Levels Of Reported Research Engagement

By Author: jocelyn
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At best, the results here point to moderate levels of engagement, both in terms of reading (with over 67 per cent of the teachers saying they did this at least sometimes) and doing research (the equivalent figure here being over 54 per cent). As I discussed earlier, though, these figures must be interpreted cautiously given the varying ways in which 'often' and 'sometimes' were Merrell Boot interpreted by teachers ('sometimes', in particular, seemed to be a euphemism for 'rarely'). Also, more insight is required into the kinds of activities teachers engage in when they say they are reading and doing research. In terms of reading, teachers cited a range of sources they consulted from academic journals to practical newsletters; it is likely (and there is some limited evidence in the interviews of this) that material considered to be research in some of these outlets is not (i.e. articles which suggest practical teaching ideas but which are not the outcome of empirical activity). In terms of doing research, I asked teachers in the written follow-up about this and ...
... the examples provided suggested a varied range of activities from giving a presentation at an international conference on 'How to teach C.S. Lewis as literature in Higher Education' to investigations of language learning using tests and questionnaires and employing statistical analyses. One teacher who said she did research 'sometimes' and who I asked for an example said 'I haven't done "real" research as it involves an incredible amount of work and presentation at the end'; what she had done was to contribute to research by providing data 'for someone's thesis'. Interestingly, then, while teachers would benefit from more inclusive understandings of what research can entail, at the same time a greater awareness of key characteristics of research would enable teachers to avoid overly broad views of what research involves by distinguishing between professional development activities generally and that sub-group of such activities which can legitimately be called research.

In explaining why Merrell Sandal they do research teachers cited motives which were primarily personal, pedagogical, and professional, with much less emphasis on external drivers such as promotion and employer pressure. At the same time, though, over 40 per cent of the teachers doing research said it was part of a course they were studying on. This raises questions about the role which external pressures, such as course requirements, can play, in promoting research engagement more widely among teachers. If teachers commonly report that they do not does research because time and support are lacking, then a formal course of study may provide a way forward here, by providing a supportive and structured route for teachers to do research? Support for this view is seen in Borg (2006a), which is based on the dissertations conducted on an in-service BA TESOL program in Oman, and Phipps (2006), which reports papers based on MA projects done in Turkey. In both cases, without the formal requirements driving the teachers, the research would not have been completed and published [Watkins (2006) also found that formal study was for many teachers an important starting point for doing research]. Thus, although the notion of teachers autonomously designing, conducting, and sharing research projects is appealing, the lack of structure, support, and external pressure that such a situation may involve can at the same time hinder the completion of a good-quality piece of research.

This study has also identified a number of reasons why teachers said they do not read and do research. A lack of knowledge was an important factor; Atay (2008) refers to teachers' concerns about their lack of knowledge about research at the start of a research-oriented in-service course, while Henson (1996) suggests that teachers' perceived lack of knowledge about research means they have limited confidence in their ability to do research. Foster (1999: 395), in his analysis of teacher research projects funded by the Teacher Training Agency in the UK, also concludes that, due at least partly to limitations in knowledge about doing research, 'even teachers who are highly motivated find it difficult to produce high quality research'. It was, though, a lack of time which emerged as the major reason for teachers' limited research engagement (it was cited by almost 82 per cent of those teachers who said they do not do research).