Teacher Researcher

Homewood is a research engaged school with a wide network of connections to Higher Education and the Educational Research Community.  We have a dedicated teacher researcher, we engage actively with the Education Endowment Fund (EEF) and British Education Research Association (BERA).  We welcome visiting researchers and also support staff who wish to undertake their own action research or postgraduate studies, this encourages staff retention and facilitates career development.  Educational Research is a broad field with voices from both academic and practical perspectives.  At its best it allows  theoretical knowledge and practical experience to inform one another. Knowledge generation is not one-directional but rather emerges from a dialogue between practice (in classrooms) and theory (from academic research).

HSSC Journal Club 

Homewood School has a staff journal club that meets once a month to discuss aspects of educational research that are of interest to them.  The feedback from the 2023-2024 club members was positive about the impact on their wellbeing:

  • It is great to talk to people from other departments and look more holistically as well as focus on our experiences. 

  • The discussions leave me feeling energised.

  • I found the session I attended assisted with my wellbeing by providing an opportunity to meet and listen to colleagues from various departments in an informal setting.

  • A chance to catch up with staff and discuss topic areas in a non-judgmental and relaxed environment.

  • Good to be able to reflect on things together.

This year our focus has been decided by the teachers who attend and we are going to have sessions on topics that include how to support  ADHD students in mainstream classrooms and the neurobiology of the teenage brain.

We are also welcoming a visiting researcher, Dr Jon Swain,  from the Institute of Education at University College London.  He is a former primary school teacher who now works in the field of educational research. This year Jon is working with our own Sixth Form students to record interviews with them and explore their experiences of school.

The experiences of Sixth Form students were part of a research project about attendance last year.  A combination of paper surveys and student interviews were used to identify factors that would promote good attendance.  This information is now being incorporated into our programme of training for  Sixth Form teachers and form tutors

The RATED Consortium  (Research informed Approaches to Tackling Educational disadvantage.

Homewood School has created an education research practice-research partnership called the RATED Consortium.  The members of this group are: 

Dr Claire Tyson - Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre -

Dr Tom Perry - University of Warwick

Dr Matthew Easterbrook - University of Sussex

Dr Lewis Doyle - University of Sussex

Dr Elizabeth Hidson - University of Sunderland

Dr Alison Glover -  The Open University  

We characterise ourselves as an informal group of close-to-practice academics, teachers, and teacher educators who collaboratively work together using evidence-based approaches.  Although we have different backgrounds (teaching economics, sociology, child development, teacher education and psychology), we have a common interest in tackling educational disadvantages. Our consortium has created a rubric that can be used as a tool for professional development.  It encourages guided reflection on teacher-student interactions and can be used with StepLab or IRIS as part of a mentoring conversation.  Our different backgrounds allow us to bring different viewpoints and one consortium member described our discussions as a ‘bridge’ that translates knowledge from each of our domains and returns new, co-constructed knowledge to the classroom.  Our rubric is going to be shared online via https://www.schoolinclusion.org.uk/ so that teachers and teacher trainers can use it.  

Our students are also given opportunities to engage with research skills, these range  from doing the Extended Project Qualification, to taking part in the Scholars Programme and our Super 6 Research Assistant placement.  Five of our Sixth Form Students who completed their Extended Project Qualification in 2024 have taken part in an international children’s conference with events in Oxford and Melbourne Australia (https://kidsconference.online/).  They pre-recorded a presentation in which they reflected on the ethical aspects of their own projects and you can view the video here 

https://youtu.be/1GZWbGXF4_k?si=uqXLlQ2p3OdjWvcv

Part of our wider dissemination includes published works and Homewood School will be featured in a forthcoming book called “The BERA Guide to Practitioner Research: Developing Professional Knowledge in Educational Research and Practice” which is due to be published by Emerald Publishing in September 2025.  Dr Claire Tyson is one of the four editors of the book and has written a chapter about our collaboration with the RATED consortium.  Practitioner Research is conducted by and for a wide range of people working in Education and is concerned with relating theory, evidence and practice. 

One of our most recent research publications was an article for the Chartered College of Teaching Journal, Impact, in which Claire Tyson and Paul Hanson reflect on how we are using evidence-informed approaches to our professional development programme.  We make the point that continuous professional development through reflective practice and research engagement helps practitioners to critically evaluate their own work to enhance learning and effectiveness.

One important theme that we continue to develop is the need for ethical oversight of research conducted in schools, this is a very important responsibility and BERA offers useful guidelines for schools to follow.  

If you have any questions or an area of education that you would like us to research then please contact me on c.tyson@homewood.kent.sch.uk