Research on Research- Chapter 2

Literature Review
CHAPTER 2

2 Literature Review

INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides an overview of previous research on knowledge sharing

and intranets. It introduces the framework for the case study that comprises

the main focus of the research described in this thesis.

PURPOSE OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW

The main purpose of the literature review work was to survey previous studies

on knowledge sharing and intranets. This was in order to scope out the key

data collection requirements for the primary research to be conducted, and it

formed part of the emergent research design process (Denscombe, 1998,

p.217).

The approach adopted was in line with the current practice in grounded

research work. It is now regarded as acceptable for researchers to familiarise

themselves with existing research prior to collecting their own data (Easterby-

Smith, Thorpe, & Lowe,2002,pp.46-47), even though this contradicts the advice

of grounded theory as originally presented (Glaser & Strauss, 1967, p. 215). An

appreciation of previous work in this area served three further purposes. First,
 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
through providing direction in the construction of data collection tools, it

guarded against the risk of overload at the primary data collection stages of

the project. Second, working the findings from extant literature into a formal

review helped maintain throughout the study in a sense of the topic’s

perspective. Finally, this activity raised the opportunities for articulating a

critical analysis of the actual “meaning” of the data collected when the data

analysis stages of the research were reached.

A range of secondary data sources served as the key bibliographic tools to

identifying relevant work for review. The most significant of these were the

Web of Science Databases. Personal recommendation and citation pearling

also led to a significant proportion of the publications selected for analysis.

Relevant publications were found in the literature of a number of academic

domains including artificial intelligence, business studies, information science,

organisation science, psychology, Science and technology, sociology, and

strategic management.

Most of these publications take the form of research papers. In 2002 a research

monograph dedicated to knowledge sharing as analysed from an

organisational learning perspective was published (Huysman & De Wit, 2002).

Frequent reference is made to the book in this chapter. The systematic

 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
literature searching led to key publications on knowledge sharing, intranets,

and ICT’s in general, as well as studies that permitted the analysis of the value

of specific incentives on incentive combinations deployed to encourage

knowledge sharing in organisations. A synthesis of the earlier work provides an

overview of the research topic. Material drawn from the review led to the

development of a taxonomy of incentives of knowledge sharing using ICT’s and

provided the context for identifying data collection requirements, as well as

creating the data collection tools for the primary research. The inadequacies of

the existing published research on the specific role of the intranet in

knowledge sharing necessitated the adoption of a broad approach for the

research described in this thesis.

Review of the Existing Literature

Research engagement in English Language Teaching

Despite the substantial amount of work which has been conducted into

teachers’ research engagement in mainstream education, this topic has been

awarded scant attention in the field of English language teaching. This paper

presents the results of a survey representing the first stage of multi-method

investigation of research engagement in ELT. Moderate levels of reading and

 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
doing research were reported by the sample studied here, and this level of

research engagement is analysed in relation to 2 key factors also examined in

the survey; teachers conception of research and their perceptions of the

institutional research culture.

Discussion

The focal concern of this study was research engagement- the extent to which

readers read and do research- and factors related in it. Almost 70% said that

they read research at least sometimes and almost a third rarely; must over 61%

said they did research at least sometimes while over 38% said they did so rarely

or never. Given the absence of comparative data, I cannot comment on how

these figures relate to research engagement in our field more generally. This

survey also does not shed light on what kinds of research activity teachers

engage in; this is one of several issues highlighted here which will be explored

in more depth in the subsequent interviews.

I will discuss the levels of research engagement found here by considering two

factors; teacher’s conceptions of research and the institutional research

culture. Experience and qualifications were examined in this study in relation to

teachers research engagement but did not emerge here as a significant factor.
 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
This is perhaps surprising, particular in relation to qualifications, and suggest

perhaps that it is not so much the qualification which matters here as much as

the nature of the ‘research education’ (Borg,2003a) which teachers have

experienced (e.g. the kind of courses on research they have done). It may be

worthwhile to collect information about this issue when the questionnaire is

next administered.

Conceptions of research

In this study, teacher’s conception of research were predominantly associated

with what has been called a ‘standard’ view of scientific research (Robson,2002

p. 19). The scenario rated most highly as being research was a large-scale

survey conducted by an academic, analysed, statistically, and published in an

academic journal.

The four characteristics of research seen to be most important in enhancing its

quality related to objectivity, hypothesis testing, the control of variables and

the involvement of a large scale sample.

The tendency of teachers to associate research with more conventional forms

of inquiry is reflected in existing studies of this issue and which I reviewed

earlier in this paper (e.g. Brown,1992; Shkedi, 1998). The standard view of
 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
research, on the basis of the available evidence, thus seems to remain the

predominant model in the minds of the teachers both generally and specifically

in ELT.

Understanding the conceptions of research held by teachers is important in

attempts to engage them with and in research. If, for example, large samples

and statistics are considered by teachers to be key characteristics of research,

then this may become a less viable activity for many teachers who either do

not have access to large samples or do not have the knowledge of statistics

they feel is required.

Alternatively, the impact of such conceptions on teachers may be that they

only consider a limited range of approaches when they do decide to do

research themselves (e.g. discounting forms of inquiry which are more

qualitative in nature but which may actually be more amenable to this kind of

research teachers are well-placed to conduct-see, for example, (Hopkins,2002)

Evidence of teachers conception’s of research also emerged here from their

comments on their lack of research engagement. The responses suggest that

several teachers feel that doing research is personally and professionally

beneficial and of value in enabling them to explore issues related to their own
 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
teaching. This reflects the main reason cited by teachers for doing research in

both Worrall (2004) and Barker (2005).

Amongst the reasons teachers gave for not being research engage, two reflect

views of the role and value of research in teachers lives; one (my job is to teach

and not do research) suggests that teaching and research are perceived as

distinct activities and only the former is part of a teachers work; the second

(am not interested in doing research) , which was mentioned in the context of

both not reading and not doing research, may imply a lack of awareness of the

professional and pedagogical benefits which research engagement might led

to such views were only reported by a small proportion of the teachers, but

they are indicative of the kinds of the underlying assumptions about research

which may work against attempts to enhance teachers research engagement.

As noted earlier Worrall (2004) also found evidence of such personal

dispositions in teachers who were not research engaged.

Further insight into teachers’ conceptions of research comes from two further

questions in the survey; 9 teachers said they did not read research because it

does not give them practical advice for the classroom; 34 teachers also said

that a characteristics of good-quality research is that it gives teachers ideas

they can use. These, again, are conceptions which recur in studies of teachers’
 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
research engagement (e.g. Mcdonough & McDonough, 1990; McNamara, 2002;

Shkedi,1998). Teachers are commonly found to report that they are unable to

see what published research means for their classroom practice; more recent

evidence indicates that unless such relevance is perceived by teachers they will

not be willing to become research engaged;

Throughout this study, practitioners have stated that whilst research is

important to their work, it must be founded upon the intention to improve the

quality of their teaching and the learning of their students.

Where this link is not recognised, then the findings of research may be ignored

by them (Barker,2005.p.33). Of course, the instrumental value to teachers of

educational research should not be presented as a necessary criterion for

judging its value (Goldstein,1998). However, it is clear that if our goal is to

encourage teachers to engage with published research, and that teachers

consistently report that one reason they do not is because they are unable to

see its relevance to their work, then this is clearly an issue that merits

attention. It has, though, not been the focus of any empirical work in our field,

once again, in contrast to work in education generally (see for example,

Cordingley et al.., 2005). We thus lack insights into teachers’ perceptions of

published research in our field, whether this work is seen by teachers to

 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
address their concerns, and how it impacts on what happens in the classrooms

(in Science Education,. Ratcliffe et al., 2004 suggests that this impact may be

more direct or indirect). These issues could be very easily provide the basis of a

focused empirical study of their own, but in any case these are clearly matters

to explore in more depth in the follow-up interviews with the teachers.

