The practice of using research well in schools

Background Efforts to strengthen the use of research evidence in educational policy and practice improvement are widespread internationally. There are growing calls for research use in education not only to be better supported, but also better understood. In particular, there is a need for empirical insights into the process of using research well, as a practice, from a practitioner perspective.Purpose This article seeks to address this need by shedding light on what using research well in schools looks like and feels like for educators. It is distinctive in sharing empirical (as opposed to conceptual) findings about using research well and presenting inductive (as opposed to deductive) insights into educators’ perspectives.Method The work was based on thematic analyses of qualitative surveys (n = 492) and interviews (n = 27) with teachers and school leaders across 414 schools in four Australian states. As part of a wider five-year study, the data collection processes were deliberately exploratory with the aim of listening to educators’ views about what they believed was involved in using research well in practice.Findings The analysis identified six characteristics of using research well that were important to study participants. These portrayed the practice as: purposeful; curiosity-driven; collective; professional; embedded; and time- and effort-dependent.Conclusion The study illustrates that using research well is about practice as much as it is about research; it is an invested, professional undertaking; and it is a social and organisational process. These insights suggest that approaches to research-informed improvement should recognise the centrality of practice, the significance of professionalism and the importance of process.