Practitioner research, as one example of research supported by universities, has developed in unexpected ways, some of them unhelpful and has not always generated the benefits predicted. This paper argues that practitioner research has become shaped more by the needs of universities than by the schools and teachers it was hoped it would serve. The paper goes on to explore the idea that the promise of practitioner research has been so beguiling that it has commandeered more than a wise share of attention in universities and that this has been at the expense of exploring some other avenues of engagement with schools. The paper notes that the evolution of practitioner inquiry has taken place at a time when regimes of accountability driven by central government have been visible globally and when universities and schools each had significant pressures to fulfil policy imperatives. The pressure towards performance has in England drawn the attention of universities and schools away from, rather than towards, each other: schools to revised curricula and performance, universities to research and funding. Practitioner research became developed as a skeleton for higher degrees and in that arena universities came to have a role in promoting and at the same time inhibiting and possibly damaging its development. Hopes that practitioner research would come to contribute to mainstream research were not fulfilled and both educational and more especially practitioner research remain problematic in the wider university research agenda. One response is to renew efforts to improve existing approaches and examples of this are now widespread. However, the paper observes that, at present universities’ support for schools seems to reflect only a small part of their much wider expertise and argues that education departments in universities might think much more radically about the range of expertise that they can offer schools, a more imaginative exploration. The paper continues by noting that the challenge for university departments of education of working together equally with schools and teachers is easy to aspire to, but not to fulfil, and this impacts on working with the authentic concerns of schools and on sharing expertise. Further opportunities are available: beyond education departments: for example, other university departments have expertise that education departments might link with which has hitherto remained unexplored. Additional areas which remain under-researched are the processes of incorporating educational change and in making judgments about educational initiatives. Readers are reminded that the accidental barriers produced by the categories of research, teaching and administration are accountancy categories and may demand creative and determined responses. The paper concludes that there is too much to lose by not exploring these or other wider possibilities and much to gain by doing so including opportunities in research.

中文翻译：

---

大学、支持学校和从业者研究

作为大学支持的研究的一个例子，从业者研究以意想不到的方式发展，其中一些没有帮助，并且并不总是产生预期的收益。本文认为，从业者研究更多地受到大学需求的影响，而不是它所希望服务的学校和教师。这篇论文继续探讨了这样一种观点，即从业者研究的前景是如此诱人，以至于它在大学中引起了更多的关注，而这以探索与学校接触的其他一些途径为代价。该论文指出，从业者探究的演变发生在由中央政府推动的问责制度在全球范围内可见的时候，并且大学和学校都面临着履行政策要求的巨大压力。在英格兰，对表现的压力使大学和学校的注意力从彼此之间转移，而不是相互转移：学校需要修改课程和表现，大学需要研究和资助。从业者研究发展成为更高学位的骨架，在这个舞台上，大学开始发挥促进作用，同时抑制并可能破坏其发展。从业者研究对主流研究做出贡献的希望没有实现，教育和尤其是从业者研究在更广泛的大学研究议程中仍然存在问题。一种回应是重新努力改进现有方法，这方面的例子现在很普遍。然而，该论文观察到，目前大学对学校的支持似乎只反映了他们更广泛的专业知识的一小部分，并认为大学的教育部门可能会更激进地考虑他们可以为学校提供的专业知识范围，一个更有想象力的探索。该论文继续指出，大学教育部门与学校和教师平等合作的挑战很容易实现，但很难实现，这会影响处理学校真正关注的问题和分享专业知识。还有更多的机会：在教育部门之外：例如，其他大学部门拥有教育部门可能与之相关的专业知识，而这些专业知识迄今为止仍未被探索。其他研究不足的领域是纳入教育变革和对教育举措做出判断的过程。提醒读者，研究、教学和管理类别产生的偶然障碍是会计类别，可能需要创造性和坚定的回应。该论文得出的结论是，不探索这些或其他更广泛的可能性会失去太多，而这样做会收获很多，包括研究机会。