'Research costs time and money and cannot be justified unless it informs policy and practice'.

‘Research costs time and money and cannot be justified unless it informs policy and practice’. Critically discuss, illustrating your answer with material you have studied in Units 19-21.

There are two different types of research - research that makes a theoretical contribution such as testing hypothesis, or answering research questions and research, which makes a practical contribution by assessing policy or practice. However there is no clear distinction between the two, as Aldgate in audio band 1 defines research as the “testing out of ideas” and the “questioning of assumptions that are made by policy makers and practitioners, (1:59), which places the definition of research in both categories. Other research, which falls into both categories, is Takei’s (2001), which made a theoretical contribution to our understanding of deaf infants’ babbling, and although did not inform policy or practice immediately it may well do so in the future. This essay aims to show how research, which makes only a theoretical contribution, can be just as justifiable as practical research, using papers from childhood studies, health and social welfare settings and also education as examples. Finally, it will also look at the ways in which research is disseminated, which is an important part of the research process and also important if policy and practice are to influence the relevant people.

In considering whether the cost of research can only be justified if it informs policy and practice, McKechnie and Hobbs (2004) state that theoretical research is useful in persuading others about the need for change and can be the stepping stone which influences changes in policy and practice. Research, policy and practice are inter-related according to Edwards (2004) and it is not only research that influences policy and practice, practitioners’ expert knowledge of what is happening in their field is important and can inform what research is necessary. Edwards also states that in order to improve the relation between researchers and practitioners and end-users (children and young people), it is important to actively involve end-users and practitioners in the research process. Involving policy makers and practitioners within research means that the questions being asked can be made more relevant and valid although what policy maker’s want often does not coincide with what researchers can deliver (Roberts 2004).

Roberts (2004) also states that practitioners’ lack of training in research appraisal means that it is not necessary for them to keep up with new research. It is therefore down to researchers to make sure their research is disseminated to relevant policy makers and practitioners. Dissemination, however, is not merely related to publishing full reports or presenting them at academic conferences but in ways that make the research findings easily ‘accessible’ and the fact that conducting research takes time and practice and is continually changing means that research required by policy makers must be relevant and up to date.

Changes to practice are not made just because of research findings, the way that policy makers and practitioners interpret the findings also have an affect. Furthermore the changes that are made do not always produce the benefits to the end-users of research, which is who the research should be aiming to benefit. Because of difficulties such as this Roberts (2004) states that policy makers and practitioners should be more wary before making changes.

Research, therefore, can indicate the need for changes in policy or practice but it might need the expertise of policy makers and practitioners themselves to inform what research actually needs to be carried out. The evaluation of research by policy makers and practitioners will determine whether changes are actually made. These issues have shown that research costs time and money, however is the cost of research only justified when it informs policy and practice?

It can be agreed that the time and money spent on research, which makes a practical contribution to policy or practice, is justifiable. One early example of research which greatly influenced changes in policy and practice was seen in Audio band 1 which showed footage provided by James Robertson of “A Two year old goes to hospital” which featured Laura, a distressed child left alone during a hospital stay. This footage was later presented to a group of medical professionals and was instrumental in changing the way children were cared for in hospitals. Robertson’s research provided evidence, which supported Bowlby’s (1907-1990) theory that depriving children of maternal care was detrimental for their mental health and together these pieces of research succeeded in persuading hospital practitioners that children’s psychological needs were important and in bringing about changes to hospital policy allowing mothers to stay with their children at all times.

Another key piece of research, which informed policy and practice, was Aldgate and Bradley (2004). It was commissioned by the government to assess the implementation of the Children’s Act (1989) and the effect this had on the short-term accommodation given to support families to try and prevent long-term familial breakdown. This research was time consuming as it involved recruiting families from four health boards, interviewing each family once and then again some time later when the accommodation was ongoing. In terms of money, interpreters were involved and also a protocol was established incase of any revelations of child abuse. This ...

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Another example of research, which made a practical contribution, was Monteith (2004) whose research aim was to “inform policy makers and practitioners in Northern Ireland and to raise awareness of the needs of disabled young people.” This research was costly in terms of time and money as it involved recruiting an advisory group to support the project, the recruitment of young people across Northern Ireland used a variation of snowball sampling. Snowball sampling is a type of purposive sampling (sampling with a specific purpose in mind) according to Punch (2005) where an individual is identified and asked to participate in the research (Study guide unit 13). Following this, participants are asked to identify friends in similar circumstances who may be willing to be involved in the study, this process “snowballs” until enough participants are found. Needless to say this is time consuming. Furthermore, transcribing the data took over 300 hours, and in addition she talked of learning how to use statistical packages. However, it cannot be denied that the costs of this research were justifiable as it allowed the voices of young disabled peoples to be heard regarding services, which affected them.

