Education Research Director 2021
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Learning and Leadership
Abstract
Through the ESRC 2019 deliver plan, the ESRC will invest in a programme of funded research in education, designed to build interdisciplinary research capacity and enhance outcomes from education through a focus on i) teachers, their training, supply and retention and ii) the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning. The programme of activities outlined here as part of the role of Education Research Director is intended to ensure that research projects awarded through this funding stream have maximum reach, and can take into account the different research, policy and practice ecosystems that support education functioning in the four home nations of the UK. These are subtly different in the terms in which they understand teacher professionalism, the governance arrangements they employ and the opportunities they create for policymakers, practitioners and researchers to interact, and finally, the depth and connectivity of the research communities they can call on to produce and disseminate relevant research evidence to those parties who need it.
By placing understanding of those differences at the heart of the research programme, this proposal is intended to help more clearly define strategic goals for education research built in and through different kinds of working partnerships, and enhance knowledge flows between the fields of research, policy and practice. This will be achieved by finding ways of engaging stakeholders and project teams in reflecting on core topics that speak to their different interests and experience, and using those discussions to more fully elaborate the theories of change that underpin current approaches to research diffusion, identifying where they could be strengthened.
By placing understanding of those differences at the heart of the research programme, this proposal is intended to help more clearly define strategic goals for education research built in and through different kinds of working partnerships, and enhance knowledge flows between the fields of research, policy and practice. This will be achieved by finding ways of engaging stakeholders and project teams in reflecting on core topics that speak to their different interests and experience, and using those discussions to more fully elaborate the theories of change that underpin current approaches to research diffusion, identifying where they could be strengthened.
Organisations
- University College London (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Glasgow (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Collaboration)
- University of the West of England (Collaboration)
- DURHAM UNIVERSITY (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM (Collaboration)
- MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY (Collaboration)
- University of York (Collaboration)
- University of East Anglia (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON (Collaboration)
People |
ORCID iD |
| Gemma Moss (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Gemma Moss
(2023)
Looking at teacher recruitment and retention in a new light
Lindsey Macmillan
(2024)
Rising school absence: what do we know and what can we do?
| Description | The work of the programme since the award began is demonstrating important differences in how the education policy landscape in the 4 nations of the UK are structured and governed in ways that impact significantly on interactions between policy, practice and research communities. In England the strong commitment to a linear "disseminate to" policy logic, the narrow filter on the types of research disseminated to the field from the education "what works centre" Education Endowment Foundation, and the tight focus it places on restricting measurement of impacts to attainment, significantly distort the role of professional judgement in informing policy and practice and leave little space for meaningful feedback from practice to research. This inhibits meaningful collaboration - a difficulty that is heightened when coupled with the high stakes penalties for schools that come from Ofsted judgements. The other nations of the UK prefer to build much more collaborative partnerships between research policy and practice. It remains an open question at what scale partnerships between research, policy and practice are best built and the necessary stability and duration in infrastructure and funding arrangements to get the best from them. |
| Exploitation Route | The project will develop and trial frameworks for partnership working including the conditions that might make them viable in different circumstances, and the topics they can most usefully address |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Education Government Democracy and Justice |
| Description | The emerging findings are helping build the work of the 9 projects operating in the Programme envelope. They are also informing ongoing work the Director is involved with in the DAEP programme, as part of the ARI engagement strategy, and as part of a BERA expert panel inquiry in research funding |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Education |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal Economic Policy & public services |
| Description | ESRC Education Research Programme |
| Organisation | Durham University |
| Department | School of Education |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | In my role as Education Research Programme Director, and with my research team, we are collaborating with the nine PIs and their project teams to maximise impacts from the research programme. We are encouraging them to form a community of practice, and learn from each other over the length of the programme. We are supporting them as they knowledge build about the programmes key themes, and about partnership working through the partnerships they have formed to take their own work forward. These projects are based in different universities across England, Wales and Scotland and in this sense, and through the ways we are working with them, we are forming a partnership of equals for the duration of the programme. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners are conducting the primary research in the key areas the programme funded, and, by sharing insights, helping theorise the potential challenges and benefit of partnership working in education, and the necessary conditions for such partnerships to thrive. |
| Impact | Too early in the research cycle |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | ESRC Education Research Programme |
| Organisation | Manchester Metropolitan University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | In my role as Education Research Programme Director, and with my research team, we are collaborating with the nine PIs and their project teams to maximise impacts from the research programme. We are encouraging them to form a community of practice, and learn from each other over the length of the programme. We are supporting them as they knowledge build about the programmes key themes, and about partnership working through the partnerships they have formed to take their own work forward. These projects are based in different universities across England, Wales and Scotland and in this sense, and through the ways we are working with them, we are forming a partnership of equals for the duration of the programme. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners are conducting the primary research in the key areas the programme funded, and, by sharing insights, helping theorise the potential challenges and benefit of partnership working in education, and the necessary conditions for such partnerships to thrive. |
| Impact | Too early in the research cycle |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | ESRC Education Research Programme |
| Organisation | University of East Anglia |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | In my role as Education Research Programme Director, and with my research team, we are collaborating with the nine PIs and their project teams to maximise impacts from the research programme. We are encouraging them to form a community of practice, and learn from each other over the length of the programme. We are supporting them as they knowledge build about the programmes key themes, and about partnership working through the partnerships they have formed to take their own work forward. These projects are based in different universities across England, Wales and Scotland. Through the ways we are working with them, we are forming a partnership of equals for the duration of the programme |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners are conducting the primary research in the key areas the programme funded, and, by sharing insights, helping theorise the potential challenges and benefit of partnership working in education, and the necessary conditions for such partnerships to thrive. |
| Impact | Too early in the research cycle |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | ESRC Education Research Programme |
| Organisation | University of Glasgow |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I and my research team are partnering with the 9 research projects awarded by ESRC through peer review. The projects are based in different universities across England, Wales and Scotland. In order to maximise the impact of the research programme as a whole, we will build a community of practice reflecting on the commonalities and differences in the research undertaken on the two programme themes, and knowledge building through this process on the challenges and benefits of researchers in education working in partnership with other stakeholders. This includes knowledge building on the necessary conditions that enable the benefits of partnership working to be realised. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners are conducting the primary research in the key areas the programme funded, and, by sharing insights, helping theorise the potential challenges and benefit of partnership working in education, and the necessary conditions for such partnerships to thrive. |
| Impact | No outputs as yet. Too early in the research cycle |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | ESRC Education Research Programme |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Department | School of Education Nottingham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I and my research team are partnering with the 9 research projects awarded by ESRC through peer review. The projects are based in different universities across England, Wales and Scotland. In order to maximise the impact of the research programme as a whole, we are building a community of practice reflecting on the commonalities and differences in the research undertaken on the two programme themes, and knowledge building through the research programme on the challenges and benefits of researchers in education working in partnership with other stakeholders. This includes knowledge building on the necessary conditions that enable the benefits of partnership working to be realised. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners are conducting the primary research in the key areas the programme funded, and, by sharing insights, helping theorise the potential challenges and benefit of partnership working in education, and the necessary conditions for such partnerships to thrive. |
| Impact | too early in the research cycle |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | ESRC Education Research Programme |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Department | Department of Education |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | In my role as Education Research Programme Director, and with my research team, we are collaborating with the nine PIs and their project teams to maximise impacts from the research programme. We are encouraging them to form a community of practice, and learn from each other over the length of the programme. We are supporting them as they knowledge build about the programmes key themes, and about partnership working through the partnerships they have formed to take their own work forward. These projects are based in different universities across England, Wales and Scotland and in this sense, and through the ways we are working with them, we are forming a partnership of equals for the duration of the programme. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners are conducting the primary research in the key areas the programme funded, and, by sharing insights, helping theorise the potential challenges and benefit of partnership working in education, and the necessary conditions for such partnerships to thrive. |
| Impact | Too early in the research cycle |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | ESRC Education Research Programme |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Department | Department of Education |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | In my role as Education Research Programme Director, and with my research team, we are collaborating with the nine PIs and their project teams to maximise impacts from the research programme. We are encouraging them to form a community of practice, and learn from each other over the length of the programme. We are supporting them as they knowledge build about the programmes key themes, and about partnership working through the partnerships they have formed to take their own work forward. These projects are based in different universities across England, Wales and Scotland and in this sense, and through the ways we are working with them, we are forming a partnership of equals for the duration of the programme. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners are conducting the primary research in the key areas the programme funded, and, by sharing insights, helping theorise the potential challenges and benefit of partnership working in education, and the necessary conditions for such partnerships to thrive. |
