Notes for further reading

Overview

There is now considerable official encouragement for the development of high quality teaching and learning through classroom enquiry. Many years earlier, the work of Lawrence Stenhouse provided a really important foundation for teacher research as the basis for exercising professional judgement. For an excellent compendium of his work, see:

Rudduck, J. and Hopkins, D. (eds) (1985) Research as a Basis for Teaching: Readings from the Work of Lawrence Stenhouse, London: Heinemann Educational Books.

The commitment to professional, reflective, evidence-informed practice can be contrasted with the determination to use more systematic, ‘scientific’ forms of research to identify ‘what works’ in any circumstance as a basis for policy prescription. To understand the attraction of this argument, see, for instance:

Davies, H. T. O., Nutley, S. M. and Smith, P. C. (2000) What Works? Evidence-based Policy and Practice in Public Services, Bristol: The Policy Press.

For very helpful examples of the worthwhileness of teacher research, see:

McNamara, O. (2002) Becoming an Evidence-based Practitioner: A Framework for Teacher Researchers. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Clipson-Boyles, S. (2000) Putting Research into Practice in Primary Teaching and Learning, London: David Fulton

Burnaford, G., Fischer, J. and Hobson, D. (eds) (1996) Teachers Doing Research: Practical Possibilities, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Section 1: Reviewing evidence of performance

Gathering information about the existing state of knowledge on educational issues is a crucial first step in any serious enquiry.

On conducting literature reviews see:

Beasley, D. (2000) Beasley’s Guide to Library Research, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Fink, A. (1998) Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From Paper to the Internet, London: SAGE Publications.

Hart, C. (1998) Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination, London: SAGE Publications.

Hart, C. (2001) Doing a Literature Search: A Comprehensive Guide for the Social Sciences, London: SAGE Publications.

Data-bases, abstracting services, journals and research indices are an important source. They may often be found on CD Rom in specialist libraries, or through the internet. This range is developing and changing rapidly and RTweb will keep them under review. Try:

Indexing and data-base services:

British Education Index (BEI): www.leeds.ac.uk/bei
Current Educational Research in the UK (CERUK): www.nfer.ac.uk/ceruk
Educational Resources Information Centre (ERIC): http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/res.cgi/ERIC
Social Science Information Gateway: www.sosig.ac.uk
Education On-line: www.leeds.ac.uk/educol
Regard (ESRC data-base of projects): www.regard.ac.uk/regard/home
BUBL Information Service: www.bubl.ac.uk/link/e/educationlinks.htm

The UK centre for conducting systematic research reviews is

Centre for Evidence-Informed Policy and Practice in Education: http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/EPPIWeb/home.aspx

Research associations, institutions, funding bodies and charities:

British Educational Research Association (BERA): www.bera.ac.uk
European Educational Research Association (EERA): www.eera.ac.uk
Scottish Educational Research Association: www.sera.ac.uk
Collaborative Action Research Network (CARN): www.uea.ac.uk/care/carn
National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER): www.nfer.ac.uk
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC): www.esrc.ac.uk
The Nuffield Foundation: www.nuffield.org.uk
Scottish Council for Research in Education: www.scre.ac.uk

Government departments or agencies:

Department for Education and Skills: www.dfes.gov.uk/
Teacher Training Agency: www.canteach.gov.uk/home.htm
British Education and Communications Technology Association: www.becta.org.uk
National Grid for Learning: www.ngfl.gov.uk
Department of Education for Northern Ireland: www.deni.gov.uk
Northern Ireland Network for Education: www.nine.org.uk
The Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment: www.ccea.org.uk
Learning and Teaching Scotland: www.LTScotland.org.uk
The Scottish Parliament and Scottish Office: www.scotland.gov.uk
The National Assembly for Wales and Welsh Office: www.wales.gov.uk

Journals are increasingly online and offering supplementary services, but charge a subscription. For instance, the Times Educational Supplement has TES Bookfind, offering English-language access to over a million titles, with powerful search facilities. See also:

Times Educational Supplement: www.tes.co.uk

A massive abstracting database is provided by Taylor and Francis, drawing on over 700 education journals. See:

Taylor and Francis, Educational Research Abstracts: www.tandf.co.uk/era

Many university education departments also use the World Wide Web to provide excellent introductions to what they have to offer. You can find the web addresses of UK university sites at:

www.birmingham.ac.uk/webmaster/ukuwww.html
www.niss.ac.uk/sites/he-cis.html

Never forget the lessons of history either.  The most comprehensive resource on English education is provided by Derek Gillard at:  

www.educationengland.org.uk

Section 2: Issues in planning classroom enquiry

There are a great many introductory guides to carrying out small-scale research activity. These include:

Blaxter, L., Hughes, C. and Tight, M. (1996) How to Research, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Denscombe, M. (1998) The Good Research Guide for Small Scale Social Research Projects, Buckingham: Open University Press.

There are also a large number of more advanced introductions to educational and social research. Among the more highly regarded are:

Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K. (2000) Research Methods in Education (5th edition), London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Robson, C. (1993) Real World Research, Oxford: Blackwell.

