Using other people’s research

It is hard to find the time to read other people’s research, but it is important for all professionals to keep up to date with evidence on effective practice and for researchers to locate their own research in a wider context. Reading other people’s research provokes questions and raises issues that you can investigate in your own environment. Showing you have research evidence to back you up can be very useful, especially when you want to justify a course of action to someone in authority.

Horton Mill Primary School: using previous research to inform a new investigation

Horton Mill Primary School, in Oldham has 230 children on roll. The children’s families have roots in Bangladesh or Pakistan. The invitation to join the NFER Research-engaged School programme was an opportunity to develop stronger partnerships with parents and families. Teachers Mark Barton and Kath Clews agreed to join headteacher Sue Crowson on the school’s research team. The team were excited by the prospect of doing their own action research project, but were concerned about the amount of time needed for reading.

As the project progressed, the team decided that it might be helpful to find out more about research into parental involvement. The team made a commitment to read some of the books and policy reports on family involvement that had been collecting in the office.  The team found it helped to share the reading between them. They compiled a research file, including a selection of the papers they had found. In particular, they investigated a theoretical model, describing six types of parental involvement, by Professor Joyce Epstein and colleagues (see Epstein et al., 1997). The team found this a useful base line model from which to devise their own questions for parents about different aspects of their relationship with the school.

The Epstein model was also useful when the team came to consider their results, because it provided a framework for them to judge how the far school had moved forward in forming partnerships with families.

• How can you find out about theory and research for your area of interest?
• Do you subscribe to professional journals or use internet sites to find research?
• Could your school have a reading area or notice board featuring research articles?
• Could you form a professional reading group with colleagues where everyone agrees to read some research and share the findings?
• Could you invite someone who knows the research literature to lead a focused CPD session at your school?

The research into parental involvement mentioned above is by EPSTEIN, J.; COATES, L.; SALINAS, K.C.; SANDERS, M.G. and SIMON, B.S. (1997). School, Family and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

To find out more about current research, visit the following websites:

GTCE (Research of the Month)
www.gtce.org.uk/researchofthemonth

NFER (Research-engaged school page and Topic)
www.nfer.ac.uk/research-areas/research-engaged-schools/

www.topiconline.org.uk/index.asp

NERF (Bulletin)
www.nerf-uk.org/bulletin/

DfES (The Research Informed Practice Site)

www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/research/