Strategic Forum for Research in Education

• Cymraeg

This webpage provides a brief overview of education research in Wales (2008-2009) and links for more information.

The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), established in 1999, has developed a wide range of education policies (summarised in The Learning Country and The Learning Country: Vision into Action) that are creating an education system that is divergent in several ways from its English counterpart. The Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS) is charged with the implementation of this vision and this includes the development of evidence-informed policy. Although there are other organisations commissioning and using education research, such as the Institute of Welsh Affairs and individual local authorities, WAG is undoubtedly the biggest commissioner and user of such research within Wales. It has recently created an interactive research and analysis portal to share up to date information with all who are interested in education and skills in Wales.

On behalf of WAG, the General Teaching Council for Wales administers an individually focused continuing professional development (CPD) programme which enables approximately 4,500 teachers a year to undertake professional development including practitioner research. This programme has been the subject of a series of reports by the education inspectorate, Estyn.

 The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) supports higher education in Wales and works with the sector to promote high quality teaching and learning. A part of this mission is to ‘promote a dynamic and sustainable research base in Wales’. Both formula and initiative funding are used to support this aim.

 However education research in Wales is in overall decline and this has been thoroughly documented in the Wales Report for the SFRE Forum I. The recent RAE results for education for institutions in Wales has confirmed this trend and is likely to further contribute to an increasing differentiation between research-intensive and teaching-intensive institutions.

 Cardiff University has a thriving School of Social Sciences which has extensive expertise in education and lifelong learning. Particular strengths include: education, skills and the labour market; education policy, devolution and governance; education, inequalities and social welfare; education and identities, and; the psycho-social dimensions of education. It also has significant experience of research capacity building in education and innovation in research methods.

 Aside from Cardiff, there are only pockets of research expertise to be found in the other ten Welsh higher education institutions with education and related departments. These include bilingualism, early years education and ICT.

 As recommended in the Review of Initial Teacher Training Provision in Wales (Furlong et al., 2006) teacher education is undergoing a process of re-organisation. It is anticipated that following some re-configuration amongst existing providers that there will be three regional centres of teacher education in North/Mid Wales, South West Wales and South East Wales. Furlong et al. (Furlong et al., 2006; Furlong et al., 2007) have recommended that each of these centres should develop a research culture at its core.

 A number of recent initiatives have contributed to the development of education research capacity in Wales. In 2004 the UK Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) facilitated a funding investment by ESRC and WAG to support four research projects in Wales, and all were successfully completed by 2008. The shared participation in TLRP by Welsh researchers contributed to the beginnings of an all-Wales capacity building network. Funded as a pilot by HEFCW and ESRC, the Welsh Education Research Network (WERN), is based on collaboration between all the Welsh HEIs with education and related departments. It aims to build capacity by supporting groups of researchers from different institutions to work collaboratively, and in so doing develop research skills together. At the end of its first year (2007-8) an external evaluation judged it to be successful and its funding is presently extended to July 2009.

[updated March 2009]

 Further information

In addition to the HE sector, funded education research in Wales is also undertaken by the Welsh Unit of the National Foundation for Education Research – NFER Welsh Unit – and private sector research consultancies.

 DCELLS has recently a report on its research procurement practices; the brief also includes an examination of the implications of procurement practices for capacity building.

 The SFRE has stimulated greater dialogue between DCELLS and the HE sector. Working under the auspices of WERN, but sponsored by DCELLS, two meetings have been held since Forum I to discuss issues of education research and capacity building.

Education research capacity in Wales is in facing a challenging time (see the Wales Report for the first Forum: Daugherty and Davies, 2008). At this crucial time SFRE has played an important role in helping to develop an informed dialogue between key stakeholders. The Fora in Harrogate and Reading have created a valuable ‘space’ for policymakers, practitioners and the research community in Wales to share, explore and discuss their perspectives. A good example of improved dialogue is a successful dissemination event, held in November 2009, that attracted over 80 delegates including policy makers, practitioners and researchers. Delegates debated the findings and implications of the TLRP Wales review led by Professor John Furlong.

Collaboration between all who share responsibility for Welsh educational research has developed over the last couple of years. Perhaps this is because of the crisis in capacity but it is also recognition that working together, particularly in a small country, can be very effective.

A key development in building research capacity in Wales has been the establishment of the Welsh Education Research Network (WERN) supported by the WAG via the Higher Education Funding Council in Wales (HEFCW), and the ESRC. This network has been successful in building partnership between all HEIs in Wales to build capacity in education research.

Under the auspices of WERN and supported by the Welsh Assembly Government, the discussions that have been started at the Fora have been continued in inter-institutional meetings in Wales. For example, in March 2009, the new Director of DCELLS, the Chief Executive of HEFCW and representatives from all institutions spent a day in mid- Wales talking about the priorities for future education research development in Wales.

As WERN’s funding ends, the HEIs, The Welsh Assembly Government and HEFCW have engaged in a productive dialogue about how to build on the research collaboration between institutions that has developed. It can be said that these discourses between academics and policymakers have become much more the ‘norm’ in Wales not least because of the influence of SFRE.

[updated December 2009]