Research Mobilities : Understanding the movements of research in primary literacy education

Burnett, Cathy and Gillen, Julia (2021) Research Mobilities : Understanding the movements of research in primary literacy education. In: Creating Knowledge Conference 2021, 2021-06-22 - 2021-06-25.

Abstract

A growing literature on research mobilisation highlights the complexities associated with research dissemination, use and interpretation. However very little attention has been paid to how educational research moves ‘in the wild’ through complex and intersecting networks generated by communications, digital technologies and a shifting societal, commercial and disciplinary factors. In this presentation, we raise questions about how the movements of research are significant to the kinds of research that gain credence and influence in relation to literacy education in primary schools. We begin by mapping some dimensions of the contemporary landscape for professional learning that may well have implications for the literacy research topics, methodologies and underpinning ideas that gain influence. Next we draw on data from a pilot study, ‘The Movement of Ideas about Literacy Education to Teachers during Lockdown’ (funded through the Research Institute Fund) to explore the role of Twitter in generating unexpected movements of research. Building on these preliminary findings, we argue for the need to better understand how research moves through shifting assemblages of human and non–human actors that combine to mobilise (or stall) literacy research evidence, and call for a new programme of research into what we call ‘research mobilities’. We end by inviting discussion about how research mobilities may be significant to the developing credence and influence of research in other social science disciplines.