Memorandum submitted by The British Education
Research Association (BERA) and The Universities Council for the
Education of Teachers (UCET)
1. INTRODUCTION
The British Educational Research Association
(BERA) is the main association of educational researchers working
in the UK and has members working in higher education, local authorities,
the voluntary sector and educational establishments ranging from
pre-school to primary and secondary schools and further and higher
education. The vast majority of members are employed in the higher
education sector. The Universities Council for the Education of
Teachers (UCET) represents almost all higher education institutions
across the UK who provide initial and advanced teacher education
programmes. This submission focuses on issues of:
— the impact of the concentration of
research funding as a result of the Research Assessment Exercise
upon programmes of initial teacher education;
— the sustainability of educational
research in terms of the demographic profile of staff engaged
in educational research in higher education; and
— the exposure to and engagement with
educational research of beginning teachers.
We have framed our response in terms of answers
to three main questions posed by the Committee.
2. THE ROLE
OF UNIVERSITIES
OVER THE
NEXT 5-10 YEARS
2.1 One key question for us under this section
is:
What do employers want from graduates?—skills
base, applied research, links with industry?
It is well recognised that teachers have a key
role to play in developing young people's academic learning and
attainment. They also have a key role to play in promoting social
cohesion in an increasingly diverse society. Curriculum developments
in education for citizenship and in environmental sustainability,
for example, explicitly recognize the contribution that schools
are expected to make in equipping young people to take part in
an increasingly globalised society.
2.2 This means that it is imperative that
teachers are well equipped in terms of knowledge and skills in
their subject disciplines, keeping pace with research and developments
in discipline based knowledge. They also need to be aware of research
and developments in learning and in the teaching methods most
likely to contribute to effective learning. Moreover, they need
to be alert to debates about the goals and means of achieving
social cohesion, including debates about inclusion of children
with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms and ways
of recognizing and valuing the diverse cultures and needs of the
young people they teach.
2.3 The complex and multi-faceted job of
teachers means that they need to develop:
— practical, technical competence in
the classroom;
— understanding of the intellectual
foundations of that competence;
— curriculum knowledge and expertise;
— awareness and understanding of educational
policy debates; and
— self awareness and critical reflection
upon their practice.
As key professionals taking forward an important
public policy, they need to be equipped critically to appraise
policy and their own practice not just to apply techniques and
curricula unthinkingly. We as a society need teachers who are
flexible, adaptable, secure in their knowledge and expertise but
willing to review and reflect on their practice using a range
of evidence to do so.
2.4 It is of concern to us therefore that
the effects of the RAE have been to concentrate research funding
in a small number of higher education institutions with the result
that 80% of primary school teachers and approximately 56% of secondary
teachers in England are trained in institutions with no QR funding.
Staff in these institutions have to attract external grants to
enable them to have time to undertake research and typically have
much less opportunity for scholarship. It is also disturbing that
large regions are without higher education institutions with QR
funding, making it more difficult for schools and local authorities
to work in partnership with universities who have large numbers
of staff working at the forefront of educational research. This
makes knowledge transfer and exchange more difficult.
2.5 A second key question is:
What should the Government, and society more broadly,
want from HE?—internationally-competitive research capacity?
It is generally agreed that educational improvement
remains a priority for the UK and that policy developments to
achieve this goal should be informed by evidence. Evidence can
come from many sources but high quality educational research conducted
in universities is clearly an important source given traditions
of university autonomy and links between the curricula in schools
and universities. In June 2006 the Economic and Social Research
Council (ESRC) published a demographic review of the UK Social
Sciences as it was concerned about the sustainability of the social
science base in the UK. Education emerged as an area for priority
action. This is partly because a significant proportion of staff
in education faculties enter academic posts having gained experience
in school teaching. Some also enter academic posts with little
or no social science research training in their original degrees.
The main points emerging from discussion with ESRC are:
— The current provision available for
funded places in educational research is too small to meet the
needs and demand in this subject area.
— As a field of study education research
is growing, with expansion in pedagogic research in higher education
further increasing demand for doctoral training.
— Any review of current funding provision
needs to address capacity building in this field and reflect the
particular demographics impacting on capacity in education research.
— The education research community
draws in practitioners and researchers from different disciplines
and at different stages in their careers and funding models need
to be appropriate to the particular needs of this breadth and
diversity of resource.
3. THE STRUCTURE
OF THE
HE SECTOR
3.1 The question we wish to address here
in terms of the future of educational research is: Is the current
structure of the HE sector appropriate and sustainable for the
future?
Our response to the effects of the concentration
of QR funding largely answers this question. We also wish to draw
to the Committee's attention the existence of school-based routes
into teaching. Such routes need not encompass any involvement
of higher education institutions. While these routes emphasise
the practical and technical competence of teachers they further
exacerbate concerns about the exposure of teachers and hence some
education academics of the future to social science research training
and evidence from, for example, Ofsted suggests that some of them
are not of the same standard as those programmes run in partnership
between HEIs and school.
December 2006
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