Educational research partnership: differences and tensions at the interface between the professional cultures of practitioners in schools and researchers in higher education

Abstract

This article is a contribution to an ongoing debate in the United Kingdom about the value and impact of educational research. Specifically it focuses upon educational research carried out by teachers in school when they work in a partnership relationship with university-based researchers from a School of Education. The occupational culture of each of these professional groups differs, and the likelihood within a partnership for difference to be magnified and for misunderstanding and tension to arise are manifold. In attempting to explain how educational research is viewed from the perspective of each other's occupational culture, the hope is that greater understanding will give rise to partnerships that prove fruitful for both teacher researchers in school and for professional researchers from Higher Education.

Teachers’ experiences of engagement with and in educational research: what can be learned from teachers’ views?

“…Ebbutt, Worrall, and Robson (2000), reporting on the SUPER schools, judged that only two of six had an established research culture and even in those two there were trenchant issues. In one school the hostility of the anti-research camp amongst the teachers precipitated the retirement of the deputy headteacher who had led the research for ten years.…”

Knowledge construction in a teachers' community of enquiry: a possible road map

“…This vision resulted from the emerging image of the professional teacher as one who thinks systematically about their practice in the context of educational research and the experience of others, working creatively towards change and collaboratively as a member of a learning community (Sachs, 1997;Dadds, 1998;Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999;Day, 1999;Ebbutt et al, 2000;Furlong, 2000;Lieberman & Miller, 2000). Influenced by organizational theorists, these authors endorsed an enquiryoriented stance to learning in school-college partnerships.…”

Developing and Maintaining Police-Researcher Partnerships to Facilitate Research Use

“…Other criminology scholars have commented on the limited impact of the discipline's work across various areas of the criminal justice system and related public policy (e.g., Austin 2003;Pratt 2008). More broadly, scholars working across the fields of medicine, public health, nursing, education, and organizational science have similarly highlighted this research-practice gap (Ebbutt et al 2000;Lomas 2000;Rynes et al 2001;Graham et al 2006;Zwarenstein and Reeves 2006;Lang et al 2007;Thompson et al 2007;Green et al 2009;Grishaw et al 2012). Thus, while the connection between the research community and law enforcement practitioners has unique dynamics, it is also likely that patterns exist in these relationships that reflect what is found in other disciplines.…”