Research in RE (part 4): How Should RE Research be Shared? – Dr James Robson

I’ve made the case that RE research refers to public research on a broad range of topics about and for RE, and that all teachers should be research literate (i.e. aware of emergent research and able to refer to it or reflect it in their teaching if they think it’s appropriate). This means that teachers should be engaging with potentially an enormous amount of research literature emerging from universities, trusts, think tanks, government departments etc. This is clearly impossible. The time required for an individual to seek out and read all of this material would be beyond anything any teacher could spare. In the real world, the issue of time is compounded by issues of access and the fact that much research is published in academic journals and held behind often absurdly expensive pay walls. Therefore, some mechanisms need to be put in place to bring relevant RE research directly to teachers in an accessible form that takes into account the busy realities of teachers’ lives.

As already mentioned above, in his review of educational research, Ben Goldacre understandably compares the teaching professional to doctors and argues that most doctors do not have time to read original papers in academic journals. Instead they read the British Medical Journal (BMJ) which has short articles summarising important international research. He suggests something similar for the world of education in the UK, citing What Works Clearing House (http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/default.aspx), a web project by the US Government aimed at sharing educational research, as a potential model. Although excellent in theory, anyone who has actually tried to find anything on the What Works Clearing House will quickly appreciate its practical shortcomings. However, the principles behind it arguably offer a good starting point for the RE world.

When conceptualising an appropriate mechanism it’s important to remember that there are two key stakeholders in any system that gets put in place: researchers and teachers. An effective solution will benefit both parties: researchers want their work to reach and help the wider community and, particularly importantly for those working in universities, need to be able to show evidence of impact to their funders and departments as part of the Research Excellence Framework (REF). Having research directly influencing teachers’ professional practice at a national level is potentially an excellent way of showing the impact of that research. Teachers on the other hand want easy access to a range of relevant research presented in a way that quickly makes it clear how it might feature in their professional practice or improve their subject knowledge.

As part of my role as a lecturer in educational technology at Oxford University and my work as knowledge and online manager at Culham St Gabriel’s, I’ve spent a lot of time discussing the issue of research dissemination with various stakeholders and thinking about possible solutions to the problem. So, as this is my blog, I’m now going come of the fence and to take the bold step of outlining a system that I think would properly facilitate the sharing of research in the RE world. Given that I’ve made a career out of working in educational technology, it’s probably not surprising that I am proposing an innovative website as a key part (but not the only part) of this system.

This site would have three core functions: first, following careful collaboration with teachers, consultants, etc., it would provide a template that helps researchers to summarise their work in a way that is appropriately tailored to the needs of teachers. Second, the site would use these short summary reports to automatically produce accessible and visually appealing newsletters, which would then be distributed directly to teachers through an integrated mailing list. Third, the site would collect analytical data on the reach of these newsletters and engagement with them by end users (for example, by recording clicks on links to research project websites and by integrating feedback forms to generate qualitative data on classroom impact and allow teachers to suggest new areas of research). Researchers could then log in to view this data, which they could then use as evidence of direct impact for the REF and funders and, particularly in relation to qualitative data, think about new avenues for research.

In the past I’ve described this model of research dissemination in terms of an hourglass: the top of the glass represents the broad range of individuals and institutions engaged in research activity feeding their work into the system; the middle of the glass is the digitally led framework that sorts and formats the research; the bottom is the distribution list of teachers who receive the research. But like any good hourglass, you can turn it upside down and the evidence of impact, qualitative feedback, ideas for new research etc flow back through the system from teachers to researcher. The idea is that both stakeholders at either end of the glass will participate in the system because both benefit from it – teachers get research and get to offer feedback and highlight new research areas, researchers get quantitative and qualitative data offering evidence of impact as well as important feedback from practitioners.

Now, with the right groundwork and partnership work with stakeholders, I think a great deal of this system can be automated once the proper networks have been established. However, it’s important not to underestimate the human element of this system. A great deal of networking skills would be required to develop trust in it oversight would be necessary at the dissemination stage to ensure the relevance, appropriate formatting etc of the automatically generated newsletters. I think NATRE has a key role to play in all these areas. If the organization took ownership of the system it could provide expert oversight and, as the RE subject organization, establish key networks by validating the system in the eyes of the researchers and teachers. Existing networks of NATRE members also provide an excellent starting point for distribution!

So where does this all leave us? Well, I would argue that it’s time for funders to get actively involved in this issue. Although I was very pleased to participate in an RE Today thinking day on research, I think it’s time to start being pro-active and investing in appropriate systems. But this involves careful thought and potentially bold innovation that goes beyond safe existing structures and ineffective relationships between researchers and teachers.

I’ve outlined a way of conceptualizing research in the RE world and a system for linking teachers and researchers and disseminating research effectively. I think this model has a lot of potential, but I’d love to hear what you think!

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 Gabriel’s 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.