Research methods in educational management ann r j briggs (1)

RESEARCH METHODS IN

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP &
MANAGEMENT


Education at SAGE
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media
for academic, educational, and professional markets.
Our education publishing includes:
accessible and comprehensive texts for aspiring education professionals and
practitioners looking to further their careers through continuing professional
development
inspirational advice and guidance for the classroom
authoritative state of the art reference from the leading authors in the field
Find out more at: www.sagepub.co.uk/education


3RD EDITION

RESEARCH METHODS IN
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP &
MANAGEMENT
Edited by

ANN R. J. BRIGGS, MARIANNE COLEMAN & MARLENE
MORRISON


Editorial Material © Ann R.J. Briggs, Marianne Coleman and Marlene Morrison 2012 Foreword ©

Robert Burgess 2012
Chapter 1 © Ann R.J. Briggs, Marianne Coleman and Marlene Morrison 2012
Chapter 2 © Marlene Morrison 2012
Chapter 3 © Margaret Grogan and Juanita M. Cleaver Simmons 2012
Chapter 4 © David Stephens 2012
Chapter 5 © Jacqui Weetman DaCosta 2012
Chapter 6 © Tony Bush 2012
Chapter 7 © Hugh Busher and Nalita James 2012
Chapter 8 © David Scott 2012
Chapter 9 © Mary F. Hibberts and R. Burke Johnson 2012
Chapter 10 © Daniel Muijs 2012
Chapter 11 © Michael Bassey 2012
Chapter 12 © Rachel Lofthouse, Elaine Hall and Kate Wall 2012
Chapter 13 © Clive Dimmock and Martha Lam 2012
Chapter 14 © Marlene Morrison 2012
Chapter 15 © Alan Floyd 2012
Chapter 16 © Jacky Lumby 2012
Chapter 17 © Marianne Coleman 2012
Chapter 18 © Judith Bell and Pam Woolner 2012
Chapter 19 © Anna Vignoles and Shirley Dex 2012
Chapter 20 © Tanya Fitzgerald 2012
Chapter 21 © Jane Perryman 2012
Chapter 22 © Marlene Morrison 2012
Chapter 23 © Pauline Dixon and Pam Woolner 2012
Chapter 24 © Daniel Muijs 2012
Chapter 25 © Rob Watling, Veronica James and Ann R.J. Briggs 2012
Chapter 26 © Ann R.J. Briggs 2012

First published 2012
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as

permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored
or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers,
or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the
Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the
publishers.
All material on the accompanying website can be printed off and photocopied by the purchaser/user of the
book. The web material itself may not be reproduced in its entirety for use by others without prior written
permission from SAGE. The web material may not be distributed or sold separately from the book


without the prior written permission of SAGE. Should anyone wish to use the materials from the website
for conference purposes, they would require separate permission from us. All material is © Ann R.J.
Briggs, 2012
SAGE Publications Ltd
1 Oliver’s Yard
55 City Road
London EC1Y 1SP
SAGE Publications Inc.
2455 Teller Road
Thousand Oaks, California 91320
SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd
B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area
Mathura Road
New Delhi 110 044
SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd
3 Church Street
#10-04 Samsung Hub
Singapore 049483
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011938814
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4462-0043-8
ISBN 978-1-4462-0044-5 (pbk)
Typeset by C&M Digitals (P) Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Printed on paper from sustainable resources


Contents

Notes on contributors
Foreword
Robert Burgess
1 Introduction
Ann R.J. Briggs, Marianne Coleman and Marlene Morrison
PART A: THE CONCEPT OF RESEARCH
2 Understanding methodology
Marlene Morrison
3 Taking a critical stance in research
Margaret Grogan and Juanita M. Cleaver Simmons
4 The role of culture in interpreting and conducting research
David Stephens
5 Reviewing educational literature
Jacqui Weetman DaCosta
6 Authenticity in research: reliability, validity and triangulation
Tony Bush
7 The ethical framework of research practice
Hugh Busher and Nalita James
PART B: APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
8 Research design: frameworks, strategies, methods and technologies

David Scott
9 Mixed methods research
Mary F. Hibberts and R. Burke Johnson
10 Surveys and sampling


