Teachers’ orientations to educational research and data in England and Australia: implications for teacher professionalism

ABSTRACT

Teachers’ engagement with and understanding of educational research and data is an increasing concern for policy-makers around the globe. With unprecedented access to, and new forms of, ‘data’ in schools, concerns for its ‘best practice’ use in classroom decision-making have come to the fore. In academic spaces, these developments have also been of concern due to what such pushes for ‘evidence-based practice’ may elide in terms of teacher knowledge and professionalism. In this article, we present findings from two national contexts, England and Australia, in order to explore how teachers understand themselves and their work in relation to educational data and research. We find that, despite highly engaged samples across contexts who place considerable importance on such research and data, respondents do not report an equal sense of capacity across the various forms which they may take. Particular limitations are identified in relation to action research. We argue that these results have consequences for the development of a ‘mature’ profession that goes beyond performative forms of professionalism and towards those of a ‘research-rich’ culture of trust.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher professionalism
• teacher research
• data

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to Dr Lisa-Maria Müller and the Chartered College of Teaching for working with us on the survey in England.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In Australia, ‘public’ or ‘government’ schools are those run by state and territory governments. ‘Private’ or ‘non-government’ schools are not and, while still subject to particular curricular and teacher accreditation requirements, have distinct freedoms in relation to the charging of fees and the selective admission of students, as well as often having religious affiliations. We note this is different to ‘public’ schools in England, which in many ways bear greater resemblance to ‘private’ schools in Australia.

2. www.chartered.college

3. The English school year is typically divided into three terms, September – December, January – Easter and Easter – July.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research, UCL Institute of Education; Sydney Research Accelerator (SOAR) Fellowship, 2018-2019, University of Sydney.

Notes on contributors

Martin Mills

Martin Mills is the Director of the Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research, UCL Institute of Education (IOE). Martin's research interests include the sociology of education, social justice in education, alternative schooling, gender and education, school reform and new pedagogies.

Nicole Mockler

Nicole Mockler is an Associate Professor in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on education policy and politics, particularly as they relate to teachers’ work.

Meghan Stacey

Meghan Stacey is a lecturer in the sociology of education and education policy in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales. A former high school teacher, she takes a particular interest in education policy, teachers, and the operation of dis/advantage within systems of schooling.

Becky Taylor

Becky Taylor is Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research at UCL Institute of Education, where she leads on the Teaching strand of the Centre’s work. She is interested in the relationship between research, policy and practice in schools, with a social justice perspective.