Strategic Forum for Research in Education

Key questions considered at Forum III (17th and 18th March 2010, Edinburgh)

What provision is there for knowledge accumulation and review, and for appropriate linkage to UK and international networks, centres and activities?

• In what ways is the accumulation of a body of education research knowledge important to different constituencies? For what purposes?
• How is the accumulation of education research knowledge currently being promoted? What are the challenges being faced by knowledge accumulation processes and initiatives in education research?
• How can co-ordination and communication among the different existent strategies be improved? How could we get more value from them in different country and sector contexts?
• How are the countries’ research and development work linked to appropriate international networks, centres and activities focussing on research knowledge accumulation?

Synopsis of discussions at Forum III

The discussion around the accumulation of education research knowledge at SFRE III explored what accumulation might mean at different points and to different stakeholders involved in the research process.

The discussions covered in detail practical issues about infrastructure, in terms of libraries, electronic resources, databases/ indexes, and repositories. Participants reviewed existing provision and noted that, despite many recent initiatives showing progress and despite the advantages brought about by increased use of new technologies, there are still barriers to integrated accumulation, for example in terms of access, fragmentation, and quality assurance. One short-term measure to counteract fragmentary, increasingly confusing, and overlapping provision would be to join forces in generating critical guides to resources available.

Participants also discussed recent and current efforts to integrate systematically, and make available, existent research evidence on topics of relevance to practice and policy. It was noted that, provided that such systematic syntheses of knowledge are critical, rigorous, and fit for purpose, then they can be embedded in exchanges that would empower educators in developing their practice. Syntheses can also point out gaps and uncertainties in existent research, substantively, theoretically, and methodologically. An excessive focus on narrow interpretations of “what works” might obscure substantive gaps, while unthinking preoccupation with short deadlines might move attention away from theoretical and methodological accumulation. Thus, accumulation of research concerns not only the synopsis of findings and availability of outputs, but also the cumulative character of the research process itself. In addition, developments in infrastructure and substantive and methodological cumulativeness vary from sector to sector and also from topic to topic.

Ultimately, existent resources and information are interpreted and integrated into personal knowledge structures of researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners alike. These structures are local, personal, diffuse, and only loosely networked. Knowledge accumulation at this level is relational: what we want to know something for alters our understanding as we integrate information into personal knowledge structures.

Further discussion of knowledge accumulation is available in the SFRE III Report and in the SFRE Final Report.