Designing a national digital platform to mediate teacher professional development through supporting the teacher as researcher

• In Event: Innovative Approaches to Teacher Professional Development Across the Island of Ireland

Abstract

Initially established in 2015, the Teachers’ Research Exchange (T-REX) is the national digital platform in the Republic of Ireland to support teachers (primary and post-primary) to collaborate, create and share research to enhance their classroom practice: www.t-rex.ie.
Wiliam (2019) highlights the challenges faced in endeavouring to support translational research in schools, especially considering the intrinsic complexity of diverse classrooms: “Classrooms are just too complicated for research ever to tell teachers what to do.” Nonetheless, bridging the research-practice divide in schools remains an imperative for educational systems globally. Importantly, a recent, international systematic literature review in the field (Jones et al., 2022) has identified five key themes that need to be addressed to create infrastructures that support teachers to engage with, and deploy translational research in classrooms. These include: building teacher-researcher collaboration; teachers as researchers; research cultures in schools; teacher agency; sharing; and accessing and utilizing research.

Author

• Tony Hall, University of Galway