Chapter 20
Research in the Workplace:
The Possibilities for Practitioner
and Organisational Learning Offered
by a School-University Research
Partnership
Leon Benade, Bill Hubbard and Leanne Lamb
20.1 Introduction
Educational research being‘done to’or‘about’teachers is the more likely con-
vention than research‘done with’participants. There are many reasons for this
condition, but arguably more important is the effect, which is the alienation of
education practitioners from understanding some of the core processes affecting their
daily work. Education (or‘learning’as some would prefer), we are told, is a lifelong
activity; thus, it should not be assumed that teachers cease learning after graduation.
Researchinthe workplace andaboutthe workplace, carried outwithteachers can
make a material difference to the way they conceptualise their work, talk about their
work, and thus to the way they go about their work. Education researchers are
uniquely positioned to support teachers’ work given their privileged access to
flexible time, which their school-based colleagues are unlikely to share. In addition,
they have access to resources not generally available to the public, and are able to
harness and develop intellectual capital also not freely available to their school-based
colleagues (in short, academics have the luxury of developing‘head space’on issues
of significance). In their turn, schools offer education researchers a‘living lab’,a
‘chalk-face’,ora‘trench’on the‘front line’, so to speak. Schools provide education
researchers what no university setting or any number of journal articles or books can
L. Benade (&)L. Lamb
Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
e-mail: [email protected]
L. Lamb
e-mail: [email protected]
B. Hubbard
Rosehill College, Auckland, New Zealand
e-mail: [email protected]
©Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017
M.A. Peters et al. (eds.),A Companion to Research in Teacher Education,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4075-7_20
299