| Impact | Too early in the research cycle |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | ESRC Education Research Programme |
| Organisation | University of Southampton |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | In my role as Education Research Programme Director, and with my research team, we are collaborating with the nine PIs and their project teams to maximise impacts from the research programme. We are encouraging them too form a community of practice, and learn from each other over the length of the programme. We are supporting them as they knowledge build about the programme's key themes, and about partnership working through the partnerships they have formed to take their own work forward. These projects are based in different universities across England, Wales and Scotland and in this sense, and through the ways we are working with them, we are forming a partnership of equals for the duration of the programme. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners are conducting the primary research in the key areas the programme funded, and, by sharing insights, helping theorise the potential challenges and benefit of partnership working in education, and the necessary conditions for such partnerships to thrive. |
| Impact | No, too early in the research cycle |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | ESRC Education Research Programme |
| Organisation | University of York |
| Department | Department of Education |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I and my research team are partnering with the research projects awarded by ESRC in order to maximise the impact of the research programme as a whole and in order to build a community of practice reflecting on the commonalities and their differences in their research on the two programme themes, and to knowledge build through this process on the challenges and benefits of working in partnership with other stakeholders in education research. This includes knowledge building on the necessary conditions that enable the benefits of partnership working to be realised |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners are conducting primary research on the key themes, sharing insights with other research teams and comparing challenges and strategies they employ to overcome them |
| Impact | Too early in the research cycle |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | ESRC Education Research Programme |
| Organisation | University of the West of England |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I and my research team are partnering with the 9 research projects awarded by ESRC through peer review. The projects are based in different universities across England, Wales and Scotland. In order to maximise the impact of the research programme as a whole, we are building a community of practice reflecting on the commonalities and differences in the research undertaken on the two programme themes, and knowledge building through this process on the challenges and benefits of researchers in education working in partnership with other stakeholders. This includes knowledge building on the necessary conditions that enable the benefits of partnership working to be realised. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners are conducting the primary research in the key areas the programme funded, and, by sharing insights, helping theorise the potential challenges and benefit of partnership working in education, and the necessary conditions for such partnerships to thrive. |
| Impact | Too early in the research cycle |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | BERA conference symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A symposium consisting of three papers presented at BERA Conference 2023 Symposium title: Bridging the boundaries between research policy and practice: new questions and different answers from the ESRC Education Research Programme Papers: Education research after COVID (Moss, G. and Bradbury, A.); Research partnerships in education (France, R.); Mapping education research, policy and practice in the four nations of the United Kingdom (Yorke, L) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Blog post for the researcher community, policymakers and practitioners, reflecting on lessons from the pandemic |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Blog post on the IPPO website, reflecting on why and how prevailing models used to regulate the interactions between research, policy and practice in education were found wanting during the pandemic and a call for them to change. Policy mandates stressed that maintaining curriculum delivery, its timings and precise sequences, under these new conditions was the only way of avoiding irreparable harm to children's futures. This created a moral panic over the likely effects of "learning lost". But by focusing on learning lost as the difference between time spent in school under normal conditions and tasks undertaken at home as reported by parents, and extrapolating from there, the research community overestimated what had gone missing and underestimated the capacity of schools and parents to maintain and extend learning opportunities in new ways. Our research put communities' lived experience first and made a very different assessment of losses and gains during the pandemic. The insights from the research have fed into the ESRC Education Research Programme and its emphasis on partnership working. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://covidandsociety.com/education-learn-relationships-research-policy-practice-change-covid-19/ |
| Description | Presentation and discussion of our main research finding at the Lambeth Governors' Forum event - November 10th 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | A london-based LA Governors invited us to present our research findings to them. Their invitation asked us to "come and talk to our governors next term about what we have learned from the covid lockdown, in terms of teaching and learning approaches. We hear that teachers are now doing some things better as a result of recent experiences, and it would be really interesting for us to hear about this." We spent over an hour with them presenting for 20 mins followed by a Q&A session. They commented in a post event email: "We'd be very interested in governors' involvement in further research in education. In particular, I was much struck by the need to get good quality research results into policy formation. I think this is an area where governors feel very helpless and frustrated". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |