Is educational research(ing) a profession? Examining issues of professional status and developmentalism Linda Evans, School of Education, University of Leeds

The impetus Questionable quality of educational research Interest in the sociology of the professions  professionalism  professionality Donald McIntyre (1996 BERA presidential address):  ‘How helpful and how necessary is it for at least some of us to see ourselves as professional educational researchers?’

Professionalism, professionality and professions: concepts and substance What defines a profession? McIntyre: professionalism:  expertise  extensive knowledge  creative intelligence  a degree of perfectionism Professionalism as occupational/social control Professionalism as a service level agreement Professionalism incorporates homogeneity

My interpretation of professionalism Homogeneity is elusive  underpinned by the diversity of individuality Professionalism is the ‘plural’ of individuals’ professionalities  professionality writ large Hoyle (1970s) distinguished between professionalism and professionality:  professionalism – status-related  professionality – relates to individual practitioners’ skills, knowledge, procedures, attitudes ‘extended’-‘restricted’ professionality continuum

‘Restricted’ and ‘Extended’ Professionals (adapted from Hoyle, 1975) ‘restricted’ professionals: adopt an intuitive approach to practice use skills derived from practical experience do not reflect on or analyse their practice are unintellectual in outlook and attitudes avoid change and are set in their ways ‘extended’ professionals: adopt a rational approach to practice use skills developed from both theory and practice are reflective and analytical practitioners adopt intellectual approaches to the job experiment with and welcome new ideas

My definitions Professionality is: an ideologically-, attitudinally-, intellectually-, and epistemologically-based stance on the part of an individual, in relation to the practice of the profession to which s/he belongs, and which influences her/his professional practice. Professionalism is: professionality-influenced practice that is consistent with commonly-held consensual delineations of a specific profession and that both contributes to and reflects perceptions of the profession’s purpose and status and the specific nature, range and levels of service provided by and expertise prevalent within the profession, as well as the ethical code underpinning it.

Key components of professionalism What practitioners do How they do it What they know and understand Where and how they acquire their knowledge and understanding What kinds of attitudes they hold What codes of behaviour they adhere to What purpose(s) they perform What quality of service they provide The level of consistency incorporated into the above

Key components of professionalism subjective professionalism functional component intellectual component attitudinal component procedural dimension productive dimension processual dimension evaluative dimension motivational dimension perceptional dimension epistemological dimension rationalistic dimension comprehensive dimension

The intellectual component of professionalism intellectual component epistemological dimension rationalistic dimension comprehensive dimension What is the basis of practitioners’ knowledge? To what extent do practitioners apply reason to decision making? What do practitioners know and understand? Common sense and experience? Research and/or scholarship? In which disciplines/subjects? What depth? What width? Contextual differences? Is practice underpinned by rationality, intuition or a mediation of the two? What does the professional knowledge base comprise? Are there specialist areas? Are there minimum (general) practitioner knowledge requirements?

The attitudinal component of professionalism attitudinal component evaluative dimension motivational dimension perceptual dimension How do practitioners evaluate things (issues, situations, people, activity, etc.)? How do they evaluate their own profession and its purpose? What is the basis of practitioners’ motivation? What factors influence motivation? How do practitioners perceive things (issues, situations, people, activity, etc.)? How do they perceive their own profession and its purpose? What values do practitioners hold? How widespread/consensual are these values? Are there any key/core values? How motivated are practitioners? What motivates them? What perceptions do practitioners hold? What perceptions do they not hold? How widespread/consensual are specific perceptions? Are there any key/core perceptions?

The functional component of professionalism functional component procedural dimension productive dimension processual dimension What procedures do practitioners apply to their practice? What hierarchical procedures operate within the workforce? What stratification exists within the workforce? What is the nature of practitioners’ output? How much do practitioners produce? (or ‘do’?) What (if any) productive yardsticks guide them? What processes do practitioners apply to their practice? practitioners’ modes of communicating and interacting? mode(s) of meeting contractual requirements? How are responsibility and authority distributed? What layers of practice exist? What do practitioners ‘do’ at work – their remit and responsibilities? Is the workload determined by the clock – set hours? Is workload determined by the task – in response to need? gathering data? examining? analysing? disseminating? writing/composing written material? learning? collegiality?

Is educational research(ing) a profession? On the basis of homogeneity – consistency of excellent practice and service – no, educational research is not a profession:  underpinned by a diversity reflecting individuals’ professionality orientations  quality of research produced is variable  much of it is low quality

The researcher located at the ‘restricted’ extreme of the professionality continuum typically: The researcher located at the ‘extended’ extreme of the professionality continuum typically: conducts research that lacks rigour;conducts highly rigorous research; draws upon basic research skills;draws upon basic and advanced research skills; fails to develop or extend her/his methodological competence; strives constantly to develop and extend her/his methodological competence; utilises only established research methods;adapts established research methods and develops methodology; fails to develop basic research findings;generates and develops theory from research findings; perceives research methods as tools and methodology as a task-directed, utilitarian process; perceives research methodology as a field of study in itself; applies low level analysis to research data;strives constantly to apply deep levels of analysis to research data; perceives individual research studies as independent and free-standing; recognises the value of, and utilises, comparative analysis, meta-analysis, synthesis, replication, etc.; perceives individual research studies as finite and complete;constantly reflects upon, and frequently revisits and refines, his/her own studies; struggles to criticise literature and others’ research effectively; has developed the skill of effective criticism and applies this to the formulation of his/her own arguments; publishes mainly in ‘lower grade’ academic journals and in professional journals/magazines; publishes frequently in ‘high ranking’ academic journals; is associated mainly with research findings that fall into the ‘tips for practitioners’ category of output. disseminates ground-breaking theoretical issues and contributes to, and takes a lead in developing, discourse on theory. ‘Extended’ and ‘Restricted’ Educational Researcher Professionality

Is educational research(ing) a profession? The concept of a profession is changing. the ‘professionalization of everyone’ (Williams) ‘Profession’ is no longer an exclusive label. Therefore, educational research(ing) may be considered a profession.

From professionalism to ‘developmentalism’ Developmentalism: a commitment to (self)-develop(ment)  professional development a new basis for evaluating occupations How developmentalist a culture is manifested? How developmentalist are individual practitioners? a new criterion for professional quality

Features of developmentalism Practitioners with strong developmentalist attitudes will typically: be analytical; be self-critical; manifest perfectionist tendencies; lie towards the ‘extended’ end of the professionality continuum.

Educational research(ing): a non-developmentalist ‘profession’? For the most part: no evident commitment to CPD compared with other professions:  social work  pharmacy  teaching  medicine ‘ostensible’ CPD no culture of developmentalism ‘riding a bicycle’ culture There are individual exceptions to this.