Throughout my time as a doctoral student, I was often asked why I had decided to pursue a doctorate. From casual conversations with fellow students to more formal discussions at conferences, I found myself giving the same answer: because I wanted to make a difference in education. Although I understood that my thesis itself might not change the world overnight, I remained hopeful that my research would provide some of the data needed to respond to important, unanswered questions about higher education in further education. Through delivering research with clear, well-evidenced recommendations for policy and practice, it is possible to have a real impact.
Fast-forward to the present and the field of technical education, where we are in the midst of major reform as outlined in the report of the independent panel on technical education and the Post-16 Skills Plan. Despite the importance of high-quality research about technical education to inform and develop national policy, train valuable future cohorts of technicians - and so underpin future national economic success - technical education remains a hugely underrepresented area within educational research.
While there are well-established and respected senior researchers who specialise in technical education, there are a limited number of early career researchers in the field. We are therefore facing the daunting prospect of a future in which we will not have the research required to make informed, evidence-based policy decisions about technical education.
Technical education research
This is one of the reasons why the Gatsby Charitable Foundation announced earlier this month that we are accepting applications from master’s students who are researching technical education and require funding to help cover the costs of their research-related expenses. This is in addition to the funding we currently provide for a PhD student at King’s College London and will provide for a PhD student at the University of Cambridge from October 2018. Both PhD theses are being supervised by academics - Dr Paul Lewis at King’s and Professor Anna Vignoles at Cambridge - with highly relevant expertise. The research being conducted is directly linked to policy issues identified through collaboration with Gatsby. Such opportunities give early career researchers the chance to gain essential hands-on experience of conducting research that addresses ongoing challenges in education policy.
A foundation of robust evidence is critical to achieving a successful technical education system that delivers a strong and aspirational technician workforce. Collective investment in high-quality technical education research and support of technical education researchers will be key to achieving this aim.
While we believe that funding postgraduate research is an important step, in order to truly address the need for substantial research capacity, we need a joined-up, multi-agency approach. Only in this way, will we be able to make a long-term, sustainable difference to technical education in the UK.
Dr Jennifer Allen is programme manager at the Gatsby Charitable Foundation
Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow TES FE News on Twitter, like us on Facebook and follow us on LinkedIn
