ABSTRACT
We argued in Chapter 2 that engaging in research and using research findings have a part to play in a lecturer’s professionalism. In this chapter we introduce some distinctions originally developed for teachers working in the primary and secondary sectors of education which have been usefully applied to the tertiary sector. A central distinction is between education and educational research. We examine
this distinction drawing on the influential work of Elliott (2007) and argue that while it is useful for thinking about the distinctive nature of practitioner research, it should not be thought of as a categorical distinction, or to imply a value judgement, at least on our part, about the superiority of one form of research over another. Elliott characterised ‘education research’ as research on or about education and
‘educational research’ as research for education (Elliott 1978). He argued that practitioners, i.e. lecturers and other educators, were engaged in the latter. In drawing this contrast, he was pointing to major differences between two sorts of research endeavour. For instance, the former is ‘scientific’, employing technical or theoretical terms; the latter is based on common sense understandings. The former seeks lawlike generalisations, the latter a better understanding of situations and their likely consequences. Educational research is carried out with the explicit intention of improving educational practice or policy by those engaged in the practice. Elliott’s view is that the most congenial research form for this kind of research
is the interpretative or practical action research case study, which portrays and explains participants’ meanings, actions and intentions, with a view to bringing about research-informed change. As Elliott later argued, it is also educational in the sense that it aims to realise participants’ ‘educational values in action’ (Elliott 2006: 167). This type of research is therefore seen not only as a research approach but also as an invitation to reflect on the ideas and values informing what one does as an educator, and to learn from engaging in research. We argue later in the chapter that the boundaries between education and educa-
tional research are not as impermeable as Elliott’s 1978 account implies (Elliott 2006), but for now we acknowledge that the distinction usefully highlights quite radical differences between the two types of research endeavour in education, in
terms of purposes, the kind of knowledge aimed at, and the relationship between the researcher and the researched. We examine the main differences in greater detail below, and consider some objections to Elliott’s account and to the idea of practitioner research more generally.