Daniel Muijs
11 Case studies
Michael Bassey
12 Practitioner research
Rachel Lofthouse, Elaine Hall and Kate Wall
13 Grounded theory research
Clive Dimmock and Martha Lam
14 Ethnography
Marlene Morrison
15 Narrative and life history
Alan Floyd
16 Learner voice in educational leadership research
Jacky Lumby
PART C: RESEARCH TOOLS
17 Interviews
Marianne Coleman
18 Developing and using questionnaires
Judith Bell and Pam Woolner
19 Making use of existing data
Anna Vignoles and Shirley Dex
20 Documents and documentary analysis
Tanya Fitzgerald
21 Discourse analysis
Jane Perryman

22 Reflection as research: using diaries and blogs
Marlene Morrison
PART D: ANALYSING AND PRESENTING DATA
23 Quantitative data analysis: using SPSS
Pauline Dixon and Pam Woolner
24 Advanced quantitative data analysis
Daniel Muijs
25 Qualitative data analysis: using NVivo


Rob Watling and Veronica James with Ann R.J. Briggs
26 Academic writing
Ann R.J. Briggs
Author Index
Subject Index


Notes on Contributors

Professor Michael Bassey is now retired, but still active. His formal academic career
ended as Professor of Education at Nottingham Trent University. Elected Academician of
the Academy of Social Sciences in 2001, he has published extensively in the fields of
education, research, environment and sustainability. He lives in Nottinghamshire.
Dr Judith Bell is now retired but has worked as a college lecturer, head of department
and vice-principal, as a lecturer in several universities, as a course team writer in the
Open University and as one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors specialising in further and higher
education.
Dr Ann R.J. Briggs is Emeritus Professor of Educational Leadership at Newcastle
University, UK. She has published on research methods, middle leadership, 14–19
education and management structures in post-compulsory institutions. Ann is a past Chair

of British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS)
and is currently National Secretary of New Zealand Educational Administration and
Leadership Society (NZEALS), having retired to New Zealand in 2009.
Professor Sir Robert Burgess is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester. He has
engaged in a wide range of research, writing and teaching on research methods in the
Social Sciences. He was Director of the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal
and Research (CEDAR) at the University of Warwick from 1987 to 1999.
Professor Tony Bush is Chair of Educational Leadership at the University of Warwick,
UK, and Visiting Professor of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, South Africa. He has published more than 30 books and 70 articles in
refereed journals. He is the editor of the leading international journal, Educational
Management, Administration and Leadership.
Dr Hugh Busher is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, University of
Leicester, with extensive experience of teaching and examining at Masters and Doctoral
level. He is currently researching students’ and teachers’ perspectives on education, and
teaches courses on research methods and on leadership, inclusive schooling and learning
communities.


Dr Marianne Coleman is an Emeritus Reader in Educational Leadership and
Management at the Institute of Education, University of London. She has taught
extensively at Master’s and doctoral level and is now retired, but maintains her research
interest in how gender and other aspects of diversity relate to leadership. Her latest book
is Women at the Top: Challenges, Choices and Change (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
Professor Shirley Dex is Emeritus Professor of Longitudinal Social Research in
Education, University of London. She previously held posts at the Universities of
Cambridge, Essex and Keele. Much of her research has involved the secondary analysis
of large-scale longitudinal data on topics such as life course trajectories, family policy
and cross-national research and she has taught courses in quantitative methods in social
science.

Professor Clive Dimmock is Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Education,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where he is leading a major research
project on leadership across the Singapore school system. He is also Emeritus Professor
and former Director of the Centre for Educational Leadership and Management, at the
University of Leicester.
Dr Pauline Dixon is a senior lecturer in International Development and Education at
Newcastle University. Her research in developing countries investigates education for the
poorest living in slums. She presents worldwide and has more than 30 publications in
academic journals including School Effectiveness and School Improvement, and
Educational Management, Administration and Leadership.
Professor Tanya Fitzgerald is currently Professor of Educational Leadership,
Management and History at La Trobe University, Melbourne. She has researched widely
in the area of the history of women’s higher education, gender and leadership, and
teachers’ work and lives. Tanya is editor of History of Education Review and co-editor of
the Journal of Educational Administration & History.
Dr Alan Floyd is Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership and Management at the
University of Reading. His research interests include the role of the academic HoD, how
people perceive and experience being in a leadership role, and professional identity
formation and change throughout the life course.
Professor Margaret Grogan is currently Professor of Educational Leadership and
Policy, and Dean of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University,
California. She has published many articles and chapters on educational leadership and
has authored, co-authored or edited five books. Her latest one, co-authored with Charol
Shakeshaft, is entitled Women in Educational Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2011).
Dr Elaine Hall is a Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Learning and Teaching
at Newcastle University. Elaine’s major research interests are the development of


