How to … establish a culture of teacher research and development

Lindsay Palmer and Nicky Theobald share how an enquiry culture was established within their Teaching School and its Alliance.

New outlook

Building on our school’s commitment to research and evidence-based practice we found ourselves naturally reflecting on the potential of research as a key driver and enabler for many aspects of the core work of the school. In order to deepen teacher understanding of research and development as a core strategy for school improvement, and thereby embed a culture of research, it has been necessary to establish new roles, processes and systems to secure capacity and capability for research activity.

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      string(3449) "McIntyre, D. (Eds.) Researching Teachers, Researching Schools, ResearchingNetworks. A Review of the literature, University of Cambridge ■ DfE (2015), National Standards of Excellence for Headteachers. ■ Nelson,Spence-Thomas and Taylor (2015): What makes great pedagogy and great professional development: final report. Teaching schools Researchand Development network national themes project 2012-14. Institute of Education. ■ OFSTED (2015), The Common Inspection Framework:Education Skills and Early Year.Alignment with school improvement prioritiesFurther consideration of manageability issues facingschool leaders has highlighted the importance ofaligning research foci with identified school andalliance-wide improvement priorities. A key solution toaddress this has been the establishment of a cross-phase,alliance-wide data and information sharing protocol.This protocol, signed by the alliance headteachers,enables the collation and collective analysis of pupilperformance data, Ofsted findings and ‘softer’ data,including consultation feedback from headteachers.This analysis informs both the planning of school toschool support and identifies priorities for joint practicedevelopment and teacher research. Such informationhas been critical in promoting alliance engagement inresearch activity, enabling schools to feel a tangiblealignment between individual school and wider allianceresearch and development priorities. In view of this, akey task for groups of schools/alliances is to considerhow sustainable capacity can be secured to ensure thecollation and timely analysis of information to informpriority setting for joint practice development andschool-based research.■■ Cohesive strategy for researchengagementReflection and evaluation of the necessary conditionsfor effective teacher research is an ongoing process.As recognised by Nelson, Spence-Thomas and Taylor(2015), trust is a critical prerequisite for collaborativeteacher research, enabling calculated risk-taking andexperimentation. Within such a supportive professionalculture, teachers are motivated and empowered topursue lines of enquiry relating to improvementpriorities and their own professional curiosities.At The Mead Primary School, we believe that supportinga professional culture of research is best be establishedthrough a cohesive strategy for research engagementunderpinned by key principles and elements as shown below.Above all, collaboration and partnership-working isshaping the nature and character of our research cultureas we seek to provide richer experiences and improvedoutcomes for children.■■ Professional learning task: Thecontribution of leadershipConsider the following questions withleaders across your group of schools/alliance to identify the next steps forstrengthening the leadership of research:■ How can the National Standards ofExcellence for Headteachers (2015) beused to raise the profile of research as a keysystem leadership responsibility?■ How can peer to peer support andchallenge strategies (e.g. HeadteacherChallenge Trio/ Quads) provide a vehiclefor raising the status of research as a corestrategy for school improvement?■ How can governor and trusteeparticipation in and understanding ofschool-based research be widened?"
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Professional Development

How to … establish a culture of teacher research and development

12 Sep 2016

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      string(6047) "Evidenced-based and research-informedThe Mead Community Primary School began developing the use of research informed practice more than seven years ago.  The original aim was twofold:to support staff to understand the nature and potential impact of engaging in research, and see themselves as practitioner researchersto ensure that all professional development activity was evidence based and research informed, developing a culture of research engagementThis article outlines how this approach was introduced and how, as the Academy Trust grew,  it  was developed and extended from one school to three schools across the whole Trust.  Critically this includes a focus on the conditions needed to establish a professional research culture and how this has become the foundation to a Trust-wide approach to professional learning and a core strategy for school improvement.Research informed practice is now fundamental to Trust development activity with all teachers and leaders actively research engaged.  During the past few years our approach has evolved from initial tentative steps to Learning Sets, research book clubs, Teacher Research Groups, Lesson Study, research projects with the Local Authority and the leadership of an Education Endowment Foundation randomised controlled project.  What we do is by no means a finished product.  It is work in progress, aiming to fully embed a research engaged approach throughout the Trust.Introducing the concept of research engagement  It was decided to use a Teacher Development day to explore the concept of research engagement more fully to staff The day was planned in order to support all staff to gain a better understanding of research in the context of their own roles.  Activities were designed carefully to consider the staff’s wide range of experiences and qualifications and explore research concepts in ways to promote lively discussion and professional dialogue, including how research is used in the context of daily life e.g. buying new shoes or a new computer.Activities such as these enabled facilitators to gain a deeper understanding of the skills and attributes staff already possessed.  It helped  staff to see that they are, and can be engaged in meaningful research activity, and that research is not an activity that belongs solely to ‘white coated boffins in laboratories and in unread impenetrable articles in esoteric journals.’ [i]As the training day continued colleagues were supported to understand that in stark contrast to this stereotype when schools and teachers are committed to research it can be “rooted in the day-to-day life of the classroom and the ongoing business of the school itself and its relationship with the community.”[ii]During the latter part of the training day the concept of Learning was introduced.  We defined a Learning Set as a collaborative group of teachers working together to undertake action research activity in a specific area, and explored   how they would form the basis of development in key school improvement priority areas.  Although the areas of focus were predetermined by school priorities, colleagues were able to choose which Learning Set to join.  It was vital to the development of a valued research culture that colleagues were able to follow their own interests and be motivated by the research focus. A framework for action research was given to colleagues in order to support their thinking and research development. The framework supported the process of developing a research question, capturing baseline date, research methods and data collection.  Colleagues were supported to develop research questions that were achievable, building on their own hunches that were integral to current classroom practice rather than additional to workload. During the course of the year the Learning Sets continued to meet regularly ensuring that the focus on enquiry-based practice was sustained so that disciplined innovation and collaborative enquiry were embedded and became the normal way of teaching and learning rather than the exception.[iii] The leadership team committed to allocating staff meetings, team meetings and further training days for Learning Set meetings to ensure that staff had dedicated time for this aspect of their work.[iv] The priority placed on this allocation of time supported the developing culture of research within the school and served to ensure additional workload for staff was minimised. Establishing a culture of research engagementDuring the initial cycle of Learning Set research activity, the focus of the leadership team began to shift from simply supporting the group’s ability to meet and progress, to considering how to make research approaches self-sustaining and impactful in the long term.  The Leadership team aimed to help colleagues to see how their own professional, pedagogical development and school development connected to research literature and evidence.  Leaders shared research summary documents, and supported colleagues to consider their findings and how this could impact on decision making and school priorities.  For example, aspects of the Education Endowment Foundation Teaching and Learning Toolkit were examined and discussed in relation to Learning Set foci.  In addition, well known researchers and educationalists were invited to work with school staff at further training days, for example Professor Steve Higgins and Pi Corbett. Teachers were now interacting with"
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Professional Development

How Our Primary Established A Meaningful Culture of Research

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Leadership

Teacher research engagement: what do we know and what can we learn?

