School leaders' conceptions of research in English language centres
December 2006 - May 2008(Contact: Dr Simon Borg)
Funded By: The British Academy
Educational policy in the UK has in recent years been characterised by a drive to engage classroom practitioners both with and in educational research in the belief that such engagement constitutes a legitimate form of professional development having the potential to enhance the quality of educational provision in schools. In this context, a key research finding has been that teacher research engagement may be significantly influenced by the nature of the institutions they work in and particularly by the attitudes towards research held by school leaders (e.g. Barker, 2005). The purpose of this study is thus to undertake a survey of the conceptions of research engagement held by school leaders in the field of English language teaching (ELT) in the UK. This sector comprises some 400 accredited centres catering for over half a million learners annually; there has been no empirical work of this kind, though, and our understandings of whether teacher research engagement is a feasible strategy for teacher professional development and school improvement in ELT is limited.
The research questions are:
a.What are the conceptions of research held by school leaders in accredited ELT centres in the UK?
b.What is the extent and nature of school leaders’ own reported research engagement?
c.To what extent do school leaders feel that their institutions are research-engaged?
d.To what extent do school leaders see research engagement as a desirable goal for their teachers and institutions?
e.What factors, institutional and personal to teachers, do school leaders feel support or hinder teacher research engagement?
f.What do the answers to these questions suggest, substantively and methodologically, for continuing analyses of research engagement in ELT centres in the UK?
This project last updated by Simon Borg on 7th November 2006.