Research Learning Communities are groups of teachers who come together to engage with research in order to enhance both their practice and also the practice of their colleagues. Each RLC typically comprises eight to 12 teachers from four to six schools. Participants are often senior or middle leaders as well as opinion formers. Over the course of a school year, the RLC process involves four whole day workshops which lead participating teachers through a research informed cycle of enquiry. In between workshops participants are expected to work with school colleagues to share research knowledge and to roll out research informed teaching strategies. Workshops are typically facilitated by Institute of Education (IOE) staff and we are also developing online formats and a MOOC (a Massive Online Open access Course) to help with this process. To discuss how you might access and engage in RLC activity further please email: chris.brown.14@ucl.ac.uk
Change leadership and engaging the right people
RLCs are a pioneering approach to help teachers engage in evidence-informed practice (EIP). One of the core idea underpinning the RLC approach is that the successful roll out of new practices is dependent on effective change leadership. In other words, initiating innovation represents the introduction of something new and potentially counter cultural. As such, there is a risk that new practices are rejected by those required to adopt them. Correspondingly, the effective roll out of research-informed interventions will be dependent on there being ‘the right people in the room’: those most likely to make change happen in schools (e.g. those with the influence and authority to lead change). This means these ‘right people’ must be identified and selected to take part in research engagement activity: with their participation ensuring that the implementation of research-informed practices is both prioritized and remains top of mind (Southworth, 2009).
In the case of RLCs the notion of the ‘right people’ is connected to school leadership. The importance of effective school leadership to school improvement is now undisputed (Leithwood et al., 2004; Earley, 2013). One implication of this however is that, for research use in schools to have any chance of becoming a reality, it must be something that school leaders actively believe in.
Correspondingly for EIP to materialize in practice, school leaders need to do two things. First, they should actively promote their vision for research use within their school, while simultaneously encouraging, facilitating and supporting their teachers to develop and adopt research-informed practices (Stoll and Fink, 1996). Second, and perhaps even more important, is that school leader involvement in RLC activity is also key. This is because having first hand involvement and experience in developing research-informed interventions also enables school leaders to ‘walk the talk’: to both demonstrate their commitment as well as engage in instructional leadership practices such as ‘modelling’, ‘monitoring’ and ‘mentoring and coaching’ (dialogue). As a result school leaders are able to not only showcase EIP but also actively support staff in the adoption of such practices, ensuring wider buy-in and take-up across the school (Southworth, 2009).
Opinion formers are teachers to whom colleagues often turn for trusted work related expertise and advice. Opinion formers may be in formal leadership positions but often they are not. This means that it is important to be able to both identify opinion formers and to involve them in the roll out of new initiatives.
It is also clear that leadership, when considered as a process of influence, can be undertaken by more than just those possessing ‘formal’ responsibility (Ogawa and Bossert, 1995).So as a key feature of the RLC approach the notion of opinion formers was developed. This was derived from the idea that, if we explore who it is that teachers turn to for work related expertise, and then identify which of these individuals is turned to most, we will have likely pinpointed the teacher(s) most able to disseminate research-informed practice to others. What’s more, if this individual (or individuals) is also centrally positioned in other areas (e.g. in terms of a school’s trust or support networks) then they can potentially also galvanize other teachers to adopt research-informed teaching practices. As such, for the purposes of the RLC approach, opinion formers are defined as practitioners who are centrally placed in terms of responding to advice seeking and in providing support, As such they are able to act as conduits for both mobilizing opinion and the adoption of new practices.