In the Research Conversations podcast series, researchers and teachers come together in conversation to collectively explore different aspects of engaging with literacy research. They draw on their diverse priorities, interests and concerns as they reflect on what their encounters with research are and reimagine what they could be.
You can listen to the episode or read the transcript below to consider their different perspectives when it comes to engaging with research.
“That very fine balance”: Shifting understandings of research credibility and criticality
In this episode, teacher Laura Heads and researcher Gill Adams discuss the shifting meanings and contexts of credibility when it comes to literacy research.
What researchers mean by research credibility may differ from the markers of credibility that matter to teachers. Different teacher priorities and pressures influence their understanding of credibility. Some may want research that provides answers to classroom problems; others may prefer research that questions their assumptions about children’s literacies. Finding the time to critically gauge the credibility of research can become difficult. All this makes considerations of credibility messy, contextual and complex. Much like literacy research itself, there are no easy answers, no one correct way of doing things. Critical conversations within professional communities can offer teachers valuable signposts, provide some space for reflection, and empower them to question research.
Listen to the episode here
Gill Adams (GA): Hi Laura.
Laura Heads (LH): Hi there, hi Gill. I am a teacher. I qualified in 2008 and way back when I took up a post as a Key Stage 2 teacher but I’ve got to say my interests predominantly lie in Early Years education. And up until 2015, I was a full-time teacher. But then I left to do a PhD at Northumbria University and that was exploring the topic of school readiness as inspired by my experiences in the Early Years.
And since completing my PhD in 2020, I was quite keen not to return just to a sort of five-days-a-week in a classroom role. So I actually teach across two different settings. I teach in a school nursery for two days, but I actually also teach as part of a PRU, so a pupil referral unit. And I work with children, secondary children, who are at risk of exclusion.
So quite an interesting role going between nursery children and teenagers and also having had experience like I say of carrying out a research project at Northumbria University. And I suppose my current roles kind of fit with some of the ethos of that PhD and the findings that came out of it.
So that’s me and that’s the context that I bring. I’ve had a couple of interactions with some of the researchers on this project in terms of some teacher panels. I’m currently on maternity leave so it’s nice just to get back into the project and have a conversation hopefully about what’s come about.
GA: That’s brilliant. Thanks so much, Laura. It’s lovely to meet you properly. And to hear a little bit about your background as well actually. Yeah, I mean, I think everybody’s experience is quite different, isn’t it?
LH: Yeah.
GA: Yes. But it sounds like yours … having done a PhD and then come back into those different education settings, that sounds quite rare and will give you quite different insights I think into research in education. And I’m fascinated by that kind of straddling either end of the age spectrum if you like. I mean I worked in a pupil referral unit as well many years ago.
LH: Oh! Did you?
GA: With secondary children who’d either opted out of school or being excluded from school. So I’d love to have a conversation just about that actually at some point. [laughs]
I’m Gill Adams and I’m a Reader in education at Sheffield Hallam University. And I’ve been focusing on this project on the work with teachers. There’ve been different strands to the Research Mobilities project, but I’ve really been focusing on teachers’ encounters with research – with primary literacy research – and thinking about the implications of that for teachers’ learning.
And my research prior to this project really focused on teacher professional learning more broadly. I was a secondary mathematics teacher, following on from the work with the pupil referral unit for many years, and then a consultant. And then I did my own doctorate and was a teacher educator for a long time. So mainly I’m focused on research at the moment.
LH: Yeah.
GA: So this project’s been great, getting back to talking to teachers about their encounters with literacy research.
LH: Yeah.
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GA: One of the things that came up an awful lot with the teachers was this question about credibility of research and how teachers judged credibility and how that influenced their engagement with it. So I’d be really interested to hear some of your reflections on that. And I’m guessing you might have different perspectives depending on which hat you’re wearing at any time.
LH: Certainly going back into the classroom after having completed a PhD is really interesting because … there you are, full throttle, engaging with research on a full-time basis as part of your PhD and you know, questions of credibility come up all the time and you start to cast a much more critical eye, I guess, over research compared to when I started my PhD, absolutely.