teachers’ enquiry skills; the impact that an enquiry has on pedagogy and learners’
experience and the role of the university in supporting a process of enquiry in schools,

colleges and universities.
Mary F. Hibberts is a PhD student in Instructional Design and Development at the
University of South Alabama. She works in the Center for Evaluation, Measurement and
Statistics and assists in quantitative methods courses in the college of education. She
plans on becoming a professor in Instructional Design with an emphasis on research,
statistics and program evaluation.
Dr Nalita James is lecturer in Employment Studies at the Centre for Labour Market
Studies, University of Leicester. Her substantive research interests lie in the broad field
of young adults’ and teachers’ work, identity and learning in informal and formal
educational settings, as well as the methodological capacities of the Internet.
Professor Veronica James is a medical sociologist with a particular interest in
qualitative research and the study of emotional labour. She is currently Executive Dean
and Pro Vice Chancellor at the School of Health and Life Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian
University.
Professor R. Burke Johnson, a research methodologist, has co-authored three books on
methodology: Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches
(Sage, 2007); Research Methods, Design, and Analysis (Pearson, 2010); and Dictionary
of Statistics and Methodology (Sage, 2011). He was an editor of The Sage Glossary of the
Social and Behavioral Sciences (2009), and guest-edited two special journal issues on
mixed methods research (for Research in the Schools, and American Behavioral
Scientist).
Dr Martha Lam is Associate Director of the Language Centre at the Hong Kong
University of Science and Technology. She is the recipient of the 2008 Ray Bolam
Doctoral Thesis Award from BELMAS for her thesis, Senior Women Academics in Hong
Kong: A Life History Approach.
Rachel Lofthouse is Head of Teacher Learning and Development in the School of
Education, Communication and Language Sciences, and Partnership Development
Director for the Centre for Learning and Teaching at Newcastle University. Her research
has centred on the development of reflective practice for teachers both in training and in
their ongoing professional lives. She has written most recently on the role of coaching

practice to support professional learning.
Professor Jacky Lumby is Professor of Education at Southampton Education School,
University of Southampton. She has taught in a range of educational settings, including
secondary schools, community and further education. She has researched in the UK,
South Africa, China and Hong Kong and published extensively on leadership.


Professor Marlene Morrison is Emeritus Professor of Education at Oxford Brookes
University. A sociologist of education, her interests are in critical interpretations of
education leadership and management, policy and practice, for diversity, social justice
and inclusion. She has conducted funded research in all sectors of education, including
adult and postgraduate education, and at the 14–19 interface. Her publications reflect her
substantive and methodological interests. Recent works include Leadership and
Learning: Matters of Social Justice (IA Publishing, 2009) and with David Scott, Key
Ideas in Educational Research (Continuum, 2006).
Professor Daniel Muijs holds the Chair of Education at the University of Southampton.
He is an acknowledged expert in the field of Educational Effectiveness and School
Leadership and is co-editor of the journal School Effectiveness and School Improvement.
He has published widely in the areas of educational effectiveness, leadership and research
methods.
Dr Jane Perryman is currently the course leader for the PGCE Social Science at the
Institute of Education, University of London. She also contributes to the EdD and the MA
in School Effectiveness. Her research interests are accountability and performativity in
secondary education, school leadership and management, and how schools respond to
policy.
Professor David Scott is Professor of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment at the
Institute of Education, University of London. His most recent books are Education,
Epistemology and Critical Realism (Routledge, 2010) and Critical Essays on Major
Curriculum Theorists (Routledge, 2008).
Dr Juanita M. Cleaver Simmons is an associate professor at the University of MissouriColumbia. She works with the leadership development and preparation of PreKindergarten to 12th grade educators.

