The impact of being research-engaged; how do teachers involved in research believe it has impacted upon their professional development, practice and sense of identity?

Introduction Currently within education teachers are becoming more engaged with educational research, and are highly encouraged to participate in their own research projects, with ‘pockets of excellent practice across the UK’ (BERA, 2014:8) , although good practice is currently considered to be ‘inconsistent and insufficiently shared’. (BERA, 2014:8). How have these changes impacted on the professional thinking, practice and sense of identity of educational professionals? Two strands to the research: The first explores the impact of direct involvement in research by examining participant’s claims about the influence of previous and ongoing research within the Deanery network. The second examines the influence of an ongoing current intervention, considering the ways in which engagement in a research-based book club is reported to have impacted on the professional thinking and practice of the staff involved.

Context There has been a view amongst educational bodies and professionals for many years that teachers should be involved in educational research, although the level of involvement suggested is contentious. In recent years we have definitely seen a push for schools to ensure that research is embedded into academic practice. Recent BERA-RSA inquiry launched with the purpose of answering the question ‘“Does research really improve the quality of the teaching profession and beyond that the quality of students’ learning experience?”’ (BERA, 2014:3). BERA identified four ways in which they believe research contributes to teacher education, two of which I will focus on: Teachers and teacher educators can be equipped to engage with and be discerning consumers of research. Teachers and teacher educators may be equipped to conduct their own research, individually and collectively, to investigate the impact of particular interventions or to explore the positive and negative effects of educational practice. (BERA, 2014:5) (Cochran-Smith & Lytle (1998:19) identify a number of critiques, e.g. are methods used in teacher-led research robust, is there bias, sample size is too small, therefore research is not systematic and/or generalisable.)

Book Clubs Educational professionals have been making the case for book clubs for a long time - for professional development, for support and community, and even as a modelling exercise to encourage pupils to read. Some research indicates that the reading done by teachers is rare and often focused on strategies rather than research (Cogan, 1975, cited in Mour 1977: 398). Anecdotally, the book club that will be analysed for this research seemed to fit this pattern; staff seemed keen to find strategies that would work in their classrooms, with specific subsets of students or in particular circumstances. (Burbank e.t al, 2010). Kooy (2006) suggests that ‘novice teachers—in the company of other teachers—find support and encouragement for creating and transforming their knowledge’; I would argue that even experienced teachers could develop a sense of community this way.They may even be used simply in order to encourage teachers to read in order to model this for the children they teach (Mour 1977:397). Mour suggested that in order to allow teachers sufficient time to read appropriately, schools should provide ‘professional libraries’ and even ‘“reading days”’ for staff.(1977:400)

Research Questions: How does engagement with research influence classroom practice? What impact can engagement with research have on professional development? Does engagement with research affect teachers’ sense of professional identity, and if so, how?

Findings So Far... Classroom practice: Teachers who had done a Masters or Action Research Project reported higher levels of confidence in their teaching, and a feeling that their practice was grounded in solid evidence. They were less likely to try initiatives without looking for evidence first. Book Club participants found that they were more willing to try new things and thought more about implementing strategies they had read about.

Findings So Far... Professional Development: Teachers have found that having a Masters does ‘open doors’ for them - one interviewee referred to it as being a ‘sweet spot’ (i.e. most, if not all teachers have PGCE but PhD is deemed ‘too academic’ and takes you out of the classroom too much. Engagement with research through a book club wasn’t seen as having any impact on career progression but was considered valuable CPD.

Findings So Far... Sense of Identity: Teachers did not seem to want to call themselves researchers! There was a solid feeling that while their teaching was underpinned by research, they were fundamentally teachers - just teachers with evidence-based practice. Researchers were seen as those who carried out large-scale systematic studies. Teachers involved in the Book Club were inspired to read more research literature and wanted to engage with further discussion.

References BERA. (2014). Research and The Teaching Profession: Building the capacity for a self-improving education system. Final report of the BERA-RSA inquiry into the role of research in teacher education [online] Available at: https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BERA-RSA-Research-Teaching-Profession-FULL-REPORT-for-web.pdf [Last accessed 10/06/2017] Burbank, M. Kauchak, D & Bates, A (2010) Book Clubs as Professional Development Opportunities for Preservice Teacher Candidates and Practicing Teachers: An Exploratory Study, The New Educator, 6:1, 56-73, Cochran-Smith, M. & Lytle, S L. (1998) The Teacher Researcher Movement: A Decade Later. Educational Researcher. 28 (7), 15-25 CUREC (2016) Informed Consent [online] Available at: https://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/curec/resources/informed-consent/ [Last accessed 10/06/2017] Kooy, M. (2006) The telling stories of novice teachers: Constructing teacher knowledge in book clubs Teaching and Teacher Education 22 661–674 Mour, S. (1977) Do Teachers Read? The Reading Teacher 30(4) 397-401 Wilkinson, D. and Birmingham P. (2003) Using Research Instruments: A Guide for Researchers. London: RoutledgeFalmer Fig 1: Pixabay (2014) [online] Available at: https://pixabay.com/en/teaching-board-writing-hand-311348/ [Last accessed 19/06/2017) Fig 2: Jarret, K. (2012) What expectations do you have for professional development? Edcamp Philly 2012 Survey [online] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjarrett/7070563247 [Last accessed 19/06/2017] Fig 3: Pixabay (2016) [online] Available at: https://pixabay.com/en/deep-thought-mind-question-1296377/ [Last accessed 19/06/2017]