Again, Ince’s (1999) research into young Black people leaving care was applied in practice through a new law - the Children Leaving Care Act (2000) via the Excellence Not Excuses report of 2000 which directly impacted on health and social care services. The methodological aspects referred to in her commentary, (Ince 2004) such as snowball sampling, semi-structured in-depth interviews, and the transcription of interviews all were time consuming and cost money in terms of manpower. However, this research could also be said to be justifiable, having had direct implications to the services, which were provided for young black people leaving care.

Had these examples not informed policy or practice but just enhanced our understanding of children’s thoughts and experiences in these areas, surely the money and time spent would still have been worthwhile? I will now endeavour to show how the time and money spent on theoretical research is just as justifiable as research, which only makes a practical contribution.

Sutton’s (2004) research into the link between bullying and social cognition was costly, especially in terms of time spent conducting the research which involved reading 11 short stories to each of the 193 children, collecting and assessing answers from 2123 readings! Further time would have been spent on preparing and administering questionnaires to the children, and interviewing teaching staff to find out who the bullies were and who fitted in the other categories. This study was costly in terms of time and money, but was justified by the contribution made to our understanding of the relationship between bullying and social cognition skills. It highlighted the fact that whilst most bullying policies are based on the opinion that bullies have poor cognition skills, Sutton’s research challenges this by showing that this is not the case. Furthermore, these findings may affect policy in time if they are disseminated to the relevant people.

One way to increase the value of research is to involve children and young people in the research process. Rassool’s (1999) participatory research was a small-scale study, which explored race and gender issues in immigrants and was carried out with students in just one year in one school within their personal, social and moral education programme. It involved the students carrying out tasks, which involved charting their own life histories and sharing these within tutor groups. Six of the students were also interviewed in order to discuss the subject in greater depth. In terms of money, Rassool’s research may not have cost as much financially as Sutton’s for example as it was small scale and in terms of time, it also would have costs the students little as it was incorporated into the student’s curriculum. It could therefore be asked whether this research was justified at all. Rassool’s study was justifiable however as the teaching approach adopted in the study was incorporated into the “getting to know you” sessions at the start of the semester.

The useful outcome that this research had was not one of its initial aims and illustrates Roberts’ (2004) comment that it is not always possible to know which research is going to be useful in the end. The fact that the teachers themselves were involved in the research made them realize its use and this in turn led to them changing their practice, thus benefiting the end-users i.e. the children. Roberts further stated that in order for research to become fully embraced in an organisation, you are more likely to have success if the stakeholders are involved ‘upstream.’ In other words, had Rassool carried out the research process by herself and then disseminated the results to the teachers it is, as Roberts suggested unlikely that it would have made such an impact. This shows that the time and money spent on theoretical research is worthwhile.

In Audio band 6, Sylva discusses ‘Blue skies’ research, which is theoretical research, developed out of an interest that the researcher has in this area and designed to enhance knowledge and understanding. However, like previous examples have shown, research like this can develop into practical research perhaps at a later date or it may be used to support or question other research in that area.

One important aspect of research which greatly affects its value is the dissemination. According to Sylva in Audio band 6, from the very beginning of planning the research, the researchers must think about disseminating it. In the field of health and social welfare, according to Roberts (2004) this can be through academic channels such as the British Medical Journal (BMJ), to practitioners such as doctors and nurses through health authorities and community health councils. Dissemination is more than simply publishing and physically distributing the results of research, it also involves ‘sowing the seeds’ of knowledge, which may have immediate impact or may take longer to filter down to practice. Of course this does not happen immediately as the example of Bowlbys research showed, where in Video band 1 (21:49) Schaffer stated that “there’s a notion that if you carry out research and produce findings which are evidence and that you then hand over the evidence to practitioners, that those practitioners then will immediately change all their practices Well, that simply isn’t on.” This is affirmed by the fact that it was not until the Platt Report of 1959, (Video band 1) which recommended a major change of approach in children’s wards that changes to practice were made.

The dissemination of research is an aspect of evidence-based practice (EBP), (Study Guide) which is a model used to show the relationship between research, policy and practice and to understand the influence that research can have on practice. EBP uses research evidence to inform policy-making decisions and practice and is gathered through both theoretical and practical research. Although Roberts does not refer to EBP directly, the fact that this is what she is discussing can be induced by her phraseology - “there is a push to use research evidence to inform (or justify) policy intentions.” EBP should also aim at involving integrate the expertise of practitioners, as this expertise is important for research, and is an approach used often within the Health and social welfare field as was seen in Rassool’s research.

One other research project within Roberts (2004) which did not have immediate affect was Barnardo’s ‘SexEx’ project, which was commissioned by London Health Action Zone (HAZ) to explore the nature and extent of sexual exploitation in South London. Although no peer journal articles derived from this research, it was one of a many reports, which had influence in developing policy in this area. This was achieved not through wide dissemination but through the use of professionals such as police officers, nurses, social workers who all worked together to steer the project by bringing in their own expertise.