Professor David Stephens is currently Professor of International Education at the
University of Brighton. For the past 40 years, he has worked in universities in the UK,
Norway, East and West Africa. He is particularly interested in the role of culture in the
research process and is currently writing a book on narrative in the research process.
Professor Anna Vignoles is a Professor in the Economics of Education at the Institute of
Education, University of London. Her research interests include quantitative methods,
equity in education, school choice, school efficiency and finance and the economic value
of schooling. Anna has advised numerous government departments and is the economist
member of the NHS Pay Review Body.
Dr Kate Wall is Senior Lecturer in Education at Durham University. She is committed to
research partnerships between teaching and research communities to generate better
understandings of ‘what works’. She has written extensively around the process of


collaborative research, focusing on how visual methods can support effective learning
conversations between researchers, teachers and students.
Dr Rob Watling has worked at the Universities of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent and
Leicester where he conducted qualitative research for a wide range of government
departments, NGOs, Local Authorities and Trades Unions. He now runs Momentum
Associates, providing executive coaching, organisational consultancy and project
evaluations across the public sector.
Jacqui Weetman DaCosta has worked in academic libraries in the UK and USA for
over 25 years, where she has taught hundreds of students the skills associated with
literature searching. She holds an MBA in Educational Management (with distinction)
from the University of Leicester.
Dr Pam Woolner is a Lecturer in Education in the Research Centre for Learning and
Teaching at Newcastle University. Formerly a secondary school mathematics teacher, she
now teaches research methods and supervises postgraduate students. Her research
interests centre on investigations of the learning environment and have included
evaluations of learning innovations.

FOREWORD

The previous editions of Research Methods in Educational Leadership and Management
have proved to be a worldwide success. The book addresses the specific needs of
researchers in educational leadership and management, particularly of new researchers,
and has been adopted as a core text in many UK universities as well as in Canada,
Australia and Hong Kong. One strength of the book is that it identifies a specialist niche
in the field of research methods, namely a book that is required by researchers –
including practitioner researchers – who are working in the field of educational
leadership and management throughout the world. A second strength is that it contains
specially commissioned pieces that are appropriate for the field of educational leadership
and management, and addresses issues of concern to the experienced researcher, the new
researcher and those engaged in practitioner research.
The third edition draws on the strengths of the previous volumes. Responding to
reader evaluations, Ann Briggs, Marianne Coleman and Marlene Morrison have sought
updated chapters from many of their authors, and new chapters from others, in response
to the needs of the field. New chapters introduced in the third edition include: research
design, grounded research, ethnography and mixed methods as well as other major topics
in chapters that have been updated. The contributions provided by various authors
demonstrate a rich range of methodologies that social scientists use when studying
educational settings. As with any volume on research methodology, the authors indicate
the ‘different voices’ in which research methodology can be discussed.
The range of chapters provided within this third edition is indeed impressive. The
philosophical issues that underpin our rationale for conducting research, and our
approaches to it, are addressed; there are technical appraisals of validity, reliability and
triangulation as well as discussions of a wide range of research approaches, such as case
studies and practitioner research, as well as thought-provoking chapters about research
tools and research ethics. A particular feature of this book is the way in which it focuses

on data analysis, writing and dissemination as well as some of the standard topics
associated with research techniques and data collection.
This volume, like its predecessors, is an important contribution to the literature,
which enables students to engage with the wide range of issues which affect and underpin
their research, before consulting specialist texts on particular aspects of research methods.
It is this facility that this collection provides. Overall, it is a volume that will be of great


value to those engaged in teaching and learning about the research process and research
methods. I am sure that the third edition of this collection will become essential reading
for students engaged in the study of educational leadership and management.
Professor Sir Robert Burgess
Vice-Chancellor
University of Leicester
July 2011


CHAPTER 1


Introduction
Ann R.J. Briggs, Marianne Coleman and Marlene
Morrison

Chapter objectives
This third edition of Research Methods in Educational Leadership and Management has been
written specifically for researchers in the area. Many will be Masters and Doctoral students in
educational leadership, and others will include the increasing range of practitioner-researchers in
education throughout the world. In this introductory chapter, we have the following aims:
To consider the nature of educational leadership and management research.