Clear description of small-scale case study work, and analyses of its strengths and weaknesses are:

Bassey, M. (1999) Case Study Research in Educational Settings, Buckingham: Open University Press

Stake, R. (1986) The Art of Case Study Research, Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.

Yin, R. (1994) Case Study Research, Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.

Other particular approaches to research require specialised research designs. The following are just some examples of what is a very wide range:

Robson, C. (2000) Small-Scale Evaluation: Principles and Practice, London: SAGE Publications.

Hatch, A. J. and Wisniewski, R. (1995) Life History and Narrative, London: Falmer Press.

McCulloch, Gary (2000) Historical Research in Educational Settings, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Levin, P. (1997) Making Social Policy: The Mechanisms of Government and Politics, and How to Investigate Them, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Vulliamy, G. and Stephens, D. (1990) Doing Educational Research in Developing Countries, London: Falmer.

A particularly good introduction to how to interrogate and evaluate published research, and how to learn from this process, is:

Brown, A. and Dowling, P. (1998) Doing Research/Reading Research: A Mode of Interrogation for Education, London: Falmer Press.

The strengths and weaknesses of different research methods are increasingly recognised. For a book providing systematic ideas on how to combine them, see:

Tashakkori, A. and Teddlie, C. (1998) Mixed Methodology: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, London: Sage.

Burgess (see below) reminds us of the importance of considering ethical issues in relation to any form of enquiry, particularly when it involves children. Meanwhile, Woods provides support for the very important stage of ‘writing up’, when the outcomes of research may be shared with colleagues or a wider public.

Burgess, R. G. (1989) The Ethics of Educational Research, London: Falmer Press.

Woods, P. (1999) Successful Writing for Qualitative Researchers, London: Routledge.

Section 3: Techniques of enquiry

General overviews about the collection and analysis of qualitative data include:

Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P (1983) Ethnography Principles in Practice, London: Routledge.

Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. (1990) Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques, London: SAGE.

Delamont, S. (1992) Fieldwork in Educational Settings: Methods, Pitfalls and Perspectives, London: Falmer Press.

Bogdan, R. and Biklen, B. (1992) Qualitative Research for Education: an Introduction to Theory and Methods, Needham Heights, USA: Allyn and Bacon.

For a feminst approach to ethnography, see:

Ely, M. (1990) Doing Qualitative Research: Circles within Circles, London: Falmer

There are also more specific books in relation to the focus of research, such as children:

Christensen, P. and James, A. (eds) (2000) Research with Children: Perspectives and Practices, London: Falmer Press.

Goldmann-Segall, R. (1998) Points of Viewing: Children’s thinking: A Digital Ethnographer’s Journey http:www.pointsofviewing.com, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers: New Jersey.

Other material is designed to support use of particular techniques or methodological approaches. For example:

Edwards, A. D. and Westgate, D. P. G. (1994) Investigating Classroom Talk (2nd edition), London: Falmer Press.

Gee, J. (1991) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Methods, Routledge: London.

Have, P. (1999) Doing Conversation Analysis: A Practical Guide, London: SAGE Publications.

Drever, E. (1995) Using Semi-Structured Interviews in Small-Scale Research, Edinburgh: Scottish Council for Research in Education.

Greenbaum, T. (1998) The Handbook for Focus Group Research: Second Edition, Thousand Oaks; London: SAGE Publications.

Tochon, F. (1999) Video Study Groups for Education, Professional Development and Change, Madison: Atwood Publishing.

Mann, C. and Stewart, F. (2000) Internet Communication and Qualitative Research: A Handbook for Researching Online, London: SAGE Publications.

The analysis of qualitative data is often challenging, involving a systematic but open-minded search for repeated patterns. The books above often help, but for more specific guidance, see:

Strauss, A. L., (1987) Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Miles, M. B. and Huberman, A. M. (1994) Qualitative Data Analysis 2nd Edition, London: SAGE Publications.

A useful warning of the ways in which qualitative data is sometimes used to represent particular realities, see:

Atkinson, P. (1990) The Ethnographic Imagination: Textual Constructions of Reality, London: Routledge.

Books providing a general overview of quantitative data collection and analysis include:

Gorard, S. (2001) Quantitative Methods in Educational Research: The Role of Numbers Made Easy, London: Continuum.

For material in relation to specific research techniques, see:

Oppenheim, A. N. (1992) Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement, London: Pinter Publishers.

Studman, S. and Bradburn, N. M. (1989) Asking Questions: A Practical Guide to Questionnaire Design, Oxford: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

de Vaus, D. A. (1991) Surveys in Social Research, London: Allen and Unwin.

Fink, A. and Kosecoff, J. (1986) How to Conduct Surveys: A Step by Step Guide, London: Sage.

Croll, P. (1998) Systematic Classroom Observation, (2nd edition), London: Falmer Press.

Orr, L. (1999) Social Experiments: Evaluating Public Programs With Experimental Methods, Thousand Oaks; London: Sage.

Kline, P. (1993) The Handbook of Psychological Testing, London: Routledge.

