Where are the future D&T educational researchers?

Matt McLain, Senior Lecturer in Education and Professional Learning, Liverpool John Moores University, m.n.mclain@ljmu.ac.uk

In May 2021, the D&T Association launched a research steering group comprised of stakeholders involved in teaching, teacher education and educational research. The group was tasked to engage with and actively support educators to use and do research. One of the first actions was to launch an online survey to find out explore the level of interest in and commitment to education research. A short article outlining emerging findings will be published in the next issue of D&T Practice, written by Alison Hardy and I. This blogpost will pick up on a few of the emerging implications for teacher education, particularly preservice teacher education/training.

How did you train to teach?

Almost two thirds of respondents indicated that they trained to teach on a postgraduate route, which for about a decade is almost exclusively how teachers enter secondary teaching in England (i.e. doing a related degree, then completing a PGCE, or similar ITT programme). Most of the remaining respondents indicated that they followed an undergraduate route, which may be explained by the demographic that was skewed towards teachers who trained between 1990 and 2015, when both undergraduate and postgraduate routes existed side by side. Almost half of respondents indicated they completed a dissertation as part of their ITE (about a third more than those who completed an undergraduate degree), and almost two thirds of those had a focus on D&T. In addition, almost three quarters of respondents have not undertaken further postgraduate studies (e.g. MA, PhD, etc.) since qualifying, which is where teachers are most likely to engage with structured and supported research.

How engaged are you with research?

However, when asked about having conducted, presented or published research (a very broad range of outcomes), a third responded in the affirmative, but fewer than 1 on 10 described themselves as being research active. Furthermore, comments from the latter group covering a range of definitions of research: from studying on academic or professional learning courses, to curriculum and subject knowledge development. It may not be surprising, therefore, that the volume of published research in D&T from primary and secondary education in the UK is in decline, particularly evident in the D&TA's own research journal - Design and Technology Education: An International Journal (DATE). 4 in 10 of respondents stating that they were aware of the DATE and just over half that they engaged with it once a year or more. If this data is representative of the D&T community, there is scope for encouraging more teachers and teacher educators to write for the journal and for it to be more visible in D&TA communications and teacher training courses.

So where have all the researchers gone?

The results of the survey show a clear interest in research to inform practice. So there is definitely an itch that needs scratching - the question is, do we have the means to satisfy that itch! More than 9 in 10 were interested in some form of web portal with links to D&T research. At the other end of the spectrum, over 4 in 10 were interested in writing workshops, indicating a nascent desire to communicate with a wider audience. Clearly, for those of use working in University-based teacher education, there are structures to support academic writing. But what happens after student teachers graduate? And where are will the future generations of researchers (in the UK) come from?

What can we do as teacher educators?

I would argue that, as teacher educators, we have a duty to the profession to be sowing the seeds of the idea that some of our beginning teachers may go on to publish research on D&T, beyond (and even in spite of) future Masters and Doctoral studies. However, this is a big leap! I usually get stunned looks from my student teachers when I say "in 5 years' time, when you're heads of department..." every week (seriously). So becoming a researcher may seem even more unattainable. What if we were to take a 'spot it and celebrate it' approach and encourage students doing interesting work with mentors on placement in schools to start small. Such as writing an article for a professional magazine, like D&T Practice, a guest blogpost or podcast interview, like Talking D&T or Designed for Life? You might consider these 'gateways' to the 'harder' research outputs. There are examples out there: two of my student teachers in 2020/21 wrote articles for D&T Practice and Alison has interview early career and established teachers on the Talking D&T. And (dare I say), we as teacher educators should be modelling scholarly and research writing about our subject! One of the aims of this Blog is to encourage D&T teacher educators to share ideas about subject specific learning; whether that is initial teacher education (ITE) or continuing professional development (CPD).

Hopefully actions like this, and other examples of early career mentoring, will encourage teachers to think about both doing and sharing research; and build on the knowledge base for the subject.

Watch this space (and on the D&TA website) for updates on the survey findings, as well as research activities that you and your student teachers can get involved with.