To introduce the book as a whole.
To give an overview of the process of designing and undertaking research in this field.
We welcome a new editor to the team – Professor Marlene Morrison – and many new authors, who
have substantially added to the range of perspectives and subject matter presented in the chapters.

We have introduced in this third edition website materials, where you can find additional
material for five of the chapters. The website is at: />
Introduction
This book offers insight and guidance concerning research paradigms, research
methodology and research practice which are relevant to any social science researcher.
However, our primary focus is on the field of educational leadership and management,
and the book draws extensively upon research in this field. In this third edition, we have
further strengthened the international focus of the book, and drawn in new international
writers. With the increasing use of international comparators for school achievement, and
the interplay of policy and practice between countries across the world, there is a
worldwide consideration of what constitutes effective leadership and management of
educational institutions. Although specific local contexts differ greatly between countries,
there are shared concerns about how to lead effectively for the best possible levels of
student achievement.
In many countries, there is currently a strong focus upon school and college


improvement being addressed through small-scale empirical research, potentially
providing a direct link between research and practice. This book has therefore been
designed for readers with a range of research experience and levels of theoretical and
practical knowledge, and we hope that the various sections and chapters provide a
stimulus for thought and action across this spectrum of experience. All of our authors
have their own insights and areas of research expertise, and one of the strengths of this
and earlier editions of this text has been the range of author voices presented. We hope
that the spectrum of approaches, writing styles and individual voices which you will find

in this edition enable you to consider your research from a wide variety of perspectives.
In addition, this edition has a companion website, where you will find supplementary
data and worked examples to support individual chapters.

What is educational leadership research?
Educational leadership research may be seen as twin-focused. It is a systematic enquiry
that is both a distinctive way of thinking about educational phenomena, that is, an
attitude, and a way of investigating those phenomena, that is, an action or activity. The
published outcomes of educational leadership research form the bedrock from which
most postgraduate researchers start their own research journeys. Tendencies towards
academic elitism, the inaccessibility of research outcomes and the perceived irrelevance
of educational research may have left some education leaders, managers and teachers in
‘a vacuum, with the so what? or what next? factors failing to be addressed’ (ClipsonBoyles, 2000: 2–3). The growth of professional doctorates and research-focused
postgraduate degrees is seen as a counterpoint to such tendencies. Educational leaders
might now feel that they have an ownership of research knowledge and practice. Yet,
becoming researchers rather than research recipients brings other challenges.
One potential stumbling block is training in educational research that is almost totally
associated with the narrow acquisition of research skills that enable individual smallscale researchers to collect, process and analyse research data. If educational leadership
research is both an attitude and an activity, then the task of this book is to invite readers
to consider and re-consider educational research not just as a ‘rule-driven’ means of
‘finding out’ what educators did not know before, but as an approach to skilful and
intellectual enquiry that is rooted in and shaped by a number of research traditions, and
by multiple ways of viewing the educational worlds we inhabit.

Why undertake research into educational leadership and
management?
Educational leadership and management as a research field is relatively new, having been
developed over the past 40 years (Bush, 1999). It draws upon theory and practice from
the management field and from the social sciences. The fields of leadership and of

