Research in RE (part 2): Why is RE research important? – Dr James Robson

Next I want to discuss the question of why we think educational research is important at all. I toyed with starting with this question, it’s clearly vital, but wanted to clarify my terms first. Why should the busy teacher, possibly a lone subject specialist in his/her school, with hundreds of students and an enormous workload, care about research? Naturally lots of people have lots of different opinions on this issue, but for me it comes down to two main reasons: practitioner-based issues and profession-based issues. At a practitioner-based level, engaging in emergent research is an excellent way for teachers to continue their professional development by staying up to date with ideas about practice, theory and subject knowledge. Furthermore, teachers who can use and discuss research are better placed to negotiate and advocate for their subject, students and colleagues in a context where management and policy makers may be drawing on research to justify decisions and changes. Being research literate can be highly empowering.

At a profession-based level teacher engagement with research has implications for the identity of the teaching profession as a whole, beyond the RE-specific context. In 2013 Ben Goldacre was commissioned to write a report on ‘Building Evidence into Education’ (http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/b/ben%20goldacre%20paper.pdf). Although personally I disagree with his positivist and reductionist view of educational research as simply something that answers the question of ‘what works’, the wider aim of turning teaching into an evidence based profession is important. In this report Goldacre describes the way in which, prior to the 1970s, medical practice was primarily dominated by charismatic experts advocating particular procedures based on their own experience, with little large-scale generalisable evidence. It was only through the determined work of Cochrane, the promotion of randomised control trials and the sharing of evidence that many procedures were shown to be damaging to patients. Since then medicine has become evidence based with large-scale trials on what works best guiding practice and appropriate mechanisms put in place to ensure that all practitioners work in accordance with the evidence.

Goldacre argues that the teaching profession is currently at the stage medicine was at in the 1970s: too much practice is based on assumptions and opinions of self-appointed experts with little evidence to back it up. In some cases practice actively goes against existing research evidence. A good example of this is the now fairly well discredited Brain Gym intervention that, at a substantial cost to schools implementing it, advocates that students rub ‘brain buttons’ and drink water through the roof of their mouths for rapid absorption, among other exercises with pseudo-scientific explanations! The popularity of Brain Gym is fortunately on the wane, but it still exists in pockets of the education system despite the fact that there is no evidence of its effectiveness and many of its techniques fly in the face of medical and biological sciences.

Personally, I think it is a noble aim to move guidance on education and teaching practice away from the clutches of gurus, experts and commercial companies (almost all with some kind of financial stake) and base professional practice on research evidence. This is what I mean by research being important at a profession-based level. By understanding and using educational research in everyday practice, teachers can not only avoid getting involved in dubious pseudo-scientific fads, but also contribute to a shift in the identity of the profession, making it truly evidence-based and so more effective.

Of course this is necessarily utopian and in the messy realities of the RE world it is questionable whether the kind of evidence Goldacre demands actually exists. Regrettably a great deal of research both about and for RE is small scale and often qualitative in nature. As a researcher myself who has primarily undertaken small-scale qualitative studies, I think these are extremely valuable. However, I also think it’s time for academics, funders and teachers to be bolder in the kinds of research projects undertaken; to work collaboratively to put together large-scale (and probably very expensive) projects that will generate evidence that will really help teachers. We all need to ask key questions about RE and be brave enough to attempt to answer these questions in a generalizable way that embraces innovative research methodologies. Everyone has a part to play in this, but if we are going to shift our research culture, I think it’s important for funders in the RE world to reflect carefully on what they mean by ‘impact’ (a key part of any funding proposal) and consider whether greater impact could be achieved through funding a small number of large-scale ambitious research projects each year rather than a large number of small ones.

Read Research in RE (part 1): What is RE research? Broadening our perspectives
Read Research in RE (part 2): Why is RE research important?
Read Research in RE (part 3): Who should do RE Research?
Read Research in RE (part 4): How Should RE Research be Shared?

Dr James Robson is the Knowledge and Online Manager at Culham St Gabriels and a lecturer at Oxford University Department of Education where he is pathway leader for the MSc in Learning and Technology. His blog represents his personal opinions and does not reflect those of either of his employers.