Unit 4 - Theorising the links with school practices

Axis 4 of the RT Education ‘Thinking about the link with the field’ brings together around a hundred researchers from a variety of disciplines, who are seeking to think about and improve the link between educational research and the plurality of fields, be they school, training or learning-centered fields.

The initial discussions and reflections in this area focused mainly on the issue of improving the training of (future) teachers through research.  The issue of linking research and training is not new. However, this link is difficult to establish and consolidate. It is still too often reduced to a few hours of teaching, centered on approaches and methods, or to the sole production of a dissertation to be defended. We have observed that many professional sectors are asking themselves the same type of questions; for example, mediation, healthcare (nursing training institutes) or social educators.

The question of training in scientific culture remains unanswered, and should be a priority for those involved in training and research.

One of the underlying issues is to establish and encourage a scientific culture and approach among professionals, by helping them to break out of their routines and their (un)certainties, while instilling in them a degree of doubt so that they accept scientific reading and analysis.

Finally, the issue of constantly updating knowledge and methods is at the heart of professional development. How can we, on our own and/or as part of a team, disseminate, read and compare what scientists are telling us about an issue and what professionals are doing on a day-to-day basis? Underlying all this is the question of the reliability of sources and scientific reference knowledge, which must come in support of reflective professional practice.

In the future, the members of this theme would like to take stock of all the initiatives and mechanisms that already exist to encourage links between research and the field. The aim will be to document how access is gained to the field, how partners of the field are included upstream, how they are trained, etc., but also to look at the legal and ethical aspects, and at the traces of the activity that enable us to understand what has worked and what has not. The question of transferring scientific results to teacher training will also be considered. To this end, the next few months will focus on two priorities: a more detailed analysis of what already exists among partner organizations and components, and the implementation of a national survey, particularly among INSPEs. A synthesis and feedback day will be then organized for the members of the Axis and the RT.