Developing Teacher Education Research Capacity in the North West of England Launch

1. Teacher Education Research Network Developing Teacher Education Research Capacity in the North West of England Launch Liverpool John Moores University 5th November 2008 TERN Project Team: Marion Jones, Pat Mahony, Olwen McNamara, Ian Menter, Jean Murray, Grant Stanley

2. TERN WELCOMEProfessor Diana BurtonPro Vice ChancellorLiverpool John Moores University

3. TERN North West Universities’ Education Federation(NWUEF) Federation of H E teacher education Promotes mutually beneficial partnerships in HE In existence for 15 years Formalised as a federation with mission statement in 2007

4. TERN NWUEFRegional Strategy 2007 - 2012 Regional Strategy for the Education and Training for all involved in the whole school and children’s workforce

5. TERN Purpose • To develop the profile and presence of the North West Higher Education providers • To ensure that their contribution to the national scene in the education and training of the whole school and children’s workforce is recognised, encouraged and nurtured

6. TERN Vision • Education is critical to the future economic success and social stability of the region • Our responsibility is to work collaboratively to provide cutting edge education and training for the school and children’s workforce • We will ensure that a full contribution is made to the national context for education through continued dialogue with policy makers in education

7. TERN Strategic Objectives • (i)NWUEF will develop a federation across providers of education and training for the school and children’s workforce in the region • (ii)NWUEF will make a major and proactive contribution to the national agenda in all aspects of the education and training of the whole school and children’s workforce • (iii)NWUEF will contribute to the development of a high quality learning environment for all learners within the North West, whether these are within schools, HEIs or other contexts

8. TERN (iv)NWUEF will nurture links between all professional communities involved in the education and training of the whole school and children’s workforce within the region (v)NWUEF will identify some elements of a common curriculum within initial teacher education and continuing professional development (vi)NWUEF will facilitate a debate relating to applying the best aspects of the change management and remodelling agenda with HEIs

9. TERN NWUEF Partnership Research Strategy • Relationships are fundamental to ITE partnerships (trainees, mentors, tutors, schools, HEIs) • Models of professional learning and teacher development have grown up organically and differentially partly as a consequence of these relationships • An advantage of ITE partnerships is their fertile ground for research

10. TERN Regional Teacher Education Research Examples • NWUEF has attempted to launch regional research projects investigating ITE but funding is a problem • OU/MU/LJMU project looked at ITE impact, producing published papers • Liverpool City of Learning (Edge Hill, LJMU, Hope, UoL) conducted nearly £500k of research into learning networks and professional issues

11. TERN Aims of TERN • To pilot a strong and sustainable model for research capacity-building in teacher education • Across a collaborative network of seven regional universities • To test the potential of this model for building a coherent research infrastructure on a larger scale across England

12. TERN The separation of research and teaching is no more keenly in evidence than in the NW where only two HEIs receive QR funding NWUEF considers TERN to be fundamental to: • Raising the profile of the quality of teacher education in the NW • Strengthening NW research partnerships and creating a springboard for grant applications • Involving school-based colleagues in collaborative, ground-breaking projects

13. The National Context for Research in and on Teacher Education Professor Olwen McNamara University of Manchester

14. TERN Capacity building in education • Challenges facing the sector: • politicisation of professional learning • bureaucratisation of professional learning • increase of research selectivity • bifurcation of research and teaching in education • departments • sustaining the teacher education workforce

15. Increasing Research Selectivity TERN

16. Education Departments in 2001 RAE TERN

17. Education and the social sciences TERN

18. TERN Sustaining a research active workforce • Challenges include: • Age demographics • Staff need QTS & pay differentials between HEI and school are sizeable • Making the transition between cultures is challenging: • Vast new range of knowledge and skills • Research and scholarly activity • Heavy workload and long teaching year • Drive for increased research selectivity

19. TERN Initiatives to increase research quality and capability • BERA has introduced: • - Teacher Education SIG • - bursaries for teachers to attend conference • refereeing of abstracts to increase quality • HEFCE’s ‘Research Informed Teaching’ • TLRP’s ‘Meeting of Minds’ • Scottish Applied Educational Research Scheme (AERS) • Welsh Educational Research Network (WERN)

20. TERN Initiatives to increase research quality and capability If Capacity = expertise x motivation x opportunities (Desforges) Then WERN’s activities… have given researchers in Wales the “motivation to engage in research by providing an opportunity to develop expertise in a supportive co-learning environment” (Davies and Salisbury, 2008: 9)

21. TERN Project Overview Professor Jean Murray University of East London

22. The TERN Project What were the origins of the TERN project in the North West? Research capacity building nationally and regionally TLRP capacity building resources and Teacher Education Group work Why the North West?

