The pandemic has affected research projects in various ways. Educational researchers, for example, have not been able to use in-person methodologies, such as classroom observations and educational interventions.
Moreover, different countries have experienced – and still are experiencing – difficulties in conducting high-quality research due to barriers such as lack of skills, time, and financial resources. These limitations, in effect, may have affected academics’ quality of their research, quality of supervision with their research students, and quality of teaching research methodology in their classes.
The project has three aims:
- understand the common and unique challenges and “solutions” that WUN academics and students in the field of education experience in using/teaching/learning research methodologies;
- provide capacity enhancement opportunities for education academics and students that strengthen research methodology expertise, which in turn enhances the quality of research outputs, research supervision and research methodology teaching in each WUN university; and
- provide greater awareness of WUN’s education academics’ research expertise and skills, which in turn provides networking and collaboration opportunities to further strengthen WUN
To achieve this, we will conduct:
- A cross-national mixed-methods survey on academics and PhD students across different fields in higher education in 2022
- A series of research methodology virtual workshops for academics in education throughout 2022
- A face-to-face workshop on research methodologies for University of York’s PhD students in education in 2023
This project aims to understand the challenges in using/teaching/learning research methodologies in the field of education across WUN universities, and to address some of these challenges by equipping academics and students in the field of education with knowledge and understanding about research methodologies that may be possible to conduct in their unique teaching and research environments.
The project has the potential to equip academics with research methodologies to implement now and in the future within the research of themselves and their students, to build a network of expertise in methods and methods teaching in WUN, as well to transform the content of their research methodologies curricula.
More information can be found on the project website.
