September 2023
Last week, the OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) invited Cathy Burnett, principal investigator of our project, to participate in a panel discussion “An evidence-informed education: Empowering schools and policy institutions through a culture of research engagement”. The panel and subsequent Q&A session explored the challenges and opportunities of engaging with research in schools.
Cathy drew on our interviews with primary school teachers in England about their encounters with literacy research to respond to the following questions:
We’ve seen that practitioners and researchers often don’t have the same understanding of what research is and how it can be used. Using research is not a straightforward and direct process. Can you tell us a little bit more about how teachers actually engage with research in real life? How would you describe the interaction between research and professional knowledge?
What kind of skills and knowledge do teachers actually need to be able to engage with research thoughtfully and how can professional learning help to develop these skills? Do all teachers need to develop these skills?
Cathy spoke about:
- the different kinds of channels and brokers through which teachers encounter research
- what it feels like for them to navigate through this cascade of information
- how teachers evaluate the credibility of these diverse sources
- the ways in which facilitating supportive spaces for conversation and reflection can help develop meaningful engagement with research
Cathy was joined by Matthijs van den Berg, Director of Research, Inspectorate of Education, the Netherlands and Montserrat Tortosa Moreno, Educational consultant, Directorate of Innovation, Digitization, Curriculum and Languages, Department of Education, Catalonia. You can watch all their contributions in the webinar recording below: