One potential danger in trying to bring research and practice together is that the 'researcher' voice will dominate and the 'practitioner' perspective will be underplayed. Here you will find a practitioner's views on the benefits of connecting research with practice. In a 'worst case scenario' researchers come to be criticised as seeming far removed from the realities of what goes on in practice, whereas practitioners can be criticised for being so bogged down in the swamp of what they're doing they fail to see the broader picture.  Instead, of seeing research and practice as separate and mutually incomprehensible, a more enlightened stance brings the two together as part of making guidance more effective. 

What's more, perhaps the researchers and practitioners are one and the same.  Any committed practitioner will surely constantly review and evaluate what they do, and what is that if not research?  Researchers too are perhaps unfairly maligned, their labours provide insight and context, and all these perspectives are needed if there is a serious intent to learn from experience and keep guidance from becoming stagnant.  The whole ethos of this website is to enhance understanding and facilitate communication between reseach and practice as part of a process of cross-fertilisation between the two. 

Research is not (should not be) something remote and distant, it can help address the questions and concerns faced by practitioners working on the front line of guidance.  Furthermore, research does not denote only academic publications - although these are obviously important - it can encompass practitioner case studies and anecdote, evaluation reports and customer satisfaction surveys.  Almost everyone involved in guidance is carrying out research at some level.  However, perhaps there is a need to be smarter about how we capture and communicate those experiences.   A little understanding of the research process might go a long way in enriching guidance practice, it could help formalise the investigations that go on all the time, and provide a framework for communicating findings more effectively.  Only by knowing 'what is going on' is it possible to consider, what works, what doesnt and where guidance is (and should) be heading.

Relating research to what goes on in the 'real world' of practice is a constant challenge! Schön provides an illuminating (and memorable) image, when he refers to the problem of practitioners floundering in a 'swamp' of professional practice. Donald Schön famously contrasted the abstract world of universities with the world of the university trained working professional toiling in the 'swamp' of professional practice.  In the 'swamp' of practice the theory and well-behaved problems of the discipline do not seem to fit the unruly world of practice found on a daily basis.  Schön longed for a melding of the theory and abstraction with the knowledge gained through active practice, idealised in the 'reflective practitioner' and the process of action research which moves freely from experience to abstraction and back again in a real learning system.

One reason why Schön’s ideas are important in this context is because of his belief that the sum of what a professional knows is greater than the sum of what he or she can articulate or is aware of knowing and so there is a hidden dimension to practitioner competence. The practitioner reflects, sometimes intuitively, on what he or she is doing in practice. This can involve 'looking to our experiences, connecting with our feelings, and attending to our theories in use. It entails building new understandings to inform our actions in the situation that is unfolding.' This use of knowledge and understanding may also be related to the use of 'research in practice.' Schön (1983) examines nature of professional knowledge, the importance of contexts and reflection-in-action, and professional judgement:

'The practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation.' (Schön 1983, p. 68).

Schön criticises approaches to practice that are grounded in a technical rationality, where professional knowledge is seen as the application of a scientific approach. He believed this left no room for artistry; reflection in action; for dealing with those indeterminate zones of practice, where there is uncertainty, confusion and messiness where you don’t know what the problem is; and for situations in which there was conflict between different ends, means and values.

• Schön, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner. How professionals think in action, London: Temple Smith.

• Schön, D. (1987) Educating the Reflective Practitioner, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. This develops the thinking of the 1983 book and considers the implications for improving professional education.

There is also a very useful summary of Schon’s ideas available on the web by Mark Smith.

• Smith, M. K. (2001) 'Donald Schön: learning, reflection and change', the encyclopedia of informal education.

Research in practice: Experiences, insights and interventions from the project Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education is an interesting example of 'Research in practice.' It draws on the experiences, insights and interventions from the ESRC TLRP project 'Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education' that was completed in 2005.

Full Reference:

Anderson, G., Barton, S., Blake, P., Blewett, K., Bloomer, M., Colley, H., Davies, J., Deacon, A., Diment, K., Edwards, M., Ferguson, E., Fisher, A., Gleeson, D., Hodkinson, P., James, D., Kinnear, D., Lawrence, J., Lukaszewicz, A., Maull, W., Oliver, S., Ottewill, P., Page, B., Perry, J., Postlethwaite, K., Rodbourne, K., Scaife, T., Tedder, M., Terry, A., Wahlberg, M., Watts, B., Wheeler, E. & Woodward, M. (2004) Research in Practice: Experiences, Insights and Interventions from the Project Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education, (London, Learning and Skills Research Centre).

The following sections offer you an introduction as to how you might think about research, together with an introductory set of references. 

Practitioner Research: an introduction

References and bibliography

If you want to follow up any of the references in this section, or are seeking some ideas for where to start with books relating to research methodology and method, this section provides details of possible texts. You are encouraged to add your own personal favourites to this reference list.