Knowledge and research use in local capacity building

Knowledge is vital for teacher quality, both in terms of research evidence and practitioner expertise. The chapter describes possible tensions between research knowledge and practitioner knowledge. Issues revolve around practitioners’ knowledge lacking distance from the research subject on the one hand and research based knowledge not being usable for practitioners in the busy environment of the school on the other. Based on a number of examples from England (United Kingdom), the chapter proposes concrete ways to build teacher capacity for engaging with research and to conduct research of their own and increase appreciation of practitioner knowledge in the research community. With regards to education governance, the chapter discusses how policy making can facilitate teachers’ motivation and involvement in research by providing the tools for easier use of research knowledge. Importantly, practitioner research should be accompanied by rigorous quality control to ensure fruitful and generalisable findings and provide connecting points with large-scale education research.