he formed and led the Hainault Action Group setting up adventure playgrounds and devising community events and festivals for his local east London community.” Three decades ago he built his own career on teaching how to teach better at the university level. 
A university teaching fellow and associate teaching professor at LMU’s Centre for Teaching Enhancement, he was known widely for efforts alongside his professional and personal partner Sandra Sinfield to improve teaching and learning in higher education. This ranged from online efforts such as two “living dialog” blogs – the Study Hub focusing on students and the Take5 focusing on instructors; co-founding the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education; and writing – again with Sinfield – popular textbooks such as Teaching, Learning and Study Skills: a guide for tutors; Essential Study Skills: the complete guide to success at university ; and most recently the open-access collaboration with Sandra Abegglen and Sinfield, Supporting Student Writing – And Other Modes of Learning and Assessment – A Staff Guide. 
“Tom delighted in all aspects of teaching and learning and leaves an enduring legacy,” reads one line in an appreciation from the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education. “Tom was a very likeable person with a wonderful sense of humour and had a spirit of adventure. He was an inspirational figure and pioneer in the evolution of Learning Development. He had a tremendous ability to draw on personal experience to tell stories that engaged and inspired his colleagues, peers and students in all walks of life.” 
The academic collaborative writings he made on the subject tell that same tale in a more formal – yet freeing – manner. As he, Sinfield and Abegglen wrote: 

“We have found that our students are excited by the challenges that we set, and engage with enthusiasm and joy. This is not because these tasks are easier – far from it – but because they are challenges the students want to have the courage to do. … 

“Arguably, for our students, the transactional nature of pre-university education, the constant measurement, the League Tables, the SATs and the stats, obscures the fact that education is not autochthonous (sprung ready made from the earth itself) but is a set of social practices constructed by a community of which they are now members. Hence, we seek to destabilize the notion of education itself: to disrupt the ‘taken for granted’ perception that it is memorisation, and that study involves rote learning fixed forms of knowledge that already exist. Rather, we emphasise that education can involve the search for emergent knowledge and as yet unknown answers. Moreover, if education does involve transformation of the self, we need play for ‘It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self (Winnicott 1971)’.” 
Before entering higher education as a career, Burns built and ran those community adventure playgrounds and developed community theatre and festival projects in East London. As he told the Child in the City website in 2019, he came from a background that while poor, was “active and creative”: 

“My family had emerged from the East End of London where we had been active members of Trades Unions and political parties; were instrumental in forming and supporting Tenant Associations; and were active in numerous community arts projects such as Stratford East Theatre with Joan Littlewood, the Basement of the Town Hall in Cable Street with Dan Jones, the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Half Moon Theatre. We were poor but we were active and creative, as the old song did not say.” 
His account continued with the genesis of his first ‘adventure playground,’ and which while grounded in that time and place set a template of sorts for his teaching career: 

“The adventure playground I was involved with was a scrap piece of land that was designated to have garages built on it. I was fourteen or fifteen at that time. The oldest person was eighteen. We decided to squat on that piece of land and run a summer camp, spontaneously. Then we gathered the petitions from the schools in the area to get the support that you need to take a project like this forward. … The kids did it together. It was not the grown-ups managing them. It was the kids themselves. I think they found themselves. They became. They became a person, a human being.” 
Once he started studying for a bachelor’s in English and European poetry, prose & drama at the University of Essex, he launched the first ever International Dario Fo Festival, which included symposia and workshops on the Italian actor and playwright as well as performances for students and community members. He would next earn a master’s in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education at LMU before joining its staff. He noted in a 2023 podcast for TalkingHE (see link below) that he was surprised to see how his focus on learning development had morphed into staff development. 

 
Once in higher ed, Burns did not abandon the performing arts, although the distinction been plays and pedagogy probably mattered little to him. He and Sinfield took a production of John Godber’s 1977 play “Bouncers” on a tour of Crete and produced a feature film, “Eight Days from Yesterday.” All the while he was busy beavering on creating “multi-modal, participative, egalitarian and immersive” educational resources, “demonstrate[ing],” as he would write, “the importance of producing knowledge and cultural artefacts from within cultures, starting the education journey where people are, whilst enabling them to go where they want to go.” A video, “Take Control,” he and Sinfield made won the IVCA gold award for education in 1998. 
Burns started his HE career at LMU in 1994, even then designing sociology and media modules to University of North London-affiliated Access students. As he explained later, “My practice is rooted in social justice and has always been emancipatory, designed to introduce diverse students to the genres, tropes and practices of HE whilst developing their own abilities, self-confidence and academic voice.”