Developing a Research Culture with Trainee Teachers on International Initial Teacher Training Programmes

Postgraduate initial teacher training from the UK perspective is a fast-paced 36-week full time programme. In parallel with assessed teaching and subject studies, trainees carry out classroom-based research. To do this, they draw on approaches to evidence-informed teaching that include taking the best available evidence from research and practical experience to answer context-specific research questions. This paper looks at the case of trainees who undertake their PGCE programme internationally i.e. they remain based in their international schools for the practical elements but engage in the wider programme via distance learning. One of the greatest regrets of university staff working with these trainees was that the research knowledge gained was contained only within the assessment system and that the trainees would leave, taking this wealth of knowledge with them. The fear was that these emerging practitioner researchers would see their research work as being completed solely for the purpose of certification, without recognising themselves as beginning a career-long process of reflective research in their schools. From this, the Sunderland Reflective Action in Education project (SunRAE) was developed in response to the challenge of building a community of research-informed practice when working remotely and a/synchronously across different international time zones. It is a student research conference, journal and podcast initiative integrated into the PGCE (Distance Learning) programmes. Linking this initiative to the wider research of the contribution of initial teacher education to the professional learning of teachers in schools, this critical reflection paper connects with the wider debates around developing research culture and makes links between the importance of both for creating better school-based practitioner researchers. The paper reflects that the same themes of widening participation, raising awareness, and reducing silo working that are important for all researcher development are relevant for school-based teacher researchers.