Effective research communication in education: early years practitioners’ views of research summaries

For educational research findings to impact educational practice, effective communication is essential. One communication device is a summary that consolidates research literature and presents it in a practitioner-friendly format. There has been little research on how to design educational research summaries effectively, especially not for early years practitioners. In this study, I interviewed eight early years practitioners aiming to understand how they engage with research summaries. I collated a booklet of five research summaries to stimulate discussion during semi-structured interviews. I identified five overarching themes across the interviews using reflexive thematic analysis, most of which reflected and enhanced findings from the existing research-practice literature. For example, writing style and aesthetic design affected practitioners’ engagement and reading strategies, where practitioners reported issues with excessively ‘wordy’ summaries and summaries written by authors without teaching experience. Practitioners reported lack of time to engage with research, which particularly influenced their preference for explicit practical implications over theoretical knowledge, despite showing that they were capable of critically reflecting on the research given the opportunity. These insights suggest that time – rather than ability – may be particularly problematic for recent attempts encouraging practitioners to actively engage with research. There were also some early years specific barriers, including that most summaries relate to older children who can read or write and therefore had limited relevance for early years. These findings deepen our current understanding of how education practitioners engage with research, providing specific direction for future research which meets practitioners’ needs and contributes towards narrowing the research-practice gap.