Doing Research
Behind the Scenes of Learning in Practice: Celebrating Excellence Through Collaboration
In a post late last year, I shared that one of the best things I get to do in my role at the Barker Institute is to work with others in research. It is a privilege and a joy to work alongside with educational leaders, policy makers, or practitioners to help facilitate their thinking, practice, or projects. Collaborating with colleagues as they seek to deepen their understanding of their craft is a valuable professional learning exercise.
These collaborations happen in different ways. Publishing an annual journal is one of those deeply rewarding endeavours. And it is that time of the year again where we launch our latest volume of Learning in Practice. So, now that we are at the very end of the publishing process – and about to start a new one! – it seems to be quite an appropriate time to reflect on what is a significant milestone in the life of the Barker Institute, in doing school-based educational research. But what to reflect on? In November, I highlighted the process that is undertaken in pulling a journal like Learning in Practice together. There is a chaos that seems to go on forever until, quite suddenly, a structure clearly materialises, and one can finally see what the journal is going to look like. What about now, that the editing process has come to an end?
Why the journal remains such a deeply rewarding endeavour, for me, comes down to the insight it offers into the classroom practice of my colleagues. At the end of the process, the complete Learning in Practice affords me a glimpse of what my fellow educators do in their part of the school. Whether it be in Music, AI, Character Education, working with students with autism, or with students of refugee experience, I am provided the opportunity to go beyond looking through the classroom window and passively observing. For my colleagues to consider their own practice publicly gives me the chance to enter the classroom, to sit at a desk while they teach and learn about what informs their thinking and their actions as they work to provide the best education for the students in their care. For this I am extremely thankful.
And quite frankly, more than a little awe struck.
Reading through the completed journal as one of the editors, I am left both informed and inspired. The eighth volume of Learning in Practice encapsulates a diverse range of insights aligned with the Barker Institute’s own research domains: Coeducation, Character & Enterprise Education, Humanitarian Education, Inclusive Education, and Robotics and AI Education. The individual articles are drawn from ongoing research projects in these areas or are in-depth plunges into specific topics associated with one or more of our research domains. As we officially launch the 2024 edition of the journal this week, I am appreciative of each contributor’s efforts at the same time as being excited about where their educational journeys may lead.
Dr Timothy Scott
Tim has held various leadership roles in schools in Australia and abroad for the past 24 years, alongside teaching history and modern languages. He is currently Research Principal at the Barker Institute, the school-based educational research centre at Barker College. His research interests include intercultural and interlingual learning and teaching, refugee education, and the role of student voice in improving educational practice. Tim believes embedding research informed practice has become increasingly important and is the mark of contemporary schools, empowering their teachers as experts and enabling their learners to thrive. He is one of the lead researchers for the Barker Institute’s ongoing, decade-long longitudinal study, the Barker Journey. Concurrently with his educational research responsibilities, Tim teaches History and Global Studies at Barker. Tim’s PhD investigated socio-political influences on contemporary German conceptions of history and archaeology.
