Research Activities

Qualitative Research in Teaching and Learning: Quality, Innovation and Future Directions

A seminar series organised by ESRI in collaboration with the Research Capacity Building Network of the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme
December 2003 – February 2005

This seminar series provided a forum for critical discussion of issues of quality and ‘capacity’ in qualitative research in teaching and learning, and the potential of new and emerging methods and approaches.

Seminar 1: Quality in qualitative research: setting a new agenda
4 December 2003, Manchester Metropolitan University

The seminar included a critical discussion of the Cabinet Office report Quality in Qualitative Evaluation: A Framework for Assessing Research Evidence (Spencer, Ritchie, Lewis & Dillon 2003). The lively discussion that ensued resulted in a special issue of RCBN’s journal, Building Research Capacity (No 8: available online at http://www.cf.ac.uk/socsi/capacity/Journal.html )

Speakers:

Saville Kushner (University of the West of England)
Ray Pawson ( Leeds University).

Seminar 2: Developing research capacity in qualitative inquiry
12 May 2004, Cambridge University

The second seminar explored some of the tensions and possibilities of developing research capacity in contexts of qualitative inquiry. At a time when policy-makers and funding agencies are increasingly focusing on the capacity of researchers to carry out “quality” research, the seminar examined how qualitative researchers are responding to these demands. It presented a range of views on the commensurability of qualitative research with current conceptions of capacity building, and the extent to which the interests and intentions of qualitative research could be situated within these current frameworks.

Speakers:

Ian Stronach (MMU)
Jan Winter ( Bristol University).

Respondents:

Alan Dyson ( Manchester University).
Colleen McLaughlin ( Cambridge University)

Seminar 3: Situating qualitative research in evidence-based research and systematic review agendas
24 June 2004, University of Sheffield

The seminar critically explored a range of different approaches to evidence-based and systematic review methods and methodologies (e.g. meta-analysis, Bayesian meta-analysis, realist synthesis, meta-ethnography) that have currency for educational research and policy development, and their congruencies and disparities with the interests, theoretical concerns and practice of qualitative research in teaching and learning.

Speakers:

Mary Dixon-Woods ( University of Leicester)
Martyn Hammersley (Open University)
Liz Spencer ( University of Essex)
Harry Torrance (MMU).

Seminar 4: The Educational Future and Innovative Qualitative Research: International Perspectives
3 & 4 February 2005, Manchester Metropolitan University

As the culmination of the series, this two-day seminar explored international perspectives on possible futures for qualitative research, led by speakers who are working at the leading edge of methodological and critical development in education and the social sciences. It was clear that certain controversies and issues that are familiar to UK researchers are also to be found in the US and Australian contexts. Recurring themes included relationships between applied research or evaluation, policy and politics; the politicising of debates around ‘quality’; the mismatch between research and policy constructions of identity, voice and participation . Further details

Invited presentations:

Patti Lather ( Ohio State University)
Erica Burman (MMU)
Jennifer Greene ( University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Bronwyn Davies ( University of Western Sydney, Australia)