Becoming Research Active .

Outline of this unit
The unit will focus on two key issues:

13.1 Becoming research active

Many higher education appointments encourage or indeed require staff to undertake research, even on short term contracts, and if any individual wants to forge a future in higher education research will be a likely condition of their employment. Our focus in this section of the unit is on examples of projects that illustrate key issues about the nature, scope and purpose of research. Although we do not present detail about research strategies and methods in this section we have included resources (see Resource 13.1a and Resource 13.1b) about these and there is a wealth of existing materials, some published, others on-line, and we will give references to these sources.

13.2 Engaging with research as a Teacher Trainer

Research based understandings and suggestions for practice are a valuable resource for both trainees and teacher trainers and are an important contribution to initial teaher education. This unit explores a range of ways in which we might draw on research in our work with both trainees and mentors.

Recently appointed trainers are likely to have very different starting points so far as research experience is concerned (Murray and Male, 2005). Some will already have higher degrees in education which will have involved independent research and will feel confident about their research responsibilities whilst others will have been involved in school based development projects that have included a research dimension. Others may have little or no research experience and feel daunted by the prospect. The intention here is to suggest ways in which our research and teaching responsibiltiies can be complementary rather than compete for our time.

From September 2007 most PGCE courses will be designated as M level qualifications and in many cases the master’s requirement will be met through the trainees’ written work. M level requirements will therefore require trainees to understand the nature of educational research. The QAA website provides an outline of the master’s level descriptors (www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/FHEQ/EWNI/default.asp#annex1).

Each sub-section of this unit is followed by one or more activities to enable you to explore the issues further. In several instances, reference is made to journal articles. All higher education institutions will keep a collection of academic journals and many will have subscriptions for online access. For copyright reasons we are therefore unable to provide a hyperlink: you will need to locate them through your own institutional resources.