Mapping practitioner perceptions of ‘It’s research based’: scientific discourse, speech acts and the use and abuse of research

Abstract

Our goal is to deconstruct the text formed by practitioners’ narratives about the use of the claim ‘It’s research based’ to understand both how this claim is used and received by practitioners and how it may impact on teachers’ attitudes. We map a range of differences in these narratives about what is ‘real’ (research versus practice), patterns (‘rhetorical turns’) in how the claim is received and how the claim is valued. We question the power position of scientific discourse, explore the use of speech acts to either wield power or resist it and speculate about the results in terms of the use and abuse of research itself. We find that practitioners vary according to whether they: (a) adopt a scientized response reflecting uncritical acceptance of the claim; (b) maintain an attitude of sceptical and critical reflection, but tentatively adopt research based on the claim; (c) resist and even defy the claim, reflecting a hypercritical response that ignores research altogether and insists on their own practice as the locus of the ‘real’.