But it’s interesting then going back into the classroom, as I’m guessing this might be a theme as well, it’s a question of time and having the time to be critical and even engaging research in the first place without it being dilute. So I suppose you might find you come across some research that’s been published in a blog or on Twitter. But then I guess as part of my PhD, it would be tracing that back and looking at where did that all come from and what’s the credibility of that? Is anybody invested in this financially? Are people trying to sell me something? I mean that’s what you question as a teacher. Where has this research come from? What’s it trying to do to persuade me XY and Z? But I guess it’s harder when you get back into the classroom to have the time sometimes to really trace back those steps and think you know, how trustworthy is this; really sort of picking apart the research methods in a way that I did as a researcher.
GA: Yeah, I was thinking that as well actually because I was thinking, well, what do we mean by credibility of research for a start. How does it differ for different people? And exactly, you’ve illustrated that as a researcher and as a teacher how that shifts. Your resources are different for a start, aren’t they? So time being one of those.
I was looking at some research this morning and searching through our library gateway and through journals and databases. And that’s very different to the kinds of research that the teachers were saying was often reaching them, which was exactly as you were saying actually, by social media very often or a blog or an email that sent a link to some of those things or through a trusted colleague perhaps. So I think it is really interesting to think about how that shifts, I suppose. And where the credibility is and is it an enduring quality of research? Can it be an enduring quality or does it depend on who’s looking, who’s thinking about it, where they are, what the circumstances are around it.
LH: My research was very much about challenging people’s assumptions and I suppose it depends what you want the research for. I guess I sometimes find that when you’re back in a school setting, people want answers. So they want questions of problem solving; so they want research to solve a problem for them – “I’ve got this group of pupils who aren’t meeting these particular goals”. I guess a website that gets readily used is the Education Endowment Foundation. There’s something about that website that I suppose sometimes gives it to you in these manageable chunks, you know, “here is a programme that is cost-effective and had these kind of results.”
But for me, I want research that is almost challenging my assumptions, posing more problems. And so credibility is such a tricky concept because for me research in my experience is really messy, really complex, especially when you’re working with children or at least have children in mind. And I guess that’s something I really grappled with in my project and still grapple with now when I’m looking at research. And I guess the research that interests me the most is where it’s like I say challenging my assumptions, it’s directly useful in the classroom, it’s making me think differently about the way I engage with children. So I’m not looking for answers. So then if you’re not looking for answers, I think the question of credibility, again it shifts depending on what you want and what you’re out there for.
No research is one size fits all. It’s about some kind of balanced discussion, I guess. It’s about somebody showing awareness of their subject area. And there’s something about sort of an openness and a transparency about the way somebody’s gone about something. But I think you’ve got to constantly maintain a criticality when you engage with research and blend it with your own professional judgment. I suppose it depends how experienced you are as a teacher, how much you take things at face value. Or “if I’ve seen it on Twitter, it must be …” you know. And I think it takes a lot of experience and a lot of time to become critical when you engage with research.
GA: Yeah, wow, there’s so much there. Yes, I think that’s right. And so much of what you say there is played out through our project and come out through teachers talking. And yes definitely I’m with you on that – you know research is messy and it’s not going to give clear answers, particularly when we’re thinking about working with children in education settings. And that was one of the things that teachers were really clear about. So they were quite critical of research that would perhaps describe an approach as if it was the solution to an issue in the classroom. But what they were saying was there wasn’t enough information in the paper or in the digest of the paper or whatever the source was that enabled them to think about how that would play out in their setting with the children they worked with.
LH: Okay. Yeah.
GA: So I think there’s something there about the detail as well, isn’t there, as well as what you were saying about when you’re sharing research, about how critically you engage with it and how you present it. So you’re not presenting it as “this is the way” but “here’s something we found out that’s interesting but these are also other things that you might need to consider when you’re looking at it.”
LH: I love engaging with research where there’s been collaboration with teachers as part of that research or teachers are researchers themselves because I can you know relate to that. More recently, I suppose as a teacher, I’m always questioning you know how was the research funded? You know is there a commercial element? What are the outcomes? There’s that sort of qualitative versus quantitative question as well, isn’t there about you know, “I’m interested in the qualitative sort of case studies, new approaches to teaching and learning” versus that “what is effective, what’s the impact, what’s the cause and effect?”
