1st Edition
Exploring Practitioner Research in Further Education Sharing Good Practice
Exploring Practitioner Research in Further Education unpacks how people in the Further Education (FE) sector undertake research and the impact it has had on the world around them.
Using a newly developed writing framework and offering a practitioner view of approaching and conducting work in the FE system, this book demystifies the process of undertaking research by showcasing the readers’ peers at various stages of the research journey. It draws together research work from general and specialist FE colleges, adult and community learning, offender learning, work-based training, and college-based higher education across the UK. Within these contexts, it makes links to theoretical and practical arguments regarding the usefulness of practitioner-led research. Uniquely, the chapters also explore practitioner- or sector-led models for developing practitioner research within a classroom, within an organisation, and across multiple organisations.
Including a range of diverse voices to represent the breadth of FE, this book provides a framework for research, in addition to a space for each author’s authentic voice. This will be a useful text for all teacher educators, professional development leads, senior leaders, and practising teachers and lecturers across the FE sector.
List of contributors
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Introduction
Mapping the sector: Further Education research organisations
Sam Jones
Part 1: Developing pedagogy
1) Changing the lens: Developing teaching practice through taking a diffractive and dialogical approach to self and peer observation
Francine Warren
2) Shaping practice and pedagogy in offender learning
Kerry Scattergood
3) Teach the Teacher: Tackling a failure mindset with GCSE resit learners in Further Education through a ‘bridging the empathy gap’ intervention
Rachel Arnold
4) Investigating the teaching of agriculture in Further Education in England
Catherine Lloyd
Part 2: Overcoming barriers in the sector
5) Reducing barriers to learning opportunities for healthcare professionals to improve attendance
Katie Barrett
6) Time: The hidden challenge for course leaders for college-based higher education
Clare Sutton
7) Making learning diaries meaningful for learners in the community
Chloë Hynes
Part 3: Models for practitioner research in FE
8) Coleg Sir Gar Coleg Ceredigion: The evolution of our Culture of Curiosity
Bryony Evett-Hackfort
9) The progress of research and scholarship in Scottish colleges: Charting some key developments
Patrick O'Donnell and Christine Calder
10) The power of community: Developing intergenerational learning spaces
Fey Cole
11) Developing the capacity for, and use of, practitioner research: The Research College Group
Samantha Jones
Part 4: Stories of leadership
12) Unblocking the FE leadership pipeline: Understanding today’s senior leaders in order to inspire tomorrow’s
Dr Rebecca Gater
Conclusion
Sam Jones and Kerry Scattergood
Biography
Kerry Scattergood is Lecturer in Adult Literacy at Solihull College & University Centre, UK.
Samantha Jones is Principal Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, UK.
"This book is a vital resource for anyone involved in post-compulsory education, from practitioners seeking to improve their craft to leaders looking to foster a culture of research within their institutions. Each chapter is a timely and valuable contribution: empowering practitioners to become researchers, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within the FE sector."
Amy Woodrow, Director of Student Experience, Quality and Safeguarding, City of Bristol College, UK
"As a Further Education based research practitioner and research lead, the need to grow the practitioner research within the sector cannot be clearer to me. This book contains a plethora of examples about how this has been done and provides a range of examples that can elucidate the process and motivate readers to start to carry out similar research themselves. It is also a book which shows the powers that be (like the Department for Education and OFSTED) that there is a growing, and thriving, research community in the Post-16 sector which they ignore at their peril."
Debi Saunders (She/Her), Senior Quality and Compliance Officer, York College, UK
"Research should be ‘rooted in…curiosity’ and ‘made public’, asserted Lawrence Stenhouse, a great champion of practitioner researcher. Edited by Sam Jones and Kerry Scattergood, this book is fine example of this as it showcases 12 further education-based practitioner research stories and ‘maps’ FE’s research organisations. As such, it will be of great interest to academics researching the sector and an essential and valuable resource to those working in the sector who want to do some practitioner research. Here are three reasons why. First, it provides excellent examples of how to do and write up practitioner research that will inspire aspiring researchers in the sector to ‘take action’. Second, it offers lesson learned from doing practitioner research so that aspiring researchers can build on them rather than trying to find the same ‘trail of breadcrumbs’ as the editors when they started out. Third, these stories reflect the diversity of this most diverse of sectors, showing the aspiring researcher that practitioner research can be done in their setting too. So, if you are curious about the value of practitioner research to an individual or organisation, how to do it or how to write it up, this book is a great place to start."
Dr David Powell, University of Huddersfield, UK