Pickett’s (2002) research into how engaging in multiple forms of risk behaviour increased the risk of injury to adolescent students was carried out on a worldwide basis using many researchers and presumably therefore being financially quite expensive. In audio band 1, Pickett felt it was important to ask informed questions, which would be of benefit and to disseminate the findings to government people, and those who are in control of policy. However, dissemination seems to have been through publication in a peer reviewed journal and so it would probably be limited as to how many people actually read it. It has to be questioned therefore whether as valuable in terms of money and time as Pickett’s research was in practical and theoretical terms, the fact that the dissemination perhaps did not reach the people it needed to and therefore might not have been worth he time or money involved. However, during the research a new way of measuring certain types of data was developed that could be used in future studies so it may have had value after all.

To imply that research which costs time and money is not valuable unless it is of practical use, is condemning the knowledge, which derives from theoretical research, simply because it doesn’t inform policy and practice directly? However knowledge gained by research whether on a theoretical or practical level will ultimately have some effect on the policies and practice of our society. This essay has used research papers to show that it is not always possible to know in advance precisely which research will be useful and which not; even for the research which would benefit end-users, other pressures can lead to research being ignored by policy makers and practitioners. I have tried to show in this essay that the value of research is not just in the information that it can supply to policy makers and practitioners, it can in cases contributes to existing knowledge. Furthermore, research can benefit end-users without it necessarily informing policy or practice directly. Finally, the potential value that research has cannot be fully realised if it is not disseminated in such a way that people can access it easily.

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REFERENCES

Aldgate, J. and Bradley, M. (2004) ‘Children’s Experiences of Short-term Accommodation’ in V. Lewis, M. Kellett, C. Robinson, S. Fraser and S. Ding (eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University

Aldgate, J. (2004) “Commentary: Jane Aldgate” in V. Lewis, M. Kellett, C. Robinson, S. Fraser, and S. Ding (Eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University.

Audio band 1 ‘what is research?’

EK310 Research with Children and Young People

The Open University

Audio band 6 ‘Getting research into practice’

EK310 Research with Children and Young People

The Open University

Clark, A. (2004) ‘The Mosaic Approach and Research with Young People’ in V. Lewis, M. Kellett, C. Robinson, S. Fraser and S. Ding (Eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University

Edwards, A. (2004) “Education” in S. Fraser, V. Lewis, S. Ding, M. Kellett and C. Robinson (eds) Doing Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University

Fraser, S. (2004) ‘Situating Empirical Research’ in S. Fraser, V. Lewis, S. Ding, M. Kellett and C. Robinson (eds) Doing Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University

Ince, L. (1999) “Young Black People leaving Care” in V. Lewis, M. Kellett, C. Robinson, S. Fraser, and S. Ding (eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University.

Ince, L. (2004) “Commentary: Lynda Ince” in V. Lewis, M. Kellett, C. Robinson, S. Fraser, and S. Ding (Eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University.

Jones, A. (2004) ‘Involving Children and Young People as Researchers’ (2004) Childhood’ in S. Fraser, V. Lewis, S. Ding, M. Kellett and C. Robinson (eds) Doing Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University

McKechnie, J., and Hobbs, S. (2004) “Childhood Studies” in S. Fraser, V. Lewis, S. Ding, M. Kellett and C. Robinson (Eds) Doing Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University

Monteith, M., (2004) ‘Commentary: Marina Monteith’ in V. Lewis, M. Kellett, C. Robinson, S. Fraser, and S. Ding (Eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University

Monteith, M ‘Making Progress? (2004), ‘The Transition to Adulthood for Disabled Young People In Northern Ireland’, in V. Lewis, M. Kellett, C. Robinson, S. Fraser and S. Ding (eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with The Open University.

Takei, W. (2001) ‘How Do Deaf Infants Attain First Signs?’ in V. Lewis, M. Kellett, C. Robinson, S. Fraser and S. Ding (Eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University

Punch, K.F. (2005) Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, London: Sage.

Punch, S. (2004) ‘Negotiating Autonomy: Children’s Use of Time and Space in Rural Bolivia’ in V. Lewis, M. Kellett, C. Robinson, S. Fraser and S. Ding (eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University

Roberts, H. (2004) “Health and Social Care” in S. Fraser, V. Lewis, S. Ding, M. Kellett and C. Robinson (Eds) Doing Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University

Rassool, N. (1999) “Flexible Identities: Exploring Race and Gender Issues amongst a Group of Immigrant Pupils in an Inner-city Comprehensive School” in V. Lewis, M. Kellett, C. Robinson, S. Fraser, and S. Ding (eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University.

Sutton, J., Smith, P. and Swettenham, J. (2004) ‘Social Cognition and Bullying: Social Inadequacy or Skilled Manipulation?’ in V. Lewis, M. Kellett, C. Robinson, S. Fraser and S. Ding (Eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University

Video band 1 ‘Early research’

EK310 Research with Children and Young People

The Open University

Video band 5 ‘Professionals and research’

EK310 Research with Children and Young People

The Open University