23. The TERN Project Objectives of TERN • to foster institutional networking in the North West, ensuring collaboration between research-intensive and teaching-intensive universities • to contribute to building the institutional research capacity of the participating universities • to provide a research development programme to enhance existing regional provision and institutional and individual research capacity • in so doing, to develop a) a network sustainable beyond the life of the project and b) an effective model for capacity-building which can potentially be applied more broadly across England

24. The TERN Project Research & teacher education Argument that the TERN project is building research capacity inandonteacher education in teacher education through working with the education staff in the participating universities onteacher education because the final proposals will have a substantive focus on research about the education / professional learning of teachers and related professionals

25. Funding and timescales The TERN Project Funded by the ESRC (with additional funding from ESCalate) – use of funding ESRC & Teaching & Learning Research Programme (TLRP) associated project Dates: September 08 – August 09 Limitations around funding & timescales – continuation beyond 2009

26. The TERN Project Who benefits from the project and how? • Broader: all education staff in the participating universities TERN project participants: Research Colleagues, Research Mentors, Institutional Research Leads, Steering Group All education staff in the participating universities

27. The TERN Project Elements of TERN • Governance and ethics • Initial mapping / baseline for project • Planned research development programme, with face-to-face and virtual elements (42+ research colleagues + mentors) • Broader research enhancement (colloquia and communal seminar / events programme) • Mediation / communication of previous research resources • External and internal evaluation

28. The TERN Project TERN project participants: Central activities Extended activities for research colleagues

29. The TERN Project Central benefits for TERN Research Colleagues • Professional learning and career enhancement from participation in research development programme • Working with research team and with senior colleague as mentor to develop research bids • Access to the expertise of other senior researchers / research support staff in developing expertise

30. The TERN Project The Research Development programme • Five workshops: • Indicative foci for each workshop - fine tuned by results of Mapping Exercise • Workshop 5 disseminating work to date and receiving feedback • Virtual Research Environments (VREs) for further collaboration between each face-to-face meeting. • Teaching & Learning Research Programme / BERA Virtual Research Environments in use already • Use of existing resources for research development, including the Teacher Education Group mapping.

31. The TERN Project Workshops and VREs Workshop 1 Group VRE 1 Fine tune proposal between early July and end of August Workshop 2 Group VRE 2 Workshop 3 Group VRE 3 Workshop 4 Group VRE 4 Workshop 5 Work to date… Group VRE 5 Further work in VRE

32. The TERN Project Extended possibilities for Research Colleagues • Further opportunities for supported participation in conference presentations, nationally and internationally • Publication opportunities in international, peer reviewed journals (planned Special Issues etc.) • Publication in professional journals etc. • Involvement in other aspects of research capacity building nationally (e.g. other ESRC project)

33. The TERN Project Research Mentors Modelled on TLRP Meeting of Minds mentoring programmes Adapted to small groups and ‘blended learning’ through the workshops and on-line activities Extended benefits and opportunities for institutional research capacity building & research leadership Key roles in facilitating and guiding the activities of the Research Groups

34. The TERN Project Broader opportunities for all education staff in participating universities • Participation in communal seminar / events programme • ESCalate colloquia and planned BERA SIG events • Internal dissemination of TERN. Benefits from RCB focus within university and from resulting strengths in research culture • Further exploration of issues around research in and on teacher education

35. The TERN Project Working definitions of teacher education research Teacher education research is taken to include: Initial Teacher Education and continuing professional learning / development of teachers and the broader education workforce in the primary & secondary sectors. Research on both policy and practice The challenges of working as an academic / teacher educator

36. The TERN Project The negotiated research themes The broad themes will need to have: a clear focus on research about professional learning and / or teacher education relevance for professional learning and / or teacher education relevance for research capacity building in the region and nationally significance and interest for the individuals in the Research Groups and the work will clearly need to draw on individual and communal expertise.

37. The TERN Project Working groups 1 1. Key issues in research on teacher education and professional learning What do you think are the key issues about research in and on teacher education and professional learning nationally? Are there are particular regional (NW) issues about these areas of research? Are there particular institutional issues about these areas of research? 2. Under-researched areas in research in and on teacher education What significant issues for Teacher Education do you consider to be under-researched nationally? Do these have regional significance? If so, how would you like to see these being addressed in the region?

38. TLRP Virtual Research Environment TERN Richard Procter Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies University of Cambridge

39. VRE Basics Online collaboration tools, announcements, schedule, email lists, discussion, chat, file store, wiki, rss news Works in a browser, nothing to download Access controlled space (username, password) Public and Private sites My Workspace (your private online space) Roles Access Contribute Maintain TERN

47. Summary Not hard to use. But will take some getting used to. Remember your username and password. Try to agree how your worksite is structured, File store. This will not replace email and other tools you use. If you download something and edit it you need to upload it again. Wiki is the most powerful collaborative tool but need to learn to drive it. Don’t be afraid TERN

48. Thank you Email: richardp@caret.cam.ac.uk Further Reading Laterza, V., Carmichael, P., and Procter, R. (2007) The Doubtful Guest? A Virtual Research Environment for Education, Technology, Pedagogy and Education 16(3) pp.249-267. Online at http://www.informaworld.com/10.1080/14759390701614363

49. TERN The Teacher Education Group (TEG) Annotated Bibliography TEG Steering Group: Anne Campbell, Ian Hextall, Moira Hulme, Marion Jones, Pat Mahony, Ian Menter, Jean Murray, Richard Procter and Karl Wall, in collaboration with Steve Baron, Mary James and Andrew Pollard

50. TERN Objectives of the initial research activities set within a broad framework (TLRP initiative) • To construct a literature mapping • To draw on this mapping to analyse what it revealed about existing research activities in the field • To develop a series of ‘walkthroughs’ to be placed on the TLRP website and to serve as a pedagogical tool for new researchers • Funded by BERA, ESCalate and UCET