Qualifications
- PhD in Education, University of Cambridge, 2015-2019
- MPhil in Psychology and Education, University of Cambridge, 2014-2015
- MA in Economics, University of Ottawa, Canada, 2012-2013
- BA in Economics, Princeton University, USA, 2007-2011
Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations
- Society for Research in Child Development
- Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies
- British Educational Research Association (BERA)
Profile
Ashton’s research focuses on identifying the pathways that lead to positive developmental outcomes in both education and mental health. Originally trained in economics, Ashton now uses an interdisciplinary approach that employs quantitative methods to answer questions using secondary data.
Ashton joined the Faculty of Education as a Research Associate in 2018. During her first two years in this role she served as a research associated under a research group led by Faculty of Education Lecturer, Sonia Ilie. In this role, Ashton was responsible for conducting literature reviews, and performing the quantitative analysis for several pre-existing projects. In Ashton’s second year in this position, she assisted with the design and administration of an impact evaluation of several widening participation programmes. This gave Ashton the chance to work directly with charities and UK higher education providers to measure the impact of specific programmes on the central goal of increasing access to higher education.
From 2020-2022, Ashton was a member of a research group led by Professor Gordon Harold. During this time, Ashton’s research spanned a variety of topics surrounding the role that childhood experiences and family processes play in perpetuating inequality. This work largely used existing cohort studies to examine the factors that help improve developmental outcomes of children and adolescence. This research included projects such as a cost-benefit analysis of how parenting interventions in the UK can provide long-term savings based on improved adolescent and youth mental health and educational outcomes.
Now, Ashton is continuing research on several of the projects mentioned above while serving as the Teaching Associate for the Social Science Research Methods Programme (SSRMP) and Cambridge Undergraduate Quantitative Methods Centre (CUQM). She believes that it is important for students to see research methods used in practice and teach on several courses at the Faculty of Education.
For the SSRMP, Ashton delivers courses in Foundations in Applied Statistics, Basic Quantitative Analysis, and Survey Research and Design, Evaluation Methods, and Research Ethics.
Academic Area/Links
- Psychology and Education
Research Topics
- Identifying and measuring the interplay between cognitive skills; social and behavioural skills and parental inputs across childhood.
- Measuring how interparental conflict impacts child development and well-being
- Long-term cost-benefit analysis of interventions to improve mental health and educational outcomes
- Quantitative analysis of large-scale survey data alongside bespoke randomised controlled trials
Current Research Project(s)
- Quantitative Methods and Education Practice – Andrew and Virginia Rudd Research and Professional Practice Programme
Teaching
- Postgraduate
- MPhil and MEd lecturing (P&E): Quantitative data analysis module, consisting of 20 hours of lectures and interactive sessions to introduce students to statistical methods and statistical software.
- MPhil and MEd supervision (P&E)
- MPhil and MEd project supervision (P&E)
- University-wide lecturing as an Affiliated Lecturer for Social Sciences Research Methods Programme (SSRMP): previous and current courses include Evaluation Methods, Structural Equation Modelling and Confirmatory Factor Analysis.
- Undergraduate
- Supervision (Education Tripos) Designing Educational Research Paper
- Supervision (Education Tripos) Undergraduate Dissertation
Principal and Recent Publications
llie, S., Vermunt, J. D., & Brown, A. (2020). The role of reasoning ability in university students’ cognitive and metacognitive skill development. Research on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 99.
Brown, A. (working paper). Modelling the Impact of Parent-Child Interactions on the Skill Development of Primary School Children: Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study.
Brown, A., & Ilie, S. (working paper). Applying behavioural nudging using text messaging in an existing widening participation framework: Evidence from three randomised control trials in England.
Brown, A. (in preparation). Parental investment in child development, separating the role of financial inputs from parental behaviours: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth.