Teachers’ engagement with published research: addressing the knowledge problem

^aThe research presented in this report was shortlisted and highly commended in the BCF-BERA Routledge Curriculum Journal Prize, 2014.

Abstract

Despite the increased interest in research impact, there is very little empirical evidence that educational research can inform practice directly, and furthermore, a body of literature which suggests that this is, in principle, impossible. This paper reports on a study in which secondary school teachers were given research findings about teaching gifted and talented students, and were supported, over a 12-month period, to incorporate findings into action research projects of their own devising. A theoretical framework from the research literature was used to investigate the process by which knowledge generated from research, was transformed into teachers’ pedagogical knowledge, thereby influencing the curriculum, pedagogy and provision for these students. Evidence suggests that teachers transformed propositional knowledge into practical knowledge by developing their conceptual understandings; they transformed abstract, impersonal knowledge into context-specific, personal knowledge by using cases from their previous experiences, and they transformed narrowly focused knowledge into broadly focused knowledge by imaginatively diffusing it into areas beyond those in the original research. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Keywords:

• knowledge
• educational research
• practitioner research
• secondary schools
• teacher learning

Note

Acknowledgements

The research reported here could not have been undertaken without the enthusiastic and committed participation of the teachers in the study and in particular the project's coordinator. Ethical conventions prohibit my naming the teachers but I am grateful to them.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^a The research presented in this report was shortlisted and highly commended in the BCF-BERA Routledge Curriculum Journal Prize, 2014.

1. Carlile (2004) distinguishes three types of knowledge mobilisation: transfer, translation and transformation. ‘Transformation is necessary when the actors (e.g. researchers and teachers) have different purposes and interests; it seems the most appropriate term for the changes, described here.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tim Cain

Tim Cain is a professor in education at Edge Hill University, England, where he directs the research centre for schools, colleges and teacher education. He is an editorial board member of the International Journal of Music Education and British Journal of Music Education. His research interests include teacher research and knowledge mobilisation and his work in this area has appeared in Croatian, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, and Slovene publications.