management overlap to some extent, but educational management research may be taken
to be a study of the organisational structures of educational institutions, and the roles and
responsibilities of staff in organising and directing the work of the institution, including
‘work activities, decision making, problem solving, resource allocation’ (Heck and
Hallinger, 2005: 230). Educational leadership research involves analysing the concept of
leadership itself, the types and styles of leadership and their relevance to educational
settings. Ribbins and Gunter (2002) claim that two important areas of leadership research
are under-represented: first, studies of leading: ‘what individual leaders do and why they
do it in a variety of specific circumstances, how and why others respond as they do, and
with what outcomes’ (Ribbins and Gunter, 2002: 362). Secondly, Ribbins and Gunter call
for more studies of leaders: ‘what leaders are, why and by whom they are shaped into
what they are, and how they become leaders’ (Ribbins and Gunter, 2002: 362). Thirdly,
we might also call for more studies of leadership and management as perceived by those
who are most affected by their decisions and actions, for example, learners, an issue
pursued by Jacky Lumby in Chapter 16. Finally, we need to move beyond what leaders
and others say they think and do, towards more ethnographically centred observations of
leadership practices, within and beyond institutional locales.
Research activity seeks to extend our knowledge, and a typology for educational
leadership research offered by Gunter (2005: 166) enables us to distinguish between
different approaches to knowledge. She offers five such approaches:
technical – field members log the actualities of practice
illuminative – field members interpret the meaning of practice
critical – field members ask questions about power relations within and external to
activity and actions
practical – field members devise strategies to secure improvements
positional – field members align their research with particular knowledge claims.
The type of knowledge sought links closely with the purpose of the research. For
example, a technical study could be undertaken with the purpose of producing a rich
description of leadership or management practice, an illuminative study would seek to

interpret meanings from the data collected, whilst the purpose of a practical study would
be to use the knowledge gained in order to achieve organisational improvement. A
critical approach would examine the power relations within the leadership or
management activity, for example taking diversity into account, and a positional
approach would assess practice against a particular theoretical framework. These
different approaches to knowledge affect the type of data collected and the analysis to
which the data are subjected.
Research in educational management and leadership is often focused upon potential
improvements in leadership activity which could impact positively upon learner
achievement. At the very least, undertaking research contributes to the professional
development of the individual, but it may also encourage small changes in practice, such
as the development of a policy; it may even underpin a major change in the ethos that


affects the whole institution, particularly where multiple research projects are involved
(Middlewood et al., 1999).

Challenges in researching educational leadership and
management
Research in this field presents challenges, and this short section introduces some of them.
The educational research field has been criticised for its lack of relevance to the work of
educational organisations (see Gorard, 2005: 155 for a summary of these criticisms). In
addition, leaders and leadership relationships are difficult to define, and causal factors
associated with leadership and management practice are complex, presenting problems
for the small-scale researcher, and the range of different types of research undertaken can
make it difficult to draw upon previous findings. An insider researcher may have
difficulty in accessing the views of more senior staff, particularly in high power distance
cultures (Hofstede, 1991).
The educational leadership researcher encounters difficulty in defining who are
leaders, who are ‘followers,’ and what their relationship is. Is leadership a construct of

the leader (or leaders), created by those whom they lead? And how do we take account of
the intricacies of leadership and management of schools, colleges and universities, where
an individual may be a leader in one context and a ‘follower’ or team member in another?
It is important to acknowledge these complexities, and not to adopt simplistic definitions
of leadership too readily.
A further problem met by researchers in the educational leadership and management
field is the difficulty (especially for the small-scale researcher) of linking causal factors:
for example, linking leadership or management activities to improvement in student
learning. The meta analyses undertaken by Hallinger and Heck (1998) and Witziers et al.
(2004), which reviewed 40 and 37 research studies respectively, found only weak or
indirect effects of leadership on student attainment in the studies reviewed.
However, the literature offers researchers some indication of likely areas for
investigation, and two examples are offered here. Firstly, Robinson and her colleagues
(2009), in their Best Evidence Synthesis (BES) of literature on the relationship between
school leadership practice and student outcomes, identify five leadership dimensions
which are perceived to have a direct impact upon student outcomes. They are listed here
in order of magnitude of their perceived impact, with the greatest at the top:
1
2=
2=
4
5

Promoting and participating in teacher learning and development
Establishing goals and expectations
Planning, coordinating and evaluating teaching and the curriculum
Resourcing strategically
Ensuring an orderly and supportive environment

It is of particular interest in the context of this book that teacher learning and
development – which includes the activity of practitioner research – is seen as having a
strong impact upon student outcomes. The BES document offers substantial guidance to
educational leaders for acting on these findings, and the five dimensions quoted above
indicate areas of leadership activity which could usefully form the focus of institutional
improvement research.
A much broader conceptual framework is offered by Leithwood et al. (2010: 14–26),
who propose four paths of leadership influence on student learning:
The rational path, where variables are rooted in the knowledge and skills of staff
about curriculum, teaching and learning.
The emotional path, which encompasses factors affecting the emotions and morale of
staff, and thereby their efficacy as teachers.
The organisational path, where variables include the organisational structure, culture,
policies and standard operational procedures.
The family path, where influences such as home environment and parental
involvement in school are located.
Leithwood et al. discuss the need for leaders to be aware of their potential to influence
variables positively across all four of these paths. Educational leadership researchers
could usefully examine variables from one or more of the paths to understand better their
effect on learner achievement.
Finally, as this book exemplifies, research in the educational leadership and
management field encompasses a wide range of possible purposes and approaches. Heck
and Hallinger (2005: 232) warn that:
Researchers employing different conceptual and methodological approaches often
seem to pass each other blindly in the night. They ask different questions and base
their enquiry on widely differing epistemological assumptions. For the field as a
whole, greater diversity has not added up to greater accumulation of knowledge.
In considering your own research design, therefore, do not limit your reading and
thinking to researchers who ‘think like you’. Through reading papers by investigators
who have adopted a particular stance towards their research, or have collected and

analysed data sets unlike your own, you will broaden your insight into your own
investigation, its conceptual basis, purpose and methodology.

Designing your research: focus and purpose
Gunter (2005: 168) suggests the following interests which educational leadership and
management researchers might have:


Learners: who are they, how do they experience learning, how do they progress, and
why?
Staff: who are they, how do they experience their work, how are they developed, and
why?
Organisation: what formal structures are there in the division of labour, how do they
function, and why?
Culture: what informal structures are there, how do they function, and why?
Communities: what direct (parents, governors) and indirect (businesses, charities)
participation is there by local people, how do they participate, and why?
State: what are the purposes of schools and schooling, and how is the school as a
public institution interconnected with citizenship and democratic development?
Connections: how are local, regional, national and international communities
interconnected, what impact does this have on learners and staff, and why?
This list provides a useful starting point in developing a research focus. A research focus
could combine some of the interests outlined above, for example: how do staff create and
experience culture? An interest in ‘State’ could investigate the impact of an educational
policy on an institution, in relation to the needs of the local community. When combined
with Gunter’s list (2005: 266), cited earlier, of approaches to knowledge – technical,
illuminative, critical, practical, positional – both the focus and the purpose of the research
can be located. You do not have to use Gunter’s terminology or classification, but you
can use it to establish what you wish to investigate and why. If you wish to investigate
how staff experience their work, do you wish your research outcomes to be a detailed

description of staff roles and activities? Do you wish staff to evaluate their motivation to
work, or their satisfaction with their working environment? Do you think that some staff
(women or those from minority ethnic groups perhaps) may experience their work
differently from others? Do you need to find out how staff could be better led, or how
they could improve their own management of learning? Does your research purpose
include the analysis of student perceptions of the staff who teach them? These various
suggestions for research focus and purpose demand different research approaches and
different data.

Exploring the concept of research
The thinking above leads us to an important question: what is the focus for my research?
It is important to define as carefully as possible the issue or research problem that is to be
investigated, and the context within which it is set. The way that you frame the problem
will both influence, and be influenced by, the research paradigm within which you work.
Part A of this book, The Concept of Research, challenges you to consider not only the
research problem which you are about to investigate, but how to think about it: how to


understand it as research before making choices concerning research approaches and
tools.
Part A therefore considers the wider questions related to research which underpin any
choice of research approach and research tool. In Chapter 2, Marlene Morrison introduces
us to research paradigms, challenging us to think about the nature of knowledge and
being, and how this relates to the methodological issues that will occupy your mind as a
researcher. The themes of this chapter are replayed throughout the book, as they underpin
the many choices we make as researchers. Chapter 3 adds another layer to this process of
reflexivity in asking whether we are to adopt a particular stance towards our research, and
towards the area of our investigation. You may see research as being a neutral, objective
activity; however, Margaret Grogan and Juanita Cleaver Simmons open our minds to
critical stances adopted by social science researchers who are likely to operate at the

