As I read your comments, you seemed to be saying to educational
researchers: "Study your own practices before you start trying to claim you
understand somebody else's practices." This is a point of view that I've
heard repeatedly from teachers. I've kept silent, but I think now I'd like
to respond.
Since I entered grad school, I have been struck time and again, by
how relevant the analysis done by researchers can be to practitioners. I'm
not just speaking of education. For example, I've been a widow, and I've
been struck by the accuracy of the research done by psychologists who
haven't experienced the death of a spouse into the changes in someone's life
after such a loss. They know a lot more than many of my closest friends and
relatives about what I've been through, believe me. Also, I've been a
journalist, and I've been struck by the accuracy of observations of the
newsroom culture done by non-journalist sociolinguists.
In general, I am coming more and more to feel that analysts do serve
a useful role in our society and the price is high if we ignore them.
Consider the case of Marcia Clark. Remember how she refused to listen to an
"ivory tower" sociologist whose focus groups suggested that her prosecution
of OJ Simpson wouldn't go over well with a black female jury? She claimed
that, as a seasoned litigator, she knew in her gut that she had a good
connection with black women. The sociologist pointed out that this so-called
gut connection wasn't the issue. The issue to the black women was OJ and
what he stood for within the black culture, and Nicole, and what she stood
for within the black culture. Johnnie Cochran heeded his analyst, who
reached the same conclusion. Marcia snubbed hers. We all see who got the
last laugh on that one.
As you point out in one of your other messages, it's frustrating for
teachers to be constantly evaluated by administrators according to a
check-list that grew out of some educational researcher's work. I agree
that this type of interaction is problematic and often personally painful,
but I'm not so sure that educational research is the primary problem. The
problem is, in part, interpersonal: job evaluations are never a picnic for
anyone in any profession, and, by the way, they're particularly painful in
the majority of professions that don't have tenure.
The problem is also related to the factory-like structure of
schools. Flexible ideas become rigid prescriptions in the school culture
very quickly.
The prescriptive use of educational research is problematic. To my mind, it
misses the very point of educational research. The most fruitful aspect of
educational research is not its prescriptive use, but its power to offer
options and alternatives when a pedagogical or social problem arises in
classroom practice. Teachers often are too constrained by daily practice to
reflect upon their work. Educational researchers, on the other hand, receive
a specific type of training that requires extensive reflection. They are
trained in scientific methods of observation and analysis, and they are
trained to view situations from various theoretical points of view. Perhaps
teachers need to be trained more like this...But even if they are, I still
think the need for analysis will remain.
Anyway, many of us operate on autopilot in many aspects of our
lives, and many of us, after years in the field, feel that "our gut" is more
knowledgable than anybody else's observations or analysis could be. But,
from my point of view, that's the beginning of the end. That's when your
mind is closing down and headed toward the mothballs. Better to stay open,
ready to take the hits, and to learn no matter how hard it may be. When used
right, educational research helps to make us more conscious and thoughtful
about our choices, and helps us to argue our choices more rationally.
As to "best practices." I have a problem with the title of this
discussion thread. In all my reading of educational research, I do not
recall any researcher claiming that his or her findings revealed the "best"
practice across the board. Certainly, we can advocate certain practices in
our research, based on certain conditions and findings. But only the users
of the research can determine what is "best" about our findings. The real
issue here is what school culture DOES with our research and how our
findings get situated in everyday practice.
As an aside, I do think that higher education will be in for a round
of educational research and/or efficiency and management research in the
future because there's pressure to bring down the costs of higher ed. But
until now, from what I can tell, the government and grant money has been
focused on solving the problems identified in standard achievement tests at
the primary and secondary level, particularly in math and science.
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Louise Yarnall
UCLA
Graduate School of Education and Information Science
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"Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what you now do
not know." - Rembrandt
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