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The impact of postgraduate studies on the teachers’ practice

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 European Journal of Teacher Education

ISSN: 0261-9768 (Print) 1469-5928 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cete20

The impact of postgraduate studies on the

teachers’ practice

Georgeta Ion & Romita Iucu

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on the teachers’ practice, European Journal of Teacher Education, 39:5, 602-615, DOI:
10.1080/02619768.2016.1253674

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European Journal of Teacher Education, 2016
VOL. 39, NO. 5, 602–615
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2016.1253674

The impact of postgraduate studies on the teachers’ practice

Georgeta Iona and Romita Iucub
a
Departament de Pedagogia Aplicada, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Campus UAB, Bellaterra, Spain;
b
Departamentul de Stiintele Educatiei, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This paper analyses the perceptions of teachers involved in Received 7 October 2016
postgraduate studies of the importance of their study programme Accepted 24 October 2016
for their profession, describes the benefits of postgraduate studies
KEYWORDS
for their practice and examines the strategies used to enhance the Teacher education; research
impact research they undertake on their teaching. A questionnaire utilisation; teaching practice;
was administered to 161 teachers enrolled in master’s and PhD educational research
programmes in schools of education of five research universities in
Romania. The results demonstrate that postgraduate studies provide
teachers with a crucial link between the research conducted and
reported by faculties of education and their own work in schools.
A large majority recognised that research conducted in universities
had a personal impact, improving their teaching. Developing research
projects involving both researchers and practitioners, reading about
research findings in journals and enhancing communication between
researchers and practitioners were reported as useful strategies that
facilitated research utilisation in practice.

Introduction
Interest in the applicability and value of educational research has been growing in recent
decades, and researchers and practitioners have employed a variety of strategies to make
the results of research more visible and applicable (Alton-Lee 2011) despite the difficulties
faced:
Many schools are not learning organisations with a commitment to a continuous improvement
and most teachers have not thought of themselves as lifelong learners and knowledge-based
practitioners. Researchers neglect to shape their inquiries to respond to the problem facing
teachers. (Holbrook et al. 2000, 45)
The study of the use of research on practice is directly linked to the evidence-based teaching
movement (Biesta 2010, among others), which brings to attention both the practical impli-
cations of the research and the implications for educational logic.
In the process of knowledge utilisation, both researchers and practitioners play a critical
role, and the process is directly connected to the role of, and the value assigned to, education
research and to the gap between research and practice, as examined by authors such as
Oancea (2005) and McIntyre (2005). In the research utilisation approach, educational

CONTACT  Georgeta Ion  Georgeta.ion@uab.cat

© 2016 Association for Teacher Education in Europe
 European Journal of Teacher Education   603

practitioners are seen as ‘end users’ of research although there is a strong case for seeing
practitioners as mediators between research production and its use in practice (Levin 2013;
Tripney, Kenny, and Gough 2014). This can potentially have a particularly strong influence
on ensuring that research findings are used in practice. In this new paradigm, teachers play
an important role in closing the gap between research and practice in education although
there are voices who traditionally consider that ‘teaching and educational research do not
have a happy association. To many teachers much educational research appears as irrelevant’
(Woods 1986, 1).
The gap between research and practice has been thoroughly analysed in the literature.
Olivero, John, and Sutherland (2004) define it as being characterised by two different cultures,
the members of which appear to occupy two different worlds, and they emphasise the
distinct roles of researchers and practitioners in the process of research use (Beycioglu, Ozer,
and Ugurlu 2010). Although some claim that knowledge based on educational research is
implemented in schools (Cohen, Manion, and Morrison 2005), other studies argue that edu-
cational research is too theoretical and that it is difficult for it to have an impact on practice
(Bevan 2011). Similarly, Joram (2007) finds that teachers ‘believed that educational research-
ers lack credibility because they are divorced from the real work of teaching, and that research
is inaccessible to them because of the overly technical format in which it is presented’ (24).
Gall, Gall, and Borg (2007, 10) consider that the ‘knowledge base keeps growing but this
doesn’t mean necessarily that knowledge practitioners know about it, value it or apply it in
their work’. As we can see from these two different positions, the relationship between
research and practice is far from straightforward.
Teachers’ views are particularly relevant to the issue of research utilisation because teach-
ing is an essential profession that can generate change in contemporary society, particularly
in the light of the educational paradigm based on constructivism. This professional concept,
which is adapted to a changing society, holds that teaching as a profession undergoes a
continuous process of transformation and innovation and that education professionals act
as knowledge users and occasionally as researchers who are able to think carefully about
their own professional needs and new issues and areas that arise in their professional field.
Teachers thus become aware not only of students’ immediate needs and of what occurs in
class but also of their own training and professional needs. According to authors such as
Beretter (2002), teachers become researchers of their own professional practice (Borg 2009;
Hagger et al. 2008).

