SPOTLIGHT ON: exploratory research

Clients often come to me asking for help to find out the answer to a question relating to the world of education, children or young people.

Sometimes they’d like help with translating the latest education policy, sometimes they would like to explore a hypothesis they’ve come up with, sometimes they would like to find out how something quite particular works in a school context.

I work with them to agree exactly what it is that they’re interested in, and then set about figuring out the best way to get the answers. I select the most appropriate tools to use, whether that’s analysing reports and evidence for a desk-based piece of research, running quantitative surveys or carrying out qualitative interviews or focus groups… or a combination of all of these.

One of the lovely things about my work is the variety it brings.

I’ve investigated how that science and maths are taught and led in primary schools; I’ve explored the way that schools have worked to overcome the challenges of recruiting teachers by employing people part-time who have a totally separate second job; I’ve looked at the effectiveness of a model of student-led science where a committee of pupils manage their own science lab and science technician; I’ve explored the use of e-books within a teacher development programme and I’ve studied the differences between various models of Initial Teacher Training.

So, if there’s something you’d like to know more about, relating to schools, education, children and young people – get in touch.

Read an example of my published research here