Lost in research: educators’ attitudes towards research and professional development

ABSTRACT

The authors report on a study that examined how educators in Austria conceptualise research, how they engage with academic literature and what attitudes they have towards academic development. Growth mindsets, regular engagement with research in a variety of formats and inclusive understandings of research were defined as pre-conditions for teachers to benefit from engagement with research literature. A questionnaire survey was conducted among secondary- and tertiary-level teachers (N = 257), and the data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that educators in the sample tend to have broadly growth mindsets and invest time to read about research findings, especially through professional journals and online resources. Reasons that prevent some teachers from engaging with research were also noted. These include difficulties in accessing research, lack of time and scepticism, among some teachers, regarding the relevance of research output to their teaching. In addition, restrictive understandings of research which exclude practitioner-driven studies were also noted.

KEYWORDS:

• Professional development
• research
• mindsets

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Achilleas Kostoulas

Achilleas Kostoulas is a Visiting Research Scholar at the University of Manchester, where he conducts research on language education.

Sonja Babić

Sonja Babić is a PhD student at the University of Graz. She is also an EFL teacher who is teaching English to Chinese and Japanese learners.

Christiana Glettler

Christiana Glettler is a teacher for Science Didactics at the Catholic University College of Education. She is also a PhD student at the University of Graz.

Andrea Karner

Andrea Karner is a PhD student at the University of Graz and teaches at the Training Secondary School and the Institute of Practical Education and Action Research of the University College of Teacher Education Styria.

Sarah Mercer

Sarah Mercer is a Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, where she is head of ELT methodology and deputy head of the Centre for Teaching and Learning in Arts and Humanities.

Eva Seidl

Eva Seidl is a PhD student at the University of Graz, where she also teaches German as L1 and L2 at the Department for Translation Studies and at the Centre for Language, Plurilingualism and Didactics.