Gipps, C. V. (1994) Beyond Testing: Towards a Theory of Educational Assessment, London: Falmer.

Analysis of quantitative data can seem daunting, but it is well supported. Simple statistical analysis would be helped by books such as:

Bryman, A. and Cramer, D. (1990) Quantitative Data Analysis for Social Scientists, London: Routledge.

Anderson, A.J.B. (1989) A First Course in Statistics, London: Routledge.

Cohen, L. and Holliday, M. (1996) Practical Statistics for Students, London: Paul Chapman.

Siegel, S. (1956) Non-parametric Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Section 4: Learning from other research

To understand the reasons for the diversity of approaches to educational research it is really necessary to try a little philosophy and social theory. See, for example:

Pring, R. A. (2000) Philosophy of Educational Research, London: Continuum. (Reading, 3.2)

Scott, D. and Usher, R. (1996) Understanding Educational Research, London: Routledge.

Carr, W. (1995) For Education: Towards Critical Educational Inquiry, Buckingham: Open University Press.

More advanced texts include:

Delanty, G. (1997) Social Science: Beyond Constructivism and Realism, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Fay, B. (1996) Contemporary Philosophy of Social Science: A Multicultural Approach, Oxford: Blackwell.

Scott, D. (2000) Realism and Educational Research: New Perspectives and Possibilities, London: RoutledgeFalmer.

The evolution of different disciplinary positions is a fascinating, and continuing, story. See:

Kuhn, T. S. (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Becher, T. (1989) Academic Tribes and Territories, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Abbott, A. (2001) Chaos of Disciplines, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

In Reflective Teaching, five major research approaches are identified: scientific research, interpretive research, action research, critical research and post-modern research. We provide examples of each below, together with some associated methodological texts.

The classical 'scientific' research tradition is discussed in:

Popper, K. (1968) The Logic of Scientific Discovery (2nd edition), London: Hutchinson.

For useful guides to the application of this approach in education see:

Kumar, R. (1996) Research Methodology: A Step-by-step Guide for Beginners, London: Sage.

Borg, W. R. (1981) Applying Educational Research: A Practical Guide for Teachers, New York: Longman.

Interpretive research has a long history. It draws on observation, empathy and intuition, but does so in a systematic and very conscious way. There are several books on qualitative methods which have been specially written for teachers who want to engage in their own studies:

Woods, P. (1996) Researching the Art of Teaching: Ethnography for Educational Use, London: Routledge.

Hitchcock, G. and Hughes, D. (1995) Research and the Teacher: A Qualitative Introduction to School-Based Research (2nd edition), London: Routledge.

Radnor, H. (2002) Researching Your Professional Practice: Doing Interpretive Research, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Action-research is a popular approach for practitioners because of the emphasis on learning from direct attempts to improve practice. See for instance:

Dadds, M. (1995) Passionate Enquiry and School Development: A Story About Teacher Action Research, London: Falmer

Hustler, D., Cassidy, T. and Cuff, T. (eds) (1986) Action Research in Schools and Classrooms, London: Allen & Unwin

Webb, R. (ed) (1991) Practitioner Research in the Primary School, London: Falmer

Barr, M., D'Arcy, P. and Healy, M.K. (eds.) (1982) What's Going On? Language/Learning Episodes in British and American Classrooms, Grades 4 - 13, Montclair: Boynton/Cook

Vulliamy, G. and Webb. R. (1992) Teacher Research and Special Educational Needs, London: David Fulton

For guidance on the principles and design of an action research study for classroom or school use:

Elliott, J. (1991) Action Research for Educational Change, Milton Keynes: Open University Press

McNiff, J. (1988) Action Research: Principles and Practice, London: Routledge

Winter, R. (1989) Learning From Experience: Principles and Practice in Action-Research, London: Falmer

The methods which are appropriate to critical theory and macro-sociological approaches are, in one way, properly seen as being those involved in conceptualizing the links between individuals, classroom practices and wider social structures.

For sociological examples of work influenced by critical theory, see:

Ball, S. J. (1994) Educational Reform: A Critical and Post-structural Approach, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Green, A. (1990) Education and State Formation, London: Macmillan

Apple, M. (1993) Official Knowledge: Democratic Education in a Conservative Age, London: Routledge.

For advice on researching policy matters, see:

Ozga, J. (2000) Policy Research in Educational Settings: Contested Terrain, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Post-modern research on primary education is well represented by work on literacy and gender. See, for example:

Davies, B. (1993) Shards of Glass: Children Reading and Writing Beyond Gender Identities, Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

Kamler, B. (1999) Constructing Gender and Difference: Critical Research Perspectives on Early Childhood, Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press

For a post-modern critique of educational research, see the penetrating analysis of:

Stronach, I. and MacLure, M. (1997) Educational Research Undone: The Postmodern Embrace, Buckingham: Open University Press.

In Addition

Interesting books in which academic researchers reveal ‘backstage’ research processes are:

Walford, G. (ed) (1991) Doing Educational Research, London: Routledge.

Walford, G. (ed) (1998) Doing Research About Education, London: Falmer Press.