When I thought about credibility, it’s just the complexity like I say of what we mean by credibility across those very different types of research. I guess at the minute, like I say, coming back to me as a teacher in the classroom, I’m looking for something that might have a direct application to my teaching and learning. But I guess only with the experience that I bring now to say, “okay so that worked for them in that context so I wonder how I could make it work for me in my classroom.” And again you probably have to have had a little bit of experience.
And I wonder, you know, as a newly qualified teacher when I think back myself, you know, my engagement with research would have been very different and that level of criticality wouldn’t have been there in the same way I don’t think. And I think also it depends on your individual school setting. I’m aware that some school settings are much more readily engaging with research than others. And of course you’re influenced by the people you work alongside but also the leadership team in the way research might be or might not be presented to you as part of your professional development as well.
GA: Yeah, we’ve got a long way to go, I think, haven’t we, before that becomes something that all teachers feel they’ve got time and the entitlement to engage with in the way they want to engage with it and the kind of colleagues around them and networks around them to help to support that.
LH: Yeah. We’re very lucky in North Tyneside, we have a very strong local education authority. And there’s always lots of opportunities to go out of the classroom and meet with other people say, oh, you know, Early Years teachers in North Tyneside. And we’re very lucky that the people who lead those sessions, sort of local advisors, I suppose you would call them, to me are always … appear to always be really readily engaging in research. And that has a really significant impact, I think – your local authority and what they provide for you. Because I know by contrast there are other local authorities nearby who don’t have that strong network of professionals, strong local authority advisors, the way North Tyneside Council do.
I’m thinking in particular of our literacy advisor in North Tyneside Council. She is always, you can tell, readily engaging with research and when she brings it to us, she is wanting us to be critical. We had a really, really good session which was post-COVID, which was all about you know, how have we suffered. She had an interesting topic opener about the use of Twinkl and off-the-peg types of curriculum and how it’s kind of diluted the way that we might teach literacy because we were having to provide parents with very easy to manage reading, writing tasks. And then she sort of pulled in lovely different examples of research. And I think if you’ve got somebody there within your authority who’s prepared to start those conversations and make you think, that’s very powerful.
GA: Yeah, so you’ve got an example there, haven’t you, of a trusted colleague, but also somebody who is as you say, they’re encouraging critical conversations.
LH: Yes.
GA: Yeah, that’s really valuable. And it’s interesting there, ’cause I was going to ask you actually about whether you’ve seen the sort of marketisation of education shifting things. ’Cause that was something that came up from the teachers about that kind of always questioning about “are they trying to sell us something?” when they get these kind of blog posts or digests or whatever they are. Because for a lot of resources and support for schools, it’s marketised isn’t it? You know people are trying to make a living out of it.
LH: Yeah. And I think as teachers you’re always trying to do your best, aren’t you? I would like to think, we’re a profession of very reflective practitioners and it’s hard. There’s been times in my career I’ve had to come off things like Twitter because I can be overwhelmed by the volume of “Ooh well I should be doing that or I could be doing that.” And again that dilutes your efforts to maybe then look and think, “well, how credible is that? How useful is that?”
Because you’re absorbing so much information and thinking “oh gosh, well I’m not doing that in the classroom and I could be doing that.” o. Because … yeah, I think we’re always trying to better our practice. And sometimes those sources aren’t the right sources for bettering our practice like you say. Things are sold to you now because they know; actually they are prying on your sort of your vulnerabilities as a teacher in terms of time, in terms of how committed you are to your role. And I think teachers would do anything to think that they were to giving their children better opportunities.
So it’s a tricky one, that question of time and the sort of person you are, the reason you’ve taken on this profession, there’s something inside of you that I think you care; you want to do better. And with that … I don’t know, brings more complexity again to the whole engagement with research.
GA: Yeah, it does. What’s something that really often I’m struck by is that the difference between the pace of engaging in research and teaching, you know, you’ll be all too aware of that. But you know you have to switch really don’t you, because you’re constantly making decisions as a teacher in the classroom all the time every day.
LH: Yeah.
GA: But to really engage with research, you need a little bit of space where you can stop and think and engage critically and reflect and talk with others. But I suppose, it’s about making that space, isn’t it?