20 Jun 2017

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      string(5923) "This can take the form of teacher research coordinators operating across and between schools and universities (McLaughlin & Black-Hawkins, 2006), or the role of “the ‘blended professionals’ who work across institutional boundaries (HEA, 2012). Such partnerships are not always smooth sailing because of the cultural differences between schools and universities.). However, much of the literature on successful research partnerships points to a common set of conditions which include “the importance of shared leadership, shared goals, development of social and intellectual skills needed for collaborative work, and adequate time” (Arhar et al, 2013). Perhaps one of the biggest challenges is how to foster and ultilise the potential of collaboration between schools. The educational landscape has changed dramatically to that which would have been unrecognisable at the turn of the century:  “The pattern of education in England is shifting. Schools that once were islands are becoming connected. Indeed, it is increasingly rare to find outstanding schools that do not have a web of links with other schools. Competition remains, but now co-exists with collaboration and the creation of formal alliances through federations and chains” (Matthews et al, 2011). Such an environment has been uniquely termed coopetition (Muijs and Rumyantseva, 2014). Many other countries will find this a familiar picture. Within this collaborative environment the imperative is to draw upon the expertise that resides within the self-improving school system, “to learn from each other, within and between schools, to tap into the professional expertise that lies latent in the system, and to learn from what works!” (Handscomb, 2012).  However, this is no easy task because the sharing of knowledge to bring about genuine “transfer” of practice from one setting to another has always been difficult and highly problematic (Hargreaves, 1998). It is here that professional development grounded in enquiry can make a significant contribution. For this to happen there needs to be a shift in perspective in both policy and practice which sees enquiry not just as a desirable add on but as a fundamental part of the how we develop educational professionals. When considering schools as ecosystems we need to envisage the forces of collaboration, enquiry and professional learning in dynamic interplay within an intimate relationship:  “For teacher development…to occur commitment to certain kinds of collaboration is centrally important. However, collaboration without reflection and enquiry is little more than working collegially. For collaboration to influence personal growth and development it has to be premised upon enquiry and sharing” (Harris, 2002).  There is much to do to explore what this would look like in practice within collaborative research settings and a range of initiatives have begun to do this (Brown, 2017; Stoll, 2015b). It will entail asking searching questions about not only what effective research engagement across an alliance looks like but also what does being part of an alliance bring to enhance the capacity of a school to be research engaged.  NOTES1. https://www.bera.ac.uk/project/close-to-practice-research-projectReferencesArhar, J., Niesz, T., Brossman, J., Koebly, S., O’Brien, K., Loe, D., and Black, F. (2013). Creating a Third Space in the context of a university-school partnership: supporting teacher action research and the research preparation of doctoral students. Educational Action Research, 21:2, 218-236. ■ Barber, M., and Mourshed, M. (2007). How the world’s best- performing school systems come out on top. New York: McKinsey & Company. ■ Biesta, G. (2007). Why What Works Won’t Work: Evidence Based Practice and the Democratic Deficit in Educational Research. Educational Theory 57(1): 1-22. ■ Bronfenbrenner, U. (1992). Ecological systems theory. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. ■ Brown, C .(2017). How to establish Research Learning Communities. Professional Development Today Volume 19, Issue 2. ■ Brown, C. (2015). Leading the use of research and evidence in schools. London: IOE press ■ Dimmock, C. (2014). Conceptualising the research–practice–professional development nexus: mobilising schools as ‘research-engaged’professional learning communities. Professional Development in Education.1-18. ■ Durrant, J. (2014). Children See Differently from Us’– a fresh perspective on school improvement. Professional Development Today Volume 16, Issue2. ■ Dyson, A. (2001). Building research capacity. Sub-group Report chaired by Alan Dyson.  National Education Research Forum. ■ Frost, D. (2000). Teacher-led school improvement. London: Routledge ■ Furlong, J. (2014). Research and the Teaching Profession: building capacity for a self-improving education system. Final report of the BERA-RSA Inquiry into the role of research in the teaching profession, BERA. ■ Godfrey, D. (2017). What is the proposed role of research evidence in England’s ‘self-improving’ school system? Oxford Review of Education, 43:4, 433-446 ■ Godfrey, D. (2016a). Leadership of schools as research-led organisations in the English educational environment Cultivating a research-engaged school culture. Educational Management Administration & Leadership 44(2): 301-321. ■ Godfrey, D. (2016b). Exploring Cultures of Research Engagement at Eight English Secondary Schools. PhD Thesis. Institute of Education. University College"
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Professional Development

Making research engagement part of the life force of the school

13 Feb 2019