Rethinking rationality within an ecosystem approach to foster research-informed practice

Brown, Chris (2019) Rethinking rationality within an ecosystem approach to foster research-informed practice. In, An Ecosystem for Research-Engaged Schools: Reforming Education through Research. Taylor & Francis, pp. 170-186. (doi:10.4324/9780203701027-12).

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

This chapter examines why research-informed practice does occur in schools. Envisaging teachers’ engagement with research evidence via an ecosystem lens provides the opportunity to radically rethink our understanding of research-informed practice. The concept of Optimal Rational Positions (ORPs) represents the idea that there are certain acts, states or situations that society deems beneficial - generally these benefits accrue in terms of the longer term and in relation to the wider population. Research-informed teaching practice represents a collaborative process in which teachers and school leaders work together to access, evaluate and apply the findings of academic research in order to improve teaching and learning in their schools. The notion of Optimal Rational Behaviour suggests, much in the same way as animals in natural ecosystems respond in relation to specific signs and signals that occur in the environment surrounding them, that people will respond to ORPs depending on how they interpret such positions.

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