Publicizing Research Findings

It is a goal of FIRE - Facilitation Institute for Research in Education - to build up knowledge. Building knowledge requires that the results of any study or research will be available to the widest possible audience. It is another goal of FIRE to establish a culture of evidence based management. However, there is an important cultural issue here: It is often assumed that if I “report” to someone, then I am inferior to them and at risk of being attacked by them. The assumption is often correct.

Having information about me given to a superior or to a colleague who may be in competition with me, makes me vulnerable. Especially – but not only – if that information has to do with a failure of mine. A student may not be happy if such information is available to fellow students, teachers, etc. A teacher may not be happy if information about them and their class is available to other teachers, the principal, etc. A principal may not be happy if information about them and their school is available to other teachers, comptrollers, etc. The current culture is one of concealment, and the long-term goal is to change that culture into one of openness and learning – imagine that: A culture of learning at the education system.

But we live in reality and not in our long term vision. With the existing culture, if the results of a research are planned to be publicized, it is much less likely that the researchers and FIRE will achieve happy cooperation with schools, teachers, parents, ministry of education, and other participants. There must be an understanding between the researchers and participants about how the findings will be treated. A gradual approach to allowing access to research results is necessary. Starting with minimal and totally anonymous information, the information sharing may increase only with prior agreement of all participants. The need to pace ourselves means making an extra effort, in addition to the research effort, and having the extra effort work against the main thrust of building knowledge. It's unpleasant, but apparently necessary. A gradual and willing-cooperation-based approach will maintain trust, which will enable a meaningful research.

Below are a few sample steps or phases that may be used. The population of a research study can determine the rate of movement between phases, the order of the phases, and whether phases might be split or combined. All to be done with as much consensus as possible.

A first step might be giving each participant the information relevant to themselves, all data being anonymous. For example, in a study concerned with attitudes towards learning, a schoolmaster would receive information about the statistics of attitude in their school, such as averages, percentiles, etc. This information will not be broken into individual classes, to avoid it being attributable to a specific teacher. Each teacher will get information about the statistics of attitude in their class, but without information about individual students. In this first phase, no information will be accessible outside the school. If possible, it may even be useful to provide each student with feedback according to their own attitude as measured by the research. Personal feedback is a tricky proposition, since it might feel invasive and reduce the trust. The order of releasing information is also significant. It is important that the teachers receive information before the principal, to minimize the sense of vulnerability.

After a few years of receiving such feedback, acting on the feedback and seeing improvement, teachers may start feeling safer with the availability of information. For that to happen it is critical that the principal doesn't try to decipher the research results in order to find culprits or scapegoats. Teachers may start seeing the advantage in measuring their domain of control in order to better manage it. The next phase may be the provision of information for comparison and orientation – to enable each teacher to see how they fair in comparison with the school or with all other classes of the same grade as theirs.

A major step may be the opening of the information about individual classes to all the teachers and the principal. Succeeding in doing that would be an indication of movement from a culture of malevolent competition towards a culture of cooperation, or at least coopetition. It is a culture where a "problem" is "something to be solved," and not "something to be accused of."

There may be many other phases and steps, but ultimately, when the participants are ready, studies should be released to the public. This will enable comparison among schools, learning from each other and the Holy Grail: Building up knowledge.