The DES and Educational Research*

Abstract

8 First let me say how pleased I was to receive your invitation to attend this Conference and to speak at it. I am only sorry I was not able to be here for the whole time. When I took up my present assignment I decided that, once I had started to get my ideas about the Department's involvement in educational research sorted out, it would be most valuable to meet as many as possible of you who are involved in educational research, to hear something of your interests and to share some of my own thinking. This Conference is a useful first step. I hope very much to have the opportunity in the future to visit a number of the university departments and other centres of research represented here to hear more of your work at first hand. The history of the Department's involvement in research is a short one, going back only about 15 years. The first research budget, in 1962, was small enough at ?20,000 but since that time other agencies have appeared on the scene, the Schools Council in 1964 and the SSRC with its Educational Research Board in 1966 and they too represent part of the Department's stake in research. Today the research programme directly administered by the Department amounts annually to between ?11 and ?11/2 million, its contribution to the SSRC in round figures is ?1 million (which covers grants for post-graduate training as well as research projects) and a similar amount is given to the Schools Council. The three programmes are, in practice, complementary. The Schools Council programme leans towards studies in the curriculum and examinations, the Educational Research Board of the SSRC tends to favour more fundamental research and the DES programme offers ready applications of research within the educational system. The Department has complete control over its own programme it has only a voice in the policy of the other two bodies but if there is any merit in working towards an overall research strategy, or in trying to evolve a coherent programme, (if indeed such coherence is possible) the Department has a part to play in this attempt. But this is of course only a small, though I believe significant corner of the research field. Higher education exists to promote research as well as to teach and a substantial body of research is promoted and financed from within the system as indeed it should be. The NFER is one of the main research agencies for LEAs who contribute substantially towards its costs. Some LEAs (particularly perhaps the ILEA) have carried out important pieces of research themselves. And bodies as diverse as the National Children's Bureau and Political and Economic Planning (PEP) have more specialised areas of concern. All this amounts to a very considerable amount of largely unco-ordinated research, undertