Is educational research(ing) a profession?

Examining issues of professional status and developmentalism Linda Evans, School of Education, University of Leeds [email protected]

The impetus

 Questionable quality of educational research  Interest in the sociology of the professions  professionalism  professionality  Donald McIntyre (1996 BERA presidential address):  ‘How helpful and how necessary is it for at least some of us to see ourselves as professional educational researchers?’

Professionalism, professionality and professions:

concepts and substance What defines a profession?

 McIntyre: professionalism:  expertise    extensive knowledge creative intelligence a degree of perfectionism  Professionalism as occupational/social control  Professionalism as a service level agreement  Professionalism incorporates homogeneity

My interpretation of professionalism

  Homogeneity is elusive  underpinned by the diversity of individuality Professionalism is the ‘plural’ of individuals’ professionalities  professionality writ large   Hoyle (1970s) distinguished between professionalism and professionality:  professionalism – status-related  professionality – relates to individual practitioners’ skills, knowledge, procedures, attitudes ‘extended’-‘restricted’ professionality continuum

‘Restricted’ and ‘Extended’ Professionals (adapted from Hoyle, 1975)

‘restricted’ professionals:  adopt an intuitive approach to practice   use skills derived from practical experience do not reflect on or analyse their practice   are unintellectual in outlook and attitudes avoid change and are set in their ways ‘extended’ professionals:  adopt a rational approach to practice   use skills developed from both theory and practice are reflective and analytical practitioners   adopt intellectual approaches to the job experiment with and welcome new ideas

My definitions

 Professionality is:

an ideologically-, attitudinally-, intellectually-, and epistemologically-based stance on the part of an individual, in relation to the practice of the profession to which s/he belongs, and which influences her/his professional practice.

 Professionalism is:

professionality-influenced practice that is consistent with commonly-held consensual delineations of a specific profession and that both contributes to and reflects perceptions of the profession’s purpose and status and the specific nature, range and levels of service provided by and expertise prevalent within the profession, as well as the ethical code underpinning it.

Key components of professionalism

         What practitioners do How they do it What they know and understand Where and how they acquire their knowledge and understanding What kinds of attitudes they hold What codes of behaviour they adhere to What purpose(s) they perform What quality of service they provide The level of consistency incorporated into the above

Key components of professionalism

subjective professionalism intellectual component comprehensive dimension epistemological dimension rationalistic dimension attitudinal component perceptional dimension evaluative dimension motivational dimension functional component processual dimension procedural dimension productive dimension

The intellectual component of

component comprehensive dimension

professionalism

What do practitioners know and What does the professional understand?

knowledge base comprise?

Are there specialist areas?

Are there minimum (general) practitioner knowledge requirements?

epistemological dimension What is the basis of practitioners’ knowledge?

Common sense and experience?

Research and/or scholarship?

•In which disciplines/subjects?

•What depth?

•What width?

•Contextual differences?

rationalistic dimension To what extent do practitioners apply reason to decision making?

Is practice underpinned by rationality, intuition or a mediation of the two?

The attitudinal component of

component perceptual dimension

professionalism

How do practitioners perceive things What perceptions do practitioners hold?

(issues, situations, people, activity, etc.)?

How do they perceive their own profession and its purpose?

What perceptions do they

not

hold?

How widespread/consensual are specific perceptions?

Are there any key/core perceptions?

evaluative dimension How do practitioners evaluate things (issues, situations, people, activity, etc.)?

How do they evaluate their own profession and its purpose?

What values do practitioners hold?

How widespread/consensual are these values?

Are there any key/core values?

motivational dimension What is the basis of practitioners’ motivation?

What factors influence motivation?

How motivated are practitioners?

What motivates them?

The functional component of

component processual dimension

professionalism

What processes do practitioners gathering data?

examining?

apply to their practice?

analysing?

disseminating?

writing/composing written material?

learning?

collegiality?

procedural dimension productive dimension What procedures do practitioners apply to their practice?

What hierarchical procedures operate within the workforce?

What stratification exists within the workforce?

practitioners’ modes of communicating and interacting?

mode(s) of meeting contractual requirements?

How are responsibility and authority distributed?

What layers of practice exist?

What is the nature of practitioners’ output?

How much do practitioners produce? (or ‘do’?) What (if any) productive yardsticks guide them?

What do practitioners ‘do’ at work – their remit and responsibilities?

Is the workload determined by the clock – set hours?

Is workload determined by the task – in response to need?

Is educational research(ing) a profession?

 On the basis of homogeneity – consistency of excellent practice and service – no, educational research is not a profession:  underpinned by a diversity reflecting individuals’ professionality orientations  quality of research produced is variable  much of it is low quality

‘Extended’ and ‘Restricted’ Educational Researcher Professionality

The researcher located at the ‘restricted’ extreme of the professionality continuum typically

conducts research that lacks rigour; draws upon basic research skills; fails to develop or extend her/his methodological competence; utilises only established research methods; fails to develop basic research findings; perceives research methods as tools and methodology as a task-directed, utilitarian process; applies low level analysis to research data; perceives individual research studies as independent and free-standing; : perceives individual research studies as finite and complete; struggles to criticise literature and others’ research effectively; publishes mainly in ‘lower grade’ academic journals and in professional journals/magazines; is associated mainly with research findings that fall into the ‘tips for practitioners’ category of output.

The researcher located at the ‘extended’ extreme of the professionality continuum typically

: conducts highly rigorous research; draws upon basic and advanced research skills; strives constantly to develop and extend her/his methodological competence; adapts established research methods and develops methodology; generates and develops theory from research findings; perceives research methodology as a field of study in itself; strives constantly to apply deep levels of analysis to research data; recognises the value of, and utilises, comparative analysis, meta-analysis, synthesis, replication, etc.; constantly reflects upon, and frequently revisits and refines, his/her own studies; has developed the skill of effective criticism and applies this to the formulation of his/her own arguments; publishes frequently in ‘high ranking’ academic journals; disseminates ground-breaking theoretical issues and contributes to, and takes a lead in developing, discourse on theory.

Is educational research(ing) a profession?

 The concept of a profession is changing.

 the ‘professionalization of everyone’ (Williams)  ‘Profession’ is no longer an exclusive label.

 Therefore, educational research(ing) may be considered a profession.

From professionalism to ‘developmentalism’

Developmentalism:  a commitment to (self)-develop(ment)  professional development  a new basis for evaluating occupations  How developmentalist a culture is manifested?

 How developmentalist are individual practitioners?

 a new criterion for professional quality

Features of developmentalism Practitioners with strong developmentalist attitudes will typically:



be analytical;



be self-critical;



manifest perfectionist tendencies;



lie towards the ‘extended’ end of the professionality continuum.

Educational research(ing): a non developmentalist ‘profession’?

For the most part:

  no evident commitment to CPD compared with other professions:  social work  pharmacy  teaching  medicine ‘ostensible’ CPD    no culture of developmentalism ‘riding a bicycle’ culture

There are individual exceptions to this.