More Accessible Viewing

skip University | Search | News | A-Z Index | Contact Us

-

Study Centre in Tanzania

Centre for the study of Education in an International Context (CEIC)

INTERCOM ARCHIVE

 
University of Bath logo - links to University home page
Search CEIC:  Help

 

This page ...

Related pages ...

CEIC Homepage Meet CEIC
Research
Intercom
Intercom Archive
Study Centres
Summer School
JRIE
Publications
Seminars
International Baccalaureate Research Unit (IBRU)
Contact CEIC

Links

Welsh Baccalaureate logo



INTERCOM 8

The challenge of prolonged school-based research and its practical value - a personal view by Barry Drake

Barry Drake
 

'The most difficult step on a long journey is the first'
Chinese sage

'To keep yourself on target during an extended exercise envision yourself crossing the finishing line'
Stress management sage

 

I thought frequently about the advice in the captions (above) during the five years I was engaged in school based research at Li Po Chun College, Hong Kong (LPC). The direction in which my thoughts usually took me was to question the wisdom espoused! Was the first step in deciding to embark upon a case study in international education, leading to PhD, really the most difficult? What had been the first step? In my case it had been to discuss a fledgling research proposal with Jeff Thompson. I had just agreed to produce a plan for a more coherent pastoral care programme at the year-old United World College of Hong Kong. It seemed an ideal opportunity to engage in school based research, recording and evaluating the development of the new pastoral process as it was articulated and implemented by my staff-student working party. Jeff was enthusiastic, pointed me in the right direction, enrolled me in the library and I set off at full gallop!

March 1999 The 'first step' was definitely not the most difficult of the long journey that followed. Indeed, had I been aware of what was involved in completing a five year research programme whilst being in full employment, I doubt I would have started the journey in the first place. The 'first step' was seductively easy and the support of CEIC at University of Bath continued to make my 'distance research' a feasible proposition over subsequent years. The most difficult task in this extended exercise was keeping myself on target. Did it help to visualise the finishing line? Towards the end of the five years, when I was engaged in the mind sapping job of proof reading second and third drafts of the thesis, the relief that would accompany the final award conferring ceremony certainly galvanised my efforts throughout periods of serious second thoughts.

By now you will be asking why am I writing this in a publication which sets out to promote educational research. My comments so far might give a negative impression of school based research but this would be misleading. I think that school based research is of value to both researcher and school, and I would recommend it to others. In my new position I actively encourage such research. My personal experience lay with a multidimensional investigation using Action Research methodology which offered an unusual variation of the case study paradigm. A major component of this project involved tracking the attitudes of four cohorts of teachers over four years to a series of initiatives designed to enhance the pastoral care provision in an international boarding school. As both researcher and the primary change agent in this school, my own role was intriguingly complex. Keeping on top of the workload required fine time management skills and a very patient family. Work on the research had to be undertaken in bite-sized chunks, usually timetabled into long weekends and holiday breaks. The downside of this pattern was a feeling of starting over again each time a new stage of writing or analysis was begun.

However, I took to heart one of my own suggestions to students. Always finish a piece of work at an interesting point, to make it is easier to return to. Moreover, with the use of word processing, I was able to write in streams of consciousness, focus on the interesting sections of newly acquired data, and 'cut and paste' my thoughts into shape in relatively painlessly.

There is no question that the school benefited from the process. Staff were brought together in a collaborative exercise that was energised and enlightened by ideas from the collective experience of other schools which were made available through my literature search. The Action Research methodology led me to evaluate regularly the success of the various initiatives leading to improvements in aspects of the programme which in turn benefited the students.

I currently face a similar challenge in expanding the pastoral programme of my new school. One of the conclusions in my thesis was that the results of research in one school are not necessarily directly transferable to others, but what I experienced at LPC in terms the reaction of a multicultural staff to 'pastoral care', the angst felt by teachers over the content and methodology of pastoral care programmes, the needs of 16-18 year-olds, and the process of managing change, are all issues replicated at CIS. My research in international education will now pay dividends as I move forward faster, with greater ability to plan proactively for the inevitable 'road blocks' that are bound to appear on what I hope will be a shorter journey than the last.

Dr Barry Drake is High School Principal of the Chinese
International School, Hong Kong. He contributed a chapter on 'Pastoral care in the international school' to INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
edited by Mary Hayden & Jeff Thompson

 



 

More About ...
Dept of Education
University of Bath

 
- top -
-