ABSTRACT
Canadian educational researchers have made substantial contributions to knowledge and improvement of practice, but their work could and should be more effective. In Canada, educational research is mainly funded by provincial governments. Such research, as well as that funded by the larger local school boards, is usually closely related to policy issues. Concerns about low levels of financial support for researcher-generated studies led to detailed examinations of Canadian educational research in the early 1980s.
Most educational research is conducted by university staff and graduate students. The relatively low level of support of education proposals by the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council has mainly resulted from small numbers of applications, procedures of the council, and difficulties in dealing with proposals which are closely related to practical matters such as curriculum development.
Partly because the control of education is vested in Canada's ten provinces and two territories, federal initiatives in educational research are minimal. Several national associations fund, conduct, sponsor or promote educational research.
A trend away from traditional research designs is becoming obvious in Canada as more emphasis is placed upon ethnographic and case study methods in particular. Some other trends and concerns involve Canadianization of educational research, the formation of research institutes, computer applications, the relationship between research and policy/practice, teacher-research linkages, communication and publication.
