Official support for educational research in other countries

1
Official support for educational research in
other countries

• Allyson Macdonald
• Research Centre
• Iceland University of Education
• 10 August 2004

2
Overview research programmes

• United Kingdom, Scotland
• The Antipodes Australia, New Zealand
• Nordic countries Norway, Finland, Sweden
• Europe and the 6th Framework
• OECD
• Summary
• Iceland what opportunities exist?

3
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.

4
United Kingdom - TLRP

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

5
Scotland

• Applied Educational Research
• The research programme will focus on three key
  themes
• learners, learning and teaching
• school management and governance and
• schools and social capital (exploiting the
  communitys potential).
• Scottish Executive 1 million (five years)
• SHEFC (Higher Education) 1 million (three years)

6
Australia

• The Government is committed to achieving the
  following outcomes
• Outcome 1 Individuals achieve high quality
  foundation skills and learning outcomes from
  schools and other providersOutcome 2 Individuals
  achieve relevant skills and learning outcomes
  from post school education and trainingOutcome 3
  Australia has a strong science, research and
  innovation capacity and is engaged
  internationally on science, education and
  training to advance our social development and
  economic growth.

7
Australia

• Department of Education, Science and Training
  (DEST) research is directed at issues of general
  interest or focused on one of the following six
  policy themes for 2003-2006
• Building a Learning Society 
• Addressing Access and Participation
• Advancing Science, Technology and Research
• Improving Systems, Performance and Capacity
• Excelling in Teaching and Learning
• Engaging Internationally.

8
New Zealand Teaching and Learning Research
Initiative

• PRINCIPLE ONEThe research projects within the
  TLRI will address themes of strategic importance
  to education in New Zealand.
•  PRINCIPLE TWOThe TLRI will draw on related
  international work and build upon New
  Zealand-based research evidence.
• PRINCIPLE THREEThe TLRI research will address
  the strategic themes and be forward looking.

9
New Zealand Teaching and Learning Research
Initiative

• PRINCIPLE FOURThe TLRI research will be
  designed to enable substantive and robust
  findings.
• PRINCIPLE FIVEThe TLRI will recognise the
  central role of the teacher in learning.
• PRINCIPLE SIXThe research projects within the
  TLRI will be undertaken as a partnership between
  researchers and practitioners.

10
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/

11
Norway 2003-2007

• Knowledge, education and learning programme
• Budget 2 million 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

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
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

15
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
• 2003 44 projects funded and 16 seed grants

16
6th Framework - educational research

• Networks of Excellence
• Integrated projects
• ERA-NETs
• ERA net on educational research - proposal
  development led by United Kingdom have attended
  two meetings, but only countries with a research
  programme can participate.

17
OECD Reviews

• New Zealand 2001
• England 2002
• Mexico 2003
• http//www.oecd.org/publications/

18

• Major changes are needed in the practice of
  teachers, researchers and policy makers in order
  to create a system-wide continuous improvement of
  the knowledge base.
• Teachers need to look beyond their schools for
  evidence and think rigorously about their
  practice.
• Policy makers need to "value" and apply research
  evidence in the development of policy and
  implementation.
• Researchers must work more closely with teachers
  to improve the knowledge base on education
  practices.
• These changes are beginning to take place in a
  number of OECD countries.  
• From OECD publication 962003031E1
• New Challenges for Educational Research

19
Summary

• 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
• Focus is often on researchers, policy-makers and
  practitioners
• New Zealand and Scotland school-oriented
• Norway and Finland lifelong learning

20
Summary

• Commissioned reports state-of-the-art reviews
• Strengthen capability
• capacity development, workshops, research
  training felloships, advisers
• Strengthen dissemination
• best practice research scholarships
• national conferences, web-sites,
• Seminars/themes/publications

21
Summary themes

• Traditional themes
• learning
• learning outcomes
• Newer themes a broader view
• social and cultural contexts of learning
• multidisciplinary approaches
• the new teachership

22
Summary - themes

• Emerging themes going beyond the school or
  classroom, building the knowledge base
• looking for use-inspired research
• lifelong learning, life as learning,
  post-secondary
• work-related learning, working environments
• knowledge management, knowledge transformation
• research capacity, research impact

23
Summary

• Funding/year from 40 m.kr. to 1320 m.kr.
• Management boards/steering committees members
  from universities, research institutes and
  sometimes from other countries
• Coordination committees