A guide to teachers’ engagement with research

Connecting with research can be inspiring and empowering. It can help you think about ‘What might work’, ‘What’s going on?’, ‘Why am I doing this?’ and to consider ‘What if?’, ‘What else? and ‘What could be…?’

Nowadays it is becoming easier than ever for teachers to access research. Research summaries are freely available online and you can follow with researchers and research organisations all over the world using social media. Research is produced by academics, by teachers, by schools, by charities and other organisations, and by combinations of these. Many people and organisations promote connections between research and teaching.

But with so much information available and so little time, engaging with research can also be confusing and frustrating.

How to find sources that will be useful, interesting and inspiring? How to judge what is worth investigating? How to make sense of research?

This resource provides starting points for navigating the maze of sources available and making sense of research.

Some suggestions for how you can use the resources, either separately or together, to engage with research

A brief summary of our research project findings that resulted in these resources

An introduction to the resource co-production process, motivations, and the team of teachers and researchers

An overview of the ideas about teaching and research that inform these resources

The people whose inspiration, contribution and feedback helped us put together the resources

Some links to follow for more information about our project Research Mobilities in Primary Literacy Education