The perfect storm for teacher education research in English universities: the tensions of workload, expectations from leadership and research

Quickfall, A and Wood, P ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9707-0501, 2025. The perfect storm for teacher education research in English universities: the tensions of workload, expectations from leadership and research. Education Sciences, 15 (4): 434. ISSN 2227-7102

Preview

Text 2419192_Wood.pdf - Published version Download (703kB) | Preview

Abstract

In this paper, we report on data from our survey of the university Initial Teacher Education (ITE) sector in England, concerning responses to questions about perceptions of workload and research. Our survey collects responses annually (since 2021) from approximately 12% of the cohort, and includes questions on a variety of topics, with Likert scale and text responses. Here, we report on three interconnected areas with potential impacts on the future of teacher education in England, and with pertinent findings for other nations, including research expectations and opportunities, workload, and the extent to which university leaders understand ITE. Our data show that academics working in ITE face high workloads, and importantly, very little time for research, and in some cases, low expectations from their institutions in terms of their research output. We compare this picture with systematic review findings about the predominantly insider research nature of ITE research in England, and implications for a sector that has no time, energy, or opportunity to carry out research on their own practice and experience. We consider the impact of these patterns for teacher educators’ work and the longer-term sustainability of individuals, the sector, and the research evidence for teacher education.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Education Sciences
Creators:	Quickfall, A. and Wood, P.
Publisher:	MDPI
Date:	30 March 2025
Volume:	15
Number:	4
ISSN:	2227-7102
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.3390/educsci15040434 DOI 2419192 Other
Rights:	Copyright: © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Institute of Education
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	31 Mar 2025 14:52
Last Modified:	31 Mar 2025 14:52
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53329

Actions (login required)

Edit View

Statistics

Views

Downloads