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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.
 
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 negative 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. The UCL research team is exploring different forms of partnership that can lead to policy, research and practice engaging in new ways, and looking to learn from other sectors where the public is given a greater voice.
Exploitation Route The UCL team 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. We are supporting the 9 projects at the heart of the programme in developing actionable insights that could be taken up by policymakers and/or practitioners in the particular policy setting that they are working in or hope to reach
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Education

Government

Democracy and Justice
URL https://www.ucl.ac.uk/education-research-programme/
 
Description The emerging findings are supporting the work of the 9 projects that are at the heart of the Programme and working on its two core themes in the different policy settings of the 4 nations and jurisdictions of the UK. 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 into research funding
First Year Of Impact 2023
Sector Education
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

Economic

Policy & public services
 
Description BERA Expert Panel on Educational Research Funding 
Organisation British Educational Research Association (BERA)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I have joined the BERA Expert Panel, bringing to their discussions insights gained from my role as ESRC Education Research Programme (ERP) Director and from the systematic reviews the UCL research team have conducted into the ways in which the interactions between research, policy and practice are changing. I have agreed to organise a roundtable for discussion of the findings with interested parties, using some of the programme resources.
Collaborator Contribution The Panel has created opportunities to interview key players in the English system who are fostering interactions between funders and researchers in the interests of improving practice in different ways. This has been helpful for the ERP, as has been the opportunity to discuss with other panel members the state of educational research funding right now and the future directions in which it might go
Impact I am involved in writing up the Panel Findings which in 2025 will be presented to BERA Council outlining ways forwards for the research community. I spoke at the BERA 50th Anniversary and AGM event on its progress alongside fellow panellists. https://www.bera.ac.uk/news/bera-celebrates-50-years-of-advancing-educational-research
Start Year 2024
 
Description DfE Data Access and Engagement Programme - Advisory Group 
Organisation Department for Education
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution I am a member of the Advisory group
Collaborator Contribution DfE are seeking to promote engagement with the ADR programme through this advisory group
Impact Ongoing
Start Year 2023
 
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 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 UCL (internal) Knowledge exchange roundtables on academic- policy engagement 
Organisation University College London
Department UCL Public Policy
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The UCL ERP team have overlapping interests in knowledge exchange with the UCL Public Policy Unit. We have collaborated on setting up a series of roundtables in which we bring together individuals in UCL with interests in finding better ways of engaging with policymakers, and can draw on diverse experiences in different disciplines and fields of doing so. Currently we are running a once a term roundtable. Our contribution has been to book the room, organise catering, and create a record of the discussion on a padlet site open to participants.
Collaborator Contribution The Public Policy staff bring expertise across a range of KE activities, and in organising professional development sessions to promote ways of engaging with policymakers. Their knowledge of who is undertaking this kind of work right the way across UCL has been invaluable in producing an audience with diverse experiences willing to share what they know. This is opening up new avenues of enquiry for the ERP
Impact This collaboration is in process rather than complete but should lead to the ERP having a much better sense of what other disciplines and other funders are doing to promote knowledge exchange in their disciplinary areas. Those attending come from health including, Policy Research Units funded by NIHR; from the social sciences and the arts, from engineering and architecture, so the conversation is very interdisciplinary. Attendees include those who have had parliamentary fellowships or been involved in Select Committee work in the UK; and those very involved in international development.
Start Year 2024
 
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 DfE Roundtable on Disadvantage - (Part of ARI) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This event was by invitation and designed to bring together a select group of research experts, analysts and policy practitioners to discuss the available evidence on disadvantage and to determine where further research is needed.  It included:
"Networking Opportunities: Connect with fellow experts and professionals committed to education research in this space.
Evidence Overview Session: A deep dive into current understanding of research and data on disadvantage.
Discussion on Key Research Priorities: A collaborative session aimed at identifying and prioritising research needs to inform policy and practice."
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
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