Year: 2019
Author: Taylor, Becky, Muller, Lisa-Maria, Hardman, Mark
Type of paper: Abstract refereed
Abstract:
Paper 1. Title: Research engagement as evidence of the self-improving system? A national survey of teachers’ engagement with research activities in England
The issue of teachers’ engagement with research has become highly topical. Interest has been driven by the datafication of schooling and the inclusion of research considerations in teacher proficiency frameworks in many locations. For example, teacher research engagement has been explored by national associations concerned with educational research in the UK and Australia. In the UK the importance of teachers’ research literacy for building a self-improving education system was highlighted in an influential joint report by the British Education Research Association (BERA) and the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA) in 2014 (Furlong et al., 2014). It was argued that research engagement should be integrated into the professional life of teachers across their careers. In Australia an alliance between ATEA/AARE/ACDE produced a report (White et al., 2018) that highlighted concerns by teachers, education policy makers and education academics that there was a dominant trend to view research in schools in extremely narrow and instrumentalist ways with a focus on systemic data such as absenteeism and student performance on standardized tests. This paper is derived from a project that draws on the findings of such research.
The paper reports on a national survey in England conducted as a partnership between the Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research (UCL) and the Chartered College of Teaching (the professional body of teachers in England). The survey sought to determine the extent to which teachers are engaging with research and in what ways, as well as the barriers to research use for those teachers not currently engaged. We will report on the range of research activities engaged in by teachers and the reasons they present for this. We will additionally report on what teachers find harder and easier about research engagement and reflect on the ways in which the academic community could facilitate and support engagement. Considering teachers as researchers, we will explore how teachers engage with research practices and how they share their findings. We will also explore the emerging phenomenon of the school ‘research lead’.
We will draw conclusions about the state of teaching as a research-engaged profession and whether we are seeing signs of research contributing to the self-improving system.
The issue of teachers’ engagement with research has become highly topical. Interest has been driven by the datafication of schooling and the inclusion of research considerations in teacher proficiency frameworks in many locations. For example, teacher research engagement has been explored by national associations concerned with educational research in the UK and Australia. In the UK the importance of teachers’ research literacy for building a self-improving education system was highlighted in an influential joint report by the British Education Research Association (BERA) and the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA) in 2014 (Furlong et al., 2014). It was argued that research engagement should be integrated into the professional life of teachers across their careers. In Australia an alliance between ATEA/AARE/ACDE produced a report (White et al., 2018) that highlighted concerns by teachers, education policy makers and education academics that there was a dominant trend to view research in schools in extremely narrow and instrumentalist ways with a focus on systemic data such as absenteeism and student performance on standardized tests. This paper is derived from a project that draws on the findings of such research.
The paper reports on a national survey in England conducted as a partnership between the Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research (UCL) and the Chartered College of Teaching (the professional body of teachers in England). The survey sought to determine the extent to which teachers are engaging with research and in what ways, as well as the barriers to research use for those teachers not currently engaged. We will report on the range of research activities engaged in by teachers and the reasons they present for this. We will additionally report on what teachers find harder and easier about research engagement and reflect on the ways in which the academic community could facilitate and support engagement. Considering teachers as researchers, we will explore how teachers engage with research practices and how they share their findings. We will also explore the emerging phenomenon of the school ‘research lead’.
We will draw conclusions about the state of teaching as a research-engaged profession and whether we are seeing signs of research contributing to the self-improving system.