Andrew Pollard,

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The Recent Development of Educational Research
Capacity The case of the Teaching and Learning
Research Program (TLRP)

• Andrew Pollard,
• Director, TLRP

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Criticisms of educational research

• Relevance
• Irrelevance to practice in schools
• Very little on post-compulsory education
• Lack of involvement of potential users of the
  research
• Quality
• Theoretical incoherence across the field
• Insufficient use of quantitative evidence
• Research designs insufficiently systematic
• Studies too small to produce convincing answers
  to what works
• Impact
• Poor dissemination
• Weak cumulation of research findings

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• Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP)

• A programme - seen as a portfolio of
  competitively selected projects which address a
  particular, shared theme eg learning outcomes.
• Designed to
• intervene in the field to enhance research
  scale, relevance and quality.
• add value to the individual projects through
  coordination, and thus maximise impact.

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TLRPs overarching aim

• to lead to significant improvements in outcomes
  for learners at all ages and stages in all
  sectors and contexts of education and training,
  including informal learning settings, throughout
  the United Kingdom.

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TLRPs ambition
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Early issues

• Lack of trust between researchers and reformers
• Disempowering emphasis on research deficiencies
• Methodological and paradigmatic arguments
• Goals and values contested

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Strategies for coping with challenge and change

• Compliance
• Creative mediation
• Resistance

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Teaching and Learning Research Programme
Collaborative, reflexive activism to build the
social capital of educational research

• Affirming the moral purposes of educational
  research
• developing relationships and networks, sharing
  perspectives and building alliances
• working on politically engaged impact and
  dissemination strategies
• attempting strategic positioning on long term
  issues
• promoting collective, open and reflexive debate
  and action in respect of new challenges

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Main features of TLRP in 2008

• Very large (43m in ten rounds of funding, 100
  investments,
• 700 researchers, projects up to 1.5m each,
  often with large teams)
• HEFCE and RC funding ( all UK governments
  JISC)
• All sectors of education (pre-school to elderly
  learners)
• UK-wide (England, Wales, Scotland, N. Ireland)
• 2000 to 2008/9, and then to 2011/12
• Directors Team of five
• Capacity building (in partnership with BERA,
  SERA, AERS, SRHE, etc)

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Programme development through constructive
engagement

• Early user engagement
• Knowledge generation by project teams
• Knowledge synthesis by thematic work
• Knowledge transformation for impact
• Capacity building for professional development
• Partnerships for sustainability

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Capacity building for professional development

• Stage 1 Particular priorities
• design, conduct and management of quantitative
  studies
• enhancing their theoretical and conceptual bases
• combining quantitative and qualitative approaches
• utilisation of inter-disciplinary theories and
  methods
• transformation of research-based knowledge for
  practice

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Research Capacity Building Network (RCBN)
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Capacity building for professional development
Members of the Cardiff Capacity Building Team
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Capacity building for professional development

• Phase 2 Embedding capacity building in the
  social practices of researchers
• Project participation
• Capacity building conferences
• Meetings of Minds fellowships
• Career development support
• Developing online resources
• Developing networks in learned societies
• Linking with NCRM

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Capacity building for professional development
Members of the Strathclyde capacity building team
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Phase 2 liaison with ESRCs National Centre for
Research Methods and with BERA, HEA, UCET, etc
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Impact of TLRP on educational researchers
Mapping the Ripples Zoe Fowler and Richard
Proctor
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EXPANSIVE
RESTRICTIVE
Perceived sense of visibility and value to
research programme Explicit welcoming to the
programme Range of training provision
responsive to the needs and existing expertise
of the individual Opportunities for researcher
s professional development included in projects
funding and evaluation Sense of being part of
large community of people with shared commitments
and values
Perceived anonymity and dispensability to
research programme Lack of welcome or
introduction to programme Fixed training
provision one-size-fits-all Professional
development of research staff separate to project
outputs Atomisation across projects no sense
of larger community
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• I do feel that I learnt a lot through being part
  of TLRP and I wouldnt have missed it for
  anything. Its important that a research career
  offers spaces for people to actually grow by
  doing something for a prolonged period of time
  rather than feverishly generating proposals for
  15k at a time and trying to cobble together work
  ... through all the trials and tribulations of
  quite a stormy project, there was lots of healthy
  debate within the team. There was this sort of
  blanket comfort that you were secure for 3
  years.
• Contract Researcher

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• That was fantastic! I really, really enjoyed
  that... I was in with, how shall I word this?
  People that I wanted to be my peers, in a way. It
  was - everybody was singing from the same
  songsheet, although we were all doing different
  projects .... I just felt that there was so
  much knowledge and potential just in that
  conference that it really did buoy me up and make
  me think this is what I want to be doing!
• Practitioner Researcher

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EXPANSIVE
RESTRICTIVE
Limited exposure to multiple communities of
practice Hierarchical valuing of skills with
privileging of some team members Prioritisation
of project outputs over professional development
needs of individuals Limited access to
off-the-job training Abrupt ending to the
project with no further investment in research
staff.
Supported engagement with multiple communities of
practice Multidimensional model of expertise
with diverse skills of entire research team
valued Balance between project outputs and
researchers own professional development Access
and encouragement to attend off-the-job
training Ongoing commitment to researchers
futures beyond the completion of the project
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Co-authorship network diagram for project with
expansive publications policy
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Co-authorship network diagram for project with
restrictive publications policy
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Co-authorship network diagram for project with
atomised publicationspolicy
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Programme development

• Early user engagement
• Knowledge generation by project teams
• Knowledge synthesis by thematic work
• Knowledge transformation for impact
• Capacity building for professional development
• Partnerships for sustainability

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TLRP a collective adventure in constructive
engagement?
Generating and accumulating new
knowledge? Supporting the development of
capacity for educational research?

• Enjoying working together
• to improve educational outcomes?

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