Factors that influence the use of research in practice

The use of research in practice is influenced by a wide variety of factors and it is mediated
through teachers’ personal experience, collegial knowledge and organisational cultures.
Teachers’ motivations, visions of research and access to research are also influential (Cain
this issue). They impart greater weight to the views of their colleagues and to their pre-ex-
isting practices than to findings derived from research (Hood 2003; among others). Brown,
Daly, and Liou (2016) analysed teachers’ motivations for research use and highlighted the
importance of extrinsic factors, including the school organisational settings and the social
relationships within them.
604    G. Ion and R. Iucu

When the use of research in practice is discussed, the principal focus is on the strategies
and methods that facilitate or block access to research-derived knowledge and on the appli-
cation of such knowledge. Rickinson (2003) proposes a classification of these factors:

• the nature of the research – factors related to the focus and form of the research findings;
• the nature of the practitioners – factors related to the interests, needs and backgrounds
of the practitioners;
• the nature of the professional context – factors related to the institutional context in
which the research is to be utilised;
• the nature of the wider context of support – factors related to the wider context of
knowledge transformation, transfer and communication.

Ouimet et al. (2009) add others factors that influence the application of research in prac-
tice: the ability to recognise the value of the knowledge to acquire, the acquisition of external
knowledge, the utilisation of knowledge and, finally, its application. The authors used as
variables in the model, elements such as the level of academic training, recognising the
potential value of research, access to infrastructures permitting research acquisition and
interacting with academic researchers.
Evidence for research utilisation being influenced by the nature of the research often
appears in the form of barriers to utilisation rather than factors that facilitate utilisation.
According to Rickinson (2003), two recurring issues in studies of teachers’ perceptions of
research are complaints about the inaccessibility of the language, and the challenge of
locating research that is relevant. According to Hargreaves (1999) and Hood (2003), teachers
often do not have the capacity and opportunity to make fruitful use of educational knowl-
edge to inform their work because they are rarely trained in how to utilise research. It may
also be the case that the initial education of teachers places less focus on the importance
of research than in other professions (Levin 2013). Many studies identify a need to involve
practitioners in the research process and to incorporate research training in the initial prepa-
ration of teachers (Kaestle 1993; Mortimore 2000).
In analysing research utilisation, most studies aim to investigate how teachers are able to
access research findings, think about their practical implications and reflect on how they
could use the results of research to change their practices in classrooms and schools. In gen-
eral, teachers rarely access research findings and face different types of barrier in this process
(Dagenais et al. 2012; Ovenden-Hope and la Velle 2015; among others). The findings of Shkedi
(1998) suggest that very few teachers turn to the research literature to expand their profes-
sional knowledge, solve problems or meet the requirements of their job. They do not use
research literature because they perceive it to be irrelevant, unhelpful and too theoretical.
Cousins and Leithwood (1993) focus on both the characteristics of the source of informa-
tion and the context in which utilisation occurs. The authors argue that dissemination of
information for school improvement should not aim at merely prompting practitioners to
replicate the work of others. They conclude that information should be shared and that
practitioners should be involved in the design, delivery and follow-up activities associated
with research. This idea agrees with Simons et al. (2003), who argue that involvement of
teachers in research has advantages, such as raising teachers’ awareness of educational
research and improving their level of engagement with research. Conversely, teachers’
engagement with research is beneficial to researchers (McLaughlin, Black-Hawkins, and
McIntyre 2004).
 European Journal of Teacher Education   605

Authors such as Lavis et al. (2003), Nutley, Walter, and Davies (2007) and Miretzky (2007)
propose strategies to enhance and facilitate the research used in practice and suggest that
research may have an impact on practice as long as teachers are involved in the research
process at the school or even university level, starting with identification of problems and
finishing with proposal of strategies for improvement. To achieve this goal, Alton-Lee (2011)
recommends that research findings be more accessible, that the reward structures be
reframed (i.e. academics should be rewarded for dissemination to practitioners) and that
professional learning be underpinned by cumulative high-impact research and development
in education. Castle (1988) identifies several facilitators for the use of research in education:
making information readily available, enabling teachers to devote time to reading research,
using outside consultants, providing evidence for the benefits of using research, ensuring
that research has practical application and promoting a collegial atmosphere between
researchers and teachers.
Studies of the use of research in teaching have emerged in recent years in Eastern
European countries. In the post-communist context, where traditionally ‘psychological
research offers a clear route to the production of educational solutions’ (Temple 2003, 222)
educational research appears as a possible solution for the system improvement. Although
Romania experienced a growing interest in the potential of research for school improvement,
there is a limited number of studies of teachers’ attitudes towards educational research. The
studies available show that educational research has little, to no, influence on teaching
practice (Curaj 2015; Vîiu and Miroiu 2013; Vlăsceanu and Hâncean 2015; among others).
The study conducted by Ion and Iucu (2014) reveals that practitioners consider research to
be important at the practical level, but they struggle with organisation and personal factors
that limit their ability to engage in genuine and sustainable research-based practices. One
of the main causes of this phenomenon according to Singer (2013) is the ‘Cinderella’ status
of educational research in Romania. Indeed, the gap between research into education and
its translation into policy and practice has been identified as one of the main problems of
the educational system in Romania, along with the lack of cooperation among all those
involved in education (researchers, practitioners and policy-makers).
Based on these premises, the present study aims to analyse how teachers involved in
postgraduate studies in education perceive the impact of their studies on their professional
practice. The study explores how these teachers transfer their studies to the school environ-
ment and improve their practice, the value that they attach to research, the sources of their
innovations and how they access research. In addition, the study explores teachers’ engage-
ment with research.

Methods
To analyse the views of teachers enrolled in postgraduate studies regarding educational research,
a descriptive study was conducted through the use of a survey that enabled teachers to express
their opinions (Cohen, Manion, and Morrison 2005, among others). The use of a questionnaire
permitted us to approach a large number of teachers undertaking postgraduate studies.

Participants
The participants were involved in research programmes in Educational Studies at ‘advanced
research universities’ (defined by the Romanian educational system as universities that offer
606    G. Ion and R. Iucu

research-intensive programmes at the master’s and doctoral levels). Master’s programmes,

according to the European Higher Education Area, are spread over a two-year period and
combine academic specialisation with practical activities. In the final year of study, students
must write a thesis, based, in most cases, on a research study they have conducted in which
they applied their studies to a practical subject. The PhD programmes last three years and
are entirely research based. Twelve universities in Romania fall into this category, and of
these, only five offer Educational Studies degrees. A total of 161 students participated in the
study. There was an almost equal number of doctoral and master’s degree students, repre-
senting 51.5 and 48.6% of participants, respectively. Almost two-thirds of the participants
reported being in the first or second year of studies (n = 107), whereas the remaining third
(n = 54) reported being in the third, fourth, fifth or later year of studies. Most of the partici-
pants were female (87.6%), and 73% were between 25 and 45 years old.

Instruments
The research tool consisted of a set of questions adapted from an instrument developed by
Holbrook et al. (2000) and included seven sections:

(1)  General information.
(2)  Motivation for choosing this area of study.
(3)  Information regarding the workplace.
(4)  Information regarding the workplace relating to educational professionals.
(5)  The sources and importance of research (for educational professionals).
(6)  Research activities during studies.
(7)  The transfer of information in the work place.

We summarised the data that we obtained based on these seven sections, including the
following basic statistics: distribution, means, percentages, and minimum and maximum
values. The analysis also includes statistical tests and basic two-way analysis of variance.

Results
The role of postgraduate students in research performed at universities, the extent of
research undertaken, and the links between schools and research are significant. Postgraduate
students constitute the largest single group involved in educational research, and their
contribution to the educational sector is critical because they primarily work in the education
sector as schoolteachers while studying part-time. In our study, 83% of the subjects reported
working full-time as teachers and as educational advisors (teachers with counselling respon-
sibilities in school institutions).
The results focus on three main areas concerning the role of postgraduate students in
linking research to school practice: first, students’ views about the importance of their
studies and the sources of ideas for research; second, the views of postgraduate students
regarding the benefits of their studies at the school level; and finally, students’ views regard-
ing methods to enhance the connections between educational research and professional
practice.
 European Journal of Teacher Education   607

Importance of postgraduate students’ studies and the sources of ideas for research
Teachers engaged in research at the master’s or doctoral level potentially represent an impor-
tant bridge between the world of research performed at universities and the world of practice
at their work places. From this perspective, the motives for their choice of study are particu-
larly relevant. The results show that the motivation for choosing a postgraduate programme
can be categorised as either extrinsic (employer expectations or career advancement) or
intrinsic (personal interest, a wish to expand one’s network, or an interest in educational
research and intellectual challenges). The results show that intrinsic factors are far more
important than extrinsic factors for students who identified intellectual challenge as a key
reason for undertaking research (91.30%), for students who cited a personal interest in stud-
ying in the field of education (88.20%) and for students who said that they wished to expand
their professional networks (82%). The following were also considered very important: stu-
dents needed postgraduate studies to advance their careers (75.20%); they were interested
in research (73.90%); and finally, the heads of their schools expected them to undertake
postgraduate studies (32.3%). In spite of these motivations, more than half of the respond-
ents felt discouraged (52.20%) rather than encouraged (46.60%) to pursue postgraduate
programmes. Comparing attitudes in terms of gender, age group and type of studies, sta-
tistical differences were found. Although males reported feeling more encouraged than
discouraged to continue their studies (70% compared with 30%), the perception of encour-
agement was lower among those over 35 years of age, with only 37.1% reporting positive
feelings of encouragement. To use their research at school, teachers need to feel encouraged
by their managers and they also need to perceive receptiveness from their colleagues. In
this respect, the data show that in general, teachers perceived their colleagues to be receptive
(67%). Working in a receptive environment appears to have a positive impact on their pro-
fessional activities, with almost all teachers perceiving their studies to have an impact on
their teaching practices (91%).
Research in education can represent a source of inspiration for teachers and an oppor-
tunity to propose and implement innovations in school. The next section of the questionnaire
involved teachers’ relationship with the sources of their ideas and with innovations at their
schools. The data showed in the figure 1 reveal that... the main source of teachers’ ideas was
their professional networks, followed by university studies and courses and recent research
in the field, with the news media being the least important.
Related to this topic, the following section of the questionnaire referred to the strategies
used by teachers to transfer ideas derived from their research to the school setting. The data
show that teachers usually use informal networks and free discussion (76.40%), followed by
workshops with their colleagues (31.10%) and symposia (29.80%). The less frequently used
strategies were leaflets, newsletters, posters and conferences. Figure 2 shows the results
according to category.
Analysing this information according to type of studies, a number of differences were
found: doctoral students placed more importance than master’s students on workshops
(74.0 vs. 26.0%), symposia (77.1 vs. 22.9%), conferences (85.7 vs. 14.3%) and free discussions
(60.2 vs. 39.8%). There was also a gender difference in terms of the use of professional net-
works, with 82.3% of females reporting that they did not consider this strategy of primary
importance, as opposed to the 55.0% of men who did.
608    G. Ion and R. Iucu

100% 6.1 9.9 10.9

90%
80% 34.6
46.9 48.1 48.1 53.8
70% 55.4 56.2 16.7
69
60%
50% 93.9 91.1 89.1
40%
30% 65.4
53.1 51.9 51.9 46.2
20% 44.2 43.8 13.3
31
10%
0%

Very important Not important

Figure 1. Importance of sources of new ideas.

90.00
80.00 76.40

70.00
60.00
50.00
40.00 31.11
29.80
30.00 21.10
20.00 11.20
8.70 8.70 8.70
10.00
0.00

Figure 2. Strategies used to transfer research to school.

Benefits of research for school practice

Postgraduate students can provide an important perspective on the personal and profes-
sional benefits of master’s and doctoral studies. Postgraduate students were of the opinion
that their studies helped them to feel more committed to research in general, to be more
informed regarding research and to develop a better understanding of their own practice
and of educational policies. In terms of concrete benefits, subjects observed the personal
awareness and professional benefits arising from their studies as providing the largest gain,
including a deeper understanding of what they achieve in their work. Institutional benefits
 European Journal of Teacher Education   609