LH: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, how lucky was I to be able to come out of the classroom and do a PhD for about 5 years, I think it was in the end. But I mean that space and that time to step back … it was really, really wonderful time but not many people get the chance to do that. And having gone back into the classroom, I really appreciate that time is of the essence, especially when people have got families and other commitments. So to be constantly reviewing and casting that critical eye is hard; it is a question of time.
That’s not to say … you know teachers are very intelligent individuals and maybe sometimes we do it without realising it. The conversations it sounds like you’ve had with teachers were very intelligent, you know, mindful, exactly the sort of conversations I would expect of you to have had with those teachers. Perhaps especially ones that have been, you know, in the profession some time.
GA: Yeah, I think that’s right. Are there things that you took from your own research that you now kind of use when you’re working with colleagues in terms of helping to maintain that criticality =when you’re engaging with research?
LH: It’s funny because I only work two days a week in the nursery, so I job share. And interestingly, you know, a colleague had sent a link to this book which was about school readiness in the nursery. And I had to say, “Oh I pulled apart that book as part of my PhD.” [laughs] Like I’m against that one size fits all, I’m against that kind of school readiness narrative. And I was like, you know, “please take that away.”
Sometimes it would be easy to fall back into picking up a text book and thinking, “Ooh, you know, I’ve got these gorgeous nursery children, but I need them to meet these targets and this book is going to tell me how.” And I really don’t pick up those types of text books, I suppose, that engage with that kind of narrative of “this is how we’re going to make children school ready”. Because to me, that’s not why I’m a nursery teacher. It’s something much more complex than that.
Because for me, my PhD was a lot about “well, what is valuable to children? What is the purpose of education?” Mine was much more focused on Reception and that transition into Year 1 and how it becomes formal very quickly. So I suppose you know I’m always sort of saying, “Ooh you know …” – to the Year 1 teachers – “do you not think you could uhhh …” you know. And it’s all about using more play-based approaches. But it’s very much about always having that sort of values discussion about “But yeah, is that what we want our nursery children to be doing? Just because that book says XY and Z to get them writing or …”
So I guess it’s just always making people question what they’re picking up. “Is that really what we want for our nursery? What’s our ethos?” And I would like to think I had a little bit of that pre-PhD, but I’m much more likely to speak up. I’m also much more likely to speak up in a staff meeting. I’ve become a little bit more like, “well hang on a second …” So it’s given me more of a voice I guess. It’s given me the confidence to have a voice when speaking in much more public forums to say, “well hang on, is that really what we want to achieve? Or is that really useful to us?” And I think that’s quite empowering really to feel like you can confidently say, “But that’s doesn’t sit right with me.”
GA: Yes. And it’s that kind of stopping and thinking and not just taking in what’s coming at you but stopping and thinking about what you believe in and what you want for children, what you want as a collective in the school as well. And then how you’re going to start to explore research that might help you with that and find your way. Yes.
LH: Yeah. And also I suppose it’s easy then to go and look for research which supports what you think. It’s that very fine balance between looking for things that feel right. I love engaging with those types of research and say the Literacy magazine where teachers used a particular picturebook and they describe you know what the children did with it and the outcomes.
But then you’ve also got to have that balance of sometimes picking up research which maybe again does challenge your assumptions, challenges the way you think about children. But again with that credibility theme – coming back to that – and thinking, “well, you know, what’s their sort of theoretical framework here? What’s their knowledge of philosophy? Where are they coming from?”
And obviously some forms of research doesn’t always have that strong theoretical underpinning. I don’t think it necessarily means it’s not useful. But I suppose again, having done my PhD and having to grapple with theory and philosophy, I guess that is something that is now part of that question of credibility which would definitely not have been there before.
GA: Yeah. It’s so fascinating because I think you’re tracing back a little bit about, you know, what you would have thought of as credible before. And we’ve seen teachers at kind of different stages grappling with some of that as well.
LH: Yeah.
GA: Wow, thank you very much Laura. I could carry on talking to you about this for hours I think, but we should probably leave it there. Thank you so much.
LH: It’s been really interesting. Thank you, Gill.
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