Official support for educational research in neighbouring countries

1
Official support for educational research in
neighbouring countries

• Allyson Macdonald
• Research Centre
• Iceland University of Education
• 18 December 2002

2
Overview

• Nordic countries Norway, Sweden, Finland
• European countries United Kingdom, Holland
• 6th Framework proposals
• Summary
• Iceland what opportunities exist?

3
Norway

• Competence, education and value creation
  1996-2000
• http//www.nsd.uib.no/forskning/kuv/
• Knowledge development in professional education
  and practice 2000-2004
• http//www.program.forskningsradet.no/kupp/
• Knowledge, education and learning 2003-2007
• http//program.forskningsradet.no/utdanning/

4
Norway - VGK 1996-2002

• Competence, education and value creation
• Budget Nok 11.1 mill. pr. year
• Academic disciplinesMultidisciplinary -
  Sociology, Pedagogy, Economy, Political science,
  History, Linguistics.
• Doctoral/Post-doctoral fellowships 19 doctoral
  fellowships 8 Sociology, 8 Pedagogy, 3 Economics
  and 1 Linguistics.3 Post-doctoral fellowships.2
  Pedagogy and 1 Economics

5
Norway KUPP 2000-2004

• Knowledge development in professional education
  and practice
• KUPP - 32 projects at 15 universities
• Five years (2000 - 2004).
• Budget - MNOK 6 per year.

6
Norway 2003-2007

• Knowledge, education and learning programme
• Budget 2 milj. Euros
• Topics
• Interplay between education system, home,
  workplace and voluntary sector as areas for
  lifelong learning
• Leadership organisation and management
• Learning processes and areas of knowledge

7
Sweden Research Council

• Scientific Councils
• Humanities and Social Sciences
• Medicine
• Natural and Engineering Sciences
• Committee for Educational Science
• http//www.vr.se/utbildningsvet/index.asp
• funding of multidisciplinary, basic research
  especially w.r.t. teaching profession
• monitoring of educational research
• follow international development to promote
  collaboration

8
Sweden - 2001-2003/5

• Funds for research in educational science
  programme managed by the Committee for
  Educational Science
• Types of grants
• National doctoral schools
• Projects and project groups
• Networking
• Post-doctoral scholarships
• International cooperation, travel grants

9
Sweden research in educational science

• Budget 2001 20 million SEK, 50 applications
• Budget 2002 80 million SEK, 150 applications
• Budget 2003 132 million SEK, 199 applications
• 2003 44 projects funded and 16 seed grants

10
Finland research programmes

• Ten programmes under Academy of Finland, Culture
  and Society two on education
• (1994-1998) Effectiveness of Education
• (1995-2000) Russia and Eastern Europe Research
  Programme
• (1996-2001) Information Research, TIETO
• (1997-1999) Science and Science Policy Research
  Programme
• (1998-2001) Economic Crisis of the 1990s
  Reasons, Events and Consequences, LAMA

11
Finland research programmes

• (1999-2002) Media Culture Research Programme
• (2000-2003) On both sides of the Gulf of Bothnia
  /Svenskt i Finland - finskt i Sverige
• (2000-2003) Marginalisation, Inequality and
  Ethnic Relations in Finland, SYREENI
• (2001-2004) Finnish Companies and the Challenges
  of Globalization, LIIKE
• (2002-2006) Life as Learning, LEARN,
• www.aka.fi/learn/

12
Finland - Life as learning, LEARN

• Budget 2002-2006, total EUR 5.1 Million
• Coordinated by the Academy
• Other Finnish government agencies participate in
  the funding
• the National Board of Education,
• the Ministry of Education,
• the National Technology Agency (Tekes) and
• the Finnish Work Environment Fund.

13
Finland - Life as learning, LEARN

• Themes To redefine and to examine
• the concept of learning,
• the social and cultural contexts of learning,
• knowledge creation,
• working environments, and
• new teachership
• 17 projects, of which 3 consortia, altogether 23
  projects, started 2002

14
United Kingdom - TLRP

• Teaching and Learning Research Programme,
  Economic and Social Research Council (2000-2008)
• Phase 1 (2000-2003)
• Phase 2 (2000/1-2005)
• Phase 3 (2003/2008)
• http//www.tlrp.org
• To date, 26m from the Higher Education Funding
  Council for England, the Scottish Executive, the
  Welsh Assembly, the Northern Ireland Executive
  and the Department for Education and Skills.

15
United Kingdom - TLRP

• Themes
• Learning outcomes
• Lifecourse
• Synergies (multidisciplinary approaches)
• Research capacity
• Transformation of knowledge
• Research impact

16
Holland - PROO

• The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific
  Research (NWO)
• http//www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/
• Research Council for the Social and Behavioural
  Sciences (MaGW), in The Hague
• Programming Council for Educational
  
• Research (PROO)

17
Holland - PROO

• Prepares research programmes in
• - pre-primary education
• - primary education
• - secondary education
• - teacher education
• - vocational education
• Other programmes in related areas e.g. cognition
• Participates in international comparative studies

18
Holland - PROO

• PROO programme 2004-2007 in preparation
• PROO programme 2003 in process
• Previous programmes
• 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 realised

19
6th Framework - educational research

• Network of Excellence
• INTERLEARN proposal development led by Finland
  (research on learning)
• Integrated project
• PROLEARN - proposal development led by Norway
  (research on professional learning)
• ERA-NET
• ERA net on educational research - proposal
  development led by United Kingdom

20
Summary programme structure

• Support at national level through Research
  Councils, also from other funding bodies
• Programmes are from 3 to 5 (8) years
• Programme preparation 2-3 years
• National conferences, web-sites, commissioned
  reports to guide development
• Funding/year from 40 m.kr. to 1320 m.kr.
• Management boards/steering committees members
  from universities, research institutes and
  sometimes from other countries

21
Summary programme themes

• Traditional themes
• learning, learning outcomes, the new teachership
• Newer themes a broader view
• social and cultural contexts of learning
• multidisciplinary approaches
• Emerging themes - beyond the school/classroom
• lifelong learning, life as learning,
  post-secondary
• work-related learning, working environments
• knowledge management, knowledge transformation
• research capacity, research impact

22
Iceland opportunities and barriers

• Dilemma Iceland has been invited to join
  cooperative projects but we feel we have limited
  national support
• What opportunities exist?
• Develop research capacity within institutions
  e.g. KHÍ, HA and HÍ, Námsmatsstofnun
• Evaluate educational research and identify
  promising areas
• Create awareness of need for educational research
• What could be the role of the Research Council?