Gaps, maps and traps- Can multidisciplinary research contribute to better
communication across the great
professional divide?
Prof. Steve Baron, Applied Education Research Scheme
Prof. Alan Gilloran, Queen Margaret University
Kate Skinner, IRISS
Why are we worried about all
this?
• Two interlocking concerns:
Developing inter-professional
practice
Relationship between research,
policy and practice
Results in issues:
• Who controls the research agenda?
• Pressure to narrow utilitarianism
• Inter-professional work is poorly
documented and evaluated, underresearched, atheoretical and
problematic in practice
What is the political economy?
Education
• Crisis fostered in 90s to establish a
‘what works’ agenda exclusively
• ESRC demographic review – ageing
research labour force
• Dual labour market in HEIs with
consequences for research activity
Who controls the agenda?
Education
• Attempt to establish National Educational
Research Forum as conduit for Funding
Council research money on contractor-client
basis;
• HEFCE R stream top-sliced & given to ESRC
for a dirigiste Research Programme (£40m
TLRP)
• ESRC as independent research funder
• Pressure on ‘non-funded’ research
What questions are sponsored?
Education
•
•
•
•
‘what works’
raising attainment
school effectiveness
academy concerned with inequalities &
their social roots (esp. gender)
• class almost excluded
What research methods are
accepted as legitimate?
Social services
• dominance of qualitative methods
• (declining??) primacy of quantitative
methods in policy-making especially
large scale (international) surveys
• arguments for double blind, control
group experiments
What are the main constituencies
for research?
Education
• historically main one is the academy;
• long terms attempts to link to practice e.g. SCRE;
• pressure to ‘reflective practitioner’ – ITE staff & students
emerging constituencies
difference between:
evidence-based: X works
evidence- informed: X has worked in
some circumstances & effectiveness
needs prof. Judgement
research-informed: practice approach
with critical research perspectives)
• user involvement per TLRP and ESRC
What is the political economy?
Health and older people
• Traditional dominance of medical research:
high tech, genetic, acute conditions
• Focus on longevity and changing
demographic structure
• Move to study quality of care & patient
perspective in the 80s
• Recent emphasis on user involvement
Who has control of the agenda?
Health and older people
• Major programmes funded by ESRC
• Pharmaceutical companies & drug trials
• Scottish Government tenders for smallscale, quick studies
• Divergence of research agenda in
Scotland e.g free personal care
What questions are sponsored?
Health and older people
• What works? e.g. keeping people
healthy and in the workforce
• What is cost-effective> e.g. patient
turnover, solutions to bed-blocking
• Recent emphasis on workforce planning
e.g. how many, at what grade and in
what speciality
What methods are accepted as
legitimate?
Health and older people
• Emphasis on randomised, controlled
trials as the gold standard
• Large-scale, epidemiological,
quantitative
• Growing acceptance of additional value
of qualitative perspectives e.g. in public
health & primary care
What are the constituencies for
research?
Health and older people
• Practitioners – primarily medical
• NHS managers for resource allocation
• Policy makers for service shaping and
design
• Academics
What is the political economy?
Social Services
• Low spend on research compared with
health and education
• Absence of professional and academic
leadership
• Service providers absent from the
discussions about research policy,
priorities, funding etc
Who controls the agenda?
Social services
• Disorganised field: no-one currently in
charge
• Scottish Government likely to fund R&D
Strategy
• Funders all acting independently
What questions are sponsored?
Social services
• Most interest is in ‘what works’ – so
where do we get theory and blue sky
thinking from?
• Most issues researched are of local
interest
• National projects often linked to high
profile cases or inspection
What research methods are
accepted as legitimate?
Social services
• Small scale, low-cost, qualitative, local
• Policy more heavily influenced by
larger-scale, quantitative studies
• Monitoring data becoming a substitute
for research studies
What are the main constituencies
for research?
Social services
• Claims that unique selling point is that it is
user-led, but very little evidence that this is so
• Users as respondents more widely accepted
though still not automatic
• Managers need to support efforts towards
research literacy among staff and to boost
research use as basis for decisions
End piece
• 3 Maps suggest areas of commonality
but there are rich veins for differences,
confusion and conflict
• Can research be the neutral territory on
which professions can come together?
• Could we focus on substantive crossborder issues?
Cross-border issues
E.g. Lowest attaining 20% in schools are
likely to present to social services and
to suffer health inequalities
Social services: criminal justice, neglect,
family breakdown
Health: developmental delay, disability,
chronic illness
Communities of enquiry: a way
forward?
• Co-production of new knowledge
e.g. Centre for integrated Health Care
Research Applied Education Research Scheme –
35 professionals investigating pupils
and mental health
Seeds for discussion
1
Is inter-professional working a priority for
practice?
2
Is inter-professional working a priority for
research?
3
Is research a mutually beneficial ground on
which inter-professional activity can
coalesce?