subjective, interpretivist end of the research paradigm spectrum. It is important also to
consider the context of our research. Our thinking about research is strongly influenced
by the prevailing culture of the society we live in, and our understanding of research
objectives and practice may largely be based upon Western concepts of social structure
and ethical purpose. In Chapter 4, David Stephens shows not only that research is seen
differently in different cultures, but that the focus of any research can only be fully
understood within its cultural context. Reflection upon these three chapters will lead you
to consider deeply the nature and purpose of research, and the importance of its cultural
context.
In order to understand your research problem more fully, you will need to review the
existing research-based knowledge and the theoretical and conceptual areas that relate to
your chosen area. In Chapter 5, Jacqui Weetman DaCosta guides you through the process
of systematically reviewing educational literature, making use of all available sources to
provide a secure foundation for your work. As your research focus becomes clear, and
you frame your research questions, two important issues need to be addressed: how can I
ensure that this investigation is reliable and valid, and what are the ethical issues
presented by this research? In Chapter 6, Tony Bush discusses reliability, validity and
triangulation – what he calls the ‘authenticity’ of research – and in Chapter 7, Hugh
Busher and Nalita James consider the ethics of research in education. These chapters deal
with two of the book’s most consistent themes. Virtually every chapter invites you to
consider some aspect of validity, very often incorporating Michael Bassey’s notion of the
‘trustworthiness’ of the data. Similarly, the desire to ensure that research is carried out
with due regard to ethics, and that no one is damaged by your research, is a theme that is
consistent throughout the book.
It is useful at this point to consider the recommendations of the US National Research
Council (Shavelson et al., 2003, cited by Gorard, 2005: 160), which state that good
research would:
pose important questions that it was possible to answer
relate research to available theory and seek to test that theory
use methods allowing direct investigation of the questions

create a coherent, explicit chain of reasoning leading from the findings to the
conclusion
be replicable and fit easily into syntheses
be disclosed to critique, rather than playing to a gallery of existing converts.

Approaches to research
The advice offered above exhorts us to use research methods that allow direct
investigation of the research questions: methods which are appropriate to purpose. This
leads us to consider the overall concept of research design and the methodological
approaches available to researchers in educational leadership and management. Having
used the first part of this book to consider the type of research you are to undertake –
what its philosophical, ethical and conceptual basis is – Part A, Approaches to Research,
enables you to link those understandings to appropriate research design and choice of
methodological approach. We have substantially expanded this section of the book in the
third edition, to bring new authors into a wider discussion of a range of research
approaches.
First, in Chapter 8, David Scott establishes the links between the philosophical basis
of research – its ontology and epistemology – and the choices involved in research
design. The chapters which follow discuss a broad range of approaches to research which
are not mutually exclusive: for example, practitioner research might be conducted
through a mixed method approach and grounded research undertaken through life history.
These chapters discuss the fundamental choices to be made about your research, and the
need to consider your own values and understanding in making those choices.
Mary Hibbert and R. Burke Johnson explore the challenge of mixed method research
(Chapter 9), where seemingly conflicting research ontologies and epistemologies may be
combined within a single study. In Chapter 10, Daniel Muijs takes us through the issues
involved in conducting surveys, and ways of achieving reliability and generalisability
through appropriate sampling strategies. Michael Bassey presents an authoritative

account of an approach that will be taken by many insider researchers, that of the case
study (Chapter 11), and shows ways of achieving trustworthiness through the design and
operation of the study. Rachel Lofthouse and her colleagues draw upon their experience
of stimulating and supporting practitioner research (Chapter 12) to demonstrate ways in
which such research can be an integral part of organisational improvement.
Postgraduate researchers often seek a grounded approach to their research, drawing
theory out of the data presented: in Chapter 13, Clive Dimmock and Martha Lam set out
the theory behind grounded theory research, and demonstrate the rigour of its practice.
The worked example of Chapter 13 is of the life histories of educational leaders, and this
theme is echoed in the next two chapters. In Chapter 14, Marlene Morrison considers the
deep, critical insights which an ethnographic approach can provide into organisational
life and leadership. She summarises key methods, notably participant observation, and
provides examples, including recent developments in virtual ethnography. Narrative and