in general, and workplace benefits in particular, were also considerable although not
observed to be as all-encompassing as the more personal benefits, as shown in Table 1.
Of all these benefits, the improvements in teachers’ activities at the school or classroom
level are particularly interesting. The postgraduate students perceived that the benefits of
their studies were diverse and that they would be able to use their studies to introduce
innovations into their teaching strategies, to promote new projects, to make their work more
visible and to improve the educational processes of their institutions. A less noticeable ben-
efit was that of attracting new funds for their activities. The figures for these benefits are
listed in Table 2.
Finally, a set of questions asked the postgraduate students how the transfer of research
to educational practice and educational policies could be improved. As shown in Table 2,
the students considered that the relationship between research and educational practice
could be improved by publishing research in journals, followed by creating collaborative
relationships between researchers and practitioners and enhancing the presence of research-
ers in the mass media. Publishing research online was considered a less useful strategy.
Table 3 provides a summary of these findings.
When strategies to improve the relationship between educational practices and research
were compared, ‘visibility in the mass media’ and ‘publishing the results of research online’
were considered to be more important by doctoral researchers than master’s students (60.6
vs. 39.4% and 65.7 vs. 34.3%, respectively). Doctoral students also reported that ‘creating
cooperation networks’ was very important (64.0%), whereas master’s students assigned it a
lower priority (36.0%). Similarly, more doctoral students than master’s students (60.0 vs.
40.0%) considered ‘involving practitioners in university research’ to be very important.
Regarding the transfer of research to policy-making, participants considered the most
useful strategies to consist of creating cooperation between researchers and the policy-mak-
ing sector, followed by the publication of research findings online and publishing articles
in journals. The mass media was considered to be less useful. Table 4 below lists the relevant
percentages.

Table 1. Benefits of postgraduate studies.

Benefits A lot % Little %
Studies helped to enhance the quality of their own professional activity 86.3 13.7
Studies have helped to get a deeper understanding of the activities performed in work place 80.3 19.7
Studies help obtain more information on educational research 75.7 24.3
Studies offer the possibility of understanding the relationship between educational research and 72.9 27.1
educational practices
Studies make more committed to educational research 72.7 27.3
Studies offer the possibility of understanding relationship between educational research and 55.6 44.4
educational policies

Table 2. Professional benefits of educational research.

Benefits for the professional activity Yes % No %
Innovation in teaching strategies 80.1 19.9
Creation of new projects 65.2 34.8
Enhancing the visibility of the work 53.4 46.6
Improving the quality of the school 49.7 50.9
Improving relationships with colleagues from the same institution 49.1 50.9
Enlarging professional networks outside the institution 32.9 67.1
Attracting new funds 24.2 75.8
610    G. Ion and R. Iucu

Table 3. Strategies to enhance the transfer of research into practice.

Ways to improve the transfer of research to practice Yes % No %
Publishing research papers in scientific journals 67.1 32.9
Creating cooperation networks between researchers and practitioners 62.1 37.9
Enhance the visibility of researchers in the mass-media 61.5 38.5
Involving practitioners in university research 60.9 39.1
Informing educational institutions about research results 53.4 46.6
Developing research projects in schools 53.4 46.6
Publishing results online 41.6 58.6

Table 4. Ways to transfer research into policy-making.

Ways to improve the transfer of research to policy-making Yes % No %
Creating cooperation networks between researchers and policy makers 75.2 24.8
Publishing results online 65.3 34.8
Publishing research papers in scientific journals 65.2 34.8
Informing educational institutions about research results 62.5 38.5
Involving policy-makers in university research 60.2 39.8
Developing research projects in schools 38.5 61.5
Enhancing the visibility of researchers in mass media 36.6 63.4

Differences regarding the type of study were found, with more doctoral students than
master’s students considering most of the related factors to be very important. The doctoral
students considered publication of research findings in journals to be a priority (62.5 vs.
37.5%), favoured use of the Internet to publish results (67.6 vs. 32.4%) and favoured creation
of cooperation networks between researchers and policy-makers (62.0 vs. 38.0%).
The final section of the questionnaire concerned the different strategies used by the
postgraduates to become more informed about research performed at the university level.
Figure 3 shows that conferences/symposia and seminars were the most frequently used
strategy (78.9%), whereas flyers (5.6%) were the least-used method.
When the three most effective strategies were analysed, we found that 90.4% of the
doctoral students perceived conferences/symposia and seminars as effective, whereas fewer

90.00
78.90
80.00
70.00
58.40
60.00
48.41
50.00 39.10
40.00 34.20
30.00
20.00 10.60
10.00 5.56
0.00

Figure 3. Effectiveness of different sources of information at university level (%).

 European Journal of Teacher Education   611

of the master’s students did so (66.7%). The same trend is visible regarding the perception
of the effectiveness of articles from educational journals (71.1 vs. 38.5%) and books (60.2
vs. 35.9%).

Discussion
The impression gained from the results is that the teachers consider research important for
their practice, which in turn explains their decision to undertake postgraduate studies. Their
motivation is very much a personal one, and although it is often related to workplace con-
siderations, postgraduate research is not necessarily closely integrated with the workplace
as demonstrated by Holbrook et al. (2000) and more recently by Borg (2009). Nevertheless,
teachers perceive research as having an impact on their own practices, especially when they
want to promote an innovation in their practice. The impact is mostly confined to the teach-
ers’ immediate context, namely, their classrooms and thus occurs on a small scale and is
entirely the result of the actions of the teachers themselves. The impact at the school level
is secondary, and a possible explanation for this is the lack of support that teachers feel at
the institutional level. This finding concurs with Brown, Daly, and Liou (2016) who reported
that teachers are more likely to use research if they perceive the climate of their schools to
be supportive of research utilisation.
In addition, teachers consider research conducted at the university level as an important
basis for new developments within their schools, which allows us to conclude that educa-
tional research does have an effect on teachers’ practice and that teachers engaged in post-
graduate studies act as a bridge between academic research and schools, facilitating the
transfer of results to their professional context and increasing the benefits of research results
and their application (Alton-Lee 2011; Miretzky 2007). Postgraduate studies were considered
by the participants to have an important role in making teachers more aware of research,
contributing to their conceptual use of research (Cain 2015) in bringing them up-to-date
with research undertaken at the university level, and in helping them to better understand
the relationship between research and practice. This idea allows us to consider that engage-
ment in and with educational research can provide a basis for professional change and can
encourage teachers to engage in both professional activities and reflection, as demonstrated
by Timperley and Parr (2007) and Leat, Lofthouse, and Reid (2014).
Moreover, teachers prefer to communicate their knowledge to colleagues in informal
contexts, involving free discussions, workshops and symposia and even social networks,
which demonstrate the role of peers and the horizontal relationships involved in the dis-
semination of knowledge (Holbrook et al. 2000). The use of informal and horizontal modes
of transmitting research among teachers reveals the importance that teachers place on their
peers but also suggests possible barriers to accessing research produced at the university
level. The origin of these barriers could be related to how research is produced and dissem-
inated from universities to practitioners or it could be related to the teachers’ own barriers
to accessing or trusting research produced outside their individual contexts. The results of
our study highlight the gap between knowledge creation and its availability to practitioners
(Gurzick and Kesten 2009) and the lack of effective communication to practitioners despite
the plethora of scientific evidence that is available (Bhattacharyya, Reeves, and Zwarenstein
2009; Hemsley-Brown and sharp 2003; McKenna, Ashton, and Keeney 2003). The availability
of research results is not the only cause of the lack of research utilisation. Teachers’ skills and
612    G. Ion and R. Iucu

dispositions represent a possible barrier to research use. Teachers appear to be reluctant to

use research conducted at the university level, assigning a low value to research findings
(Gurzick and Kesten 2009) and claiming a lack of confidence and expertise in accessing and
using research (Ion and Iucu 2014; McKenna, Ashton, and Keeney 2003).
Teachers also use their university-level studies and their research in the field as sources
of information, which validates the idea that teachers are supported by their peers and
acquire a more open mind by virtue of their university studies. Our results complement the
studies of Beycioglu, Ozer, and Ugurlu (2010) and Cain (2015) regarding access to research
published in scientific journals, and the ways in which teachers make use of this.
In our study, the postgraduate students recognised the potential of academic publications
and of direct collaboration between researchers and practitioners to improve the relationship
between research and educational practice. As Everton, Galton, and Pell (2002) stated, ‘Rather
than engage with research they preferred to engage in research’ (394). This finding urges
policy-makers and scholars conducting research to encourage teachers to engage both with
and in research. The second-best strategy to improve the relationship between research and
practice highlights the importance of academic journals as sources of information and their
role in facilitating transfer of research into practice, although in Romania, this strategy has
been criticised as ineffective practitioners prefer to access books or reports (Ion and Iucu
2014), particularly regarding doctoral studies.

Conclusions
This study aimed to analyse the opinions of teachers involved in postgraduate studies regard-
ing the impact that they consider their studies to have in practice. First, the results showed
how valuable postgraduate studies in education are to teachers’ practice and the potential
that they have to generate change within classrooms. This is particularly important, consid-
ering that teachers are engines of change and can directly improve the quality of education.
Despite this potential, our results showed that teachers face struggles and challenges at the
school level when attempting to make these changes more visible and effective, and that they
require not only their own intrinsic motivations but also institutional support. School heads
and colleagues must encourage teachers and find methods to facilitate the transfer of research
capital into practice. Only in this manner can research be useful and have a greater impact.
Second, the study revealed that most of the teachers use research as a source of new
ideas and improvements at the school level and showed the role of peers in this process.
This idea allows us to insist on the need to create formal communities of learning and practice
at the school level, which should be supported at the institutional level. Networks appear
to be valuable resources to enhance research dissemination between peers. Following
Saunders (2007), strategies to promote teachers’ engagement could be considered. We sug-
gest strategies such as the following: directly accessing research intelligence, for example,
through websites, reading groups, researcher-in-school schemes, and journals and other
print media; participating in externally generated research studies; undertaking research as
part of teachers’ accredited professional studies; undertaking specific teacher researcher
activities outside accredited study; actively experimenting in their own classrooms using a
reflective-evaluative inquiry approach; and working in pairs or groups to read, analyse and
discuss research relevant to professional and school development and to design collaborative
studies within or even across schools.
 European Journal of Teacher Education   613

Third, the study demonstrated that teachers assign considerable importance to educa-
tional research and wish to be involved in research projects with universities, perceiving this
strategy to be the most effective strategy for facilitating transfer of knowledge from research
to practice. Because teachers wish to be involved in research, this permits us to consider the
teacher–researcher partnership in studies conducted at both the school and institutional
levels. Through involvement of teachers in research, not only is transfer of research facilitated
but also teachers can learn to improve their research skills and competence, with research
forming part of a teacher’s professional development.
Finally, the study brings to attention the potential of the teacher education programmes,
both at undergraduate and postgraduate studies, to transform the student teachers per-
spectives on the value of scientific research and its use. Training has a critical role in the
future teachers’ professional development and it represents a key issue in changing the
teachers’ views of the potential of research for the school improvement. This leads us to
conclude that university programmes in teacher education should integrate research with
a coherent and transversal approach along disciplines, rather than as isolated subject (e.g.
research methods) facilitating in this way the full integration of research in the studies, in
order to facilitate the closer interaction between theory and practice.
Our research has a number of limitations. The limited number of participants does not
allow us to generalise the results to a broader context, but our study could form the basis
for future research. The study opened up interesting perspectives regarding the role of
teachers in research production, particularly teachers’ use of research and their capacity to
transfer their studies to their classroom. However, this study is only the beginning, and future
in-depth research is required, especially regarding teachers who are not pursuing formal
postgraduate studies. Second, similar studies could be conducted across different school
settings and with different members of the school community, such as school heads. The
effect of teachers’ research use on their teaching and their students is still an underrepre-
sented field and would benefit from further research. Finally, it would be valuable to conduct
international studies to investigate whether teachers from different cultures have different
views regarding educational research and its use in practice.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding
This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and
Innovation, CNCS – UEFISCDI project number PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-1605.

Notes on contributors
Georgeta Ion has a degree in Psychology and Educational sciences, MD in management and evaluation
in education by University of Bucharest and PhD in Educational Sciences by University of Barcelona.
Her research topics are, among others: university organisational culture, the relationship between
research and educational practices and competencies-based assessment at university level. She is cur-
rently working at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and is collaborating in several i­ nternational
projects in collaboration with universities and public institutions.
614    G. Ion and R. Iucu

Romita Iucu, PhD, is the Vice Rector of University of Bucharest, director of the Center for Innovation and
development in Teacher Training and coordinator of European Network on Teacher Education Policies
(ENTEP). He is a professor of Educational Sciences at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences.
At the European level, he has been member of the EU Group “Improving the Quality for Teachers and
Trainers” (2002-2005), member of Cluster Teachers and Trainers and since 2006 is member of ENTEP
and since October 2010 is ENTEP Coordinator.

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