Overall, what emerges here in relation to teacher’s conceptions of research

suggests that initiatives to further research engagement in this institution

could benefit from giving teachers on-going opportunities to discuss and clarify

their understandings of what research is and how it’s worth can be judged, of

the range of forms it may legitimately take, and of the ways that research and

classroom practice may interact in the lives of teachers. Teacher’s

understandings of these issues, I would argue, are central to the extent to

which they can be productively research engaged.

Institutional Research Culture

The literature discussed earlier highlighted the role which the institutional

research culture may have on teacher’s research engagement. In this study,

teachers’ responses to a set of questions about their institution indicated that

 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
in many respects it was seen to provide an environment conducive to research

engagement.

Also, the more positively the institution was rated by teachers in this respect,

the more frequently teachers reported both reading and doing research, nd in

both cases, these associations were significant.

In terms of specific items related to the institutional culture, although only just

over half of the teachers agreed that the management encouraged teachers to

do research and only 34% agreed that teachers feel that doing research is an

important part of their work, the key finding was that almost 80% disagreed

that time for research is built into their workload. This view was also reflected

in the comments of teachers who did not read and do research; in both cases, a

lack of time was the most commonly cited reason. Although it is very easy to

dismiss this as an excuse which teachers make to explain their non-

engagement in an activity they feel they should do, there is growing evidence

in education generally that sustained and productive research engagement is

not feasible unless the time it requires is acknowledged and built into

institutional systems (see for example, Barker,2005). In ELT, I referred earlier to

the study by Crookes and Arakaki (1999) which found that work pressures were

a key reason why the teachers in their institution did not read research. And in
 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
a personal communication to me on this subject, a teacher in North America

wrote that:

“As a teacher-researcher I’ve found it extremely difficult to carry out research

projects and publish. I just don’t have the time. I teach 32.5 hours/week and

need to prepare for those classes in addition to work with the teachers union

and our technology committee. It’s a shame. Until policy changes to permit

teachers to do research in their classrooms and publish results there won’t be

much connection between researcher and practice except within the individual

classroom. In my own context, almost nobody read the TESOL publications-

they don’t have time. There is a huge gap between research and practice in the

US”.

Research engagement demands time and the evidence is that teachers

generally do not feel this time is available within their current allocations; the

consequence is that for many teachers research engagement becomes an

activity they must do in their own time. The results here suggests that even

where the institution is generally seen to be supportive if teachers’ research

engagement, time may be a factor which carries more weight than others in

influencing the extent to which such engagement actually takes place. This

suggest that different conditions for research engagement carry different

 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
weights and that time may be one of those that is particularly influential. The

institutional conditions which facilitate research and the relative weightings of

these is thus other specific issue which emerges here as meriting further

specific study. The work of Ebbut (2001) is relevant to this issue. He analysed

the conditions which characterise institutions in which a research culture was

present to different degrees (which he calls emergent, established, and

established-embedded). Investment in time, was one of the 19 criteria he

considers and the presence of such investment was one of the ways in which

schools where a research culture was more established differed from those

where it was less so. This would seem to be an issue which the institution

where the teachers in this study worked would benefit from considering if it

wanted to enhance the levels of research engagement among its staff.

Conclusion

In concluding this paper there are two points to highlight and which need to be

considered in interpreting its findings. Firstly, the ELT context studied here is

not being represented as typical of ELT generally; it is my goal to study a range

of contexts as part of a larger programme of research, but this initial allowed

me to assess the feasibility of the issues chosen for study and the instrument
 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
used to study them as well as to generate issues which could be explored in

more detail through follow-up interviews.

In these respects this work has I feel been worthwhile. At the same time, the

substantive findings of this study are indicative of the potential that work of

this kind has for exploring the nature of research engagement in ELT. Second,

questionnaire responses about conceptions and practices must always be

examined in the knowledge that they are respondents reported perceptions on

the issues under study, and that, for a range of reasons, there may be a gap

between actual and reported beliefs and practices. Well-designed instruments

can minimise to some extent such problems (see, for example the advice in

Oppenheim,1992), but supplementing questionnaire data with in-depth

interviews, as I plan to do, will allow the findings emerging here to be explored

in more detail with a subset of the original sample of teachers. Without

implying that interview are free of dangers associated with the respondent bias

which affect questionnaires, the combination of questionnaire and interview

data can provide a more complete and convincing account of research

engagement in ELT than reliance on questionnaire data alone would.

The findings of this study highlight a number of areas for continuing inquiry

into the topic of teachers’ research engagement in ELT. The notion of teacher
 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
research is certainly not a new one in this field; what is new, however, is the

systematic study of the extent to which teachers in ELT read and do research

(particularly outside the context of formal programmes of study) and of the

factors, personal to teachers as well as institutional, which influence the extent

to which such research engagement occurs. Funders of educational research in

the UK in the last decade have invested significantly in programmes of research

which investigate these issues, and this had led to the development of a

significant body of evidence which can inform policy on matters pertaining to

teacher’s research engagement; while we need to acknowledge and draw on

this work, the recognition by funders of ELT research of the importance of a

better understanding of research engagement by teachers would seem to be

the fundamental to the development of a comparable evidence based on our

field.

The Importance of Educational Research

In a 1961 essay, the Educational Policies Commission wrote, “The purpose

which runs through and strengthens all other educational purposes- the

common thread of education- is the development of the ability to think”. They

go on to state “.. in general area of the development of the ability to think,

there is a field for new research of the greatest importance”.

 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
One of the most important tasks of human society is making people smarter.

What technological advancement could possibly top an understanding of

human cognition and the development of methods to chance thinking abilities.

I believe there are none. The great unsolved puzzle of the mechanism of

functioning of the human brain is the most fascinating and challenging frontier

before us, yet to be explored and understood. This understanding can only

come from research. The complexities of human cognition and of

understanding how people learn led to complexities in the design og high-

quality educational research. The challenge of doing field research as opposed

to clinical research only increases the complexity of the task.

This leads to a reliance on the preponderance of the evidence as being more

valuable than a single, elegant experiment, such as is often done in the natural

sciences. This acknowledgement does not diminish the importance of the

single experiment. There can be no preponderance of the evidence without the

individual investigations. Ironically, there has been a historical bias in the

United States toward ignoring the results of Educational Research. A common

flaw in human reasoning is to pay more attention to a single, emotionally-close

datum than to a large sample of data. For example, an endorsement of a car by

one friend carries more influence on a buying decision for most people than an
 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
analysis by Consumer Report based on the results of weeks of testing and

thousands of consumer experiences. Similarly, people tend to be more strongly

swayed by their individual learning experiences than by the accumulation of

data from research on many students.

It is saddening to know that other countries place a higher value on American

Educational Research than do Americans. The results of the Third International

Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) show that although US and Japanese

students are at similar achievement levels in fourth grade, the US students are

bout one grade level behind by seventh grade (Schmidt, Mcknight, Raizen,

1997; Schmidt, Raizen, Briton, Bianchi, & Wolfe, 1997). Wwhen Japanese

teachers are interviewed to discover the reasons behind the superior

performance of their students, they cite American Educational Scholarship:

“Indeed, Japanese Elementary teachers expressed surprise that American

Educational Researchers were so interested in their science instruction, which

they saw as heavily influenced by Western approaches, including the work of

John Dewey and Jerome Bruner, discovery learning, inquiry-based approaches,

and various Sputnik-inspired reforms” (Linn, Lewis, Tsuchida, & Songer, 2000).

We must, through rigorous research efforts, document the remarkable

benefits that we intuitively know result from Peer-Led Team Learning. Our
 Research on Research- Chapter 2
Literature Review
understanding of PLTL can only be enhanced by such investigative efforts.

Those who choose to study the results and modify their implementations

accordingly will benefit, and the ultimate outcome will be a better project.

Because PLTL is a relatively new undertaking, there is still a cornucopia of areas

that need to be studied. Our group is presently pursuing studies of the

epistemological changes of peer leaders, the development of scientific

reasoning ability among adolescent students, and applications of a PLTL

strategy in an inquiry laboratory curriculum.