Insightful teaching – what role is there for research co-creation as professional development?

This workshop will initially highlight how a design-based implementation approach to the co-creation of research between schools and university researchers has equipped schools with levers of change in the face of the requirement for a developed curriculum intent not just content. We highlight the potential tension between finding an approach to curriculum design that best fits the needs and experiences of individual students and teachers and implementing the findings of generalised evidence-based research.

We will discuss the process and impact of establishing a research-led co-creation partnership designed to transform curriculum practice and policy whilst maintaining teachers’ agency within a whole school approach to curriculum transformation. Drawing on our findings we argue that “best practice” for researcher- participant relationship is one where the research actively involves the participants, as a community, rather than the research being “done on” them.
We describe and discuss the practices that enabled participating teachers to develop their epistemic agency so that they were co-creators of research within a whole school approach, and attendees will be invited to explore how similar approaches could be adopted within their own setting.

Existing practitioner literature highlights the benefits of research engagement in individual schools and the importance of access to mentoring and research expertise (see Sharp et al., 2006) alongside similar guidance for the role the researcher should take in offering a ‘guiding light’ (Sanders et al., 2006). A decade later Nelson and Sharples (2017) highlight that evidence-informed practice is often divided between desk based “research” by teachers as separate from “academic research” conducted by ‘universities or professional research organisations’ (Nelson and Sharples, 2017) a model which emphasises the teachers’ role as a consumer rather than creator of rigorous research (echoed in Dimmock, 2016). We hope to show how this model of teachers (only) as consumers is outdated and a richer educational research conversation can be created in partnership.

Dimmock, C., 2016. Conceptualising the research–practice–professional development nexus: mobilising schools as ‘research-engaged’ professional learning communities. Professional Development in Education 42, 36–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2014.963884
Godfrey, D., 2016. Leadership of schools as research-led organisations in the English educational environment: Cultivating a research-engaged school culture. Educational Management Administration & Leadership 44, 301–321. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143213508294
McAleavy, T., 2015. Teaching as a research-engaged profession: problems and possibilities. Education Development Trust.
Nelson, J., Sharples, J.M., 2017. How research-engaged are you? Impact: Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching.
Sanders, D., Sharp, C., Eames, A., Tomlinson, K., 2006. Supporting research-engaged schools: a researcher’s role. NFER.
Sharp, C., Eames, A., Sanders, D., Kathryn, T., 2006. Leading a Research Engaged School. National College for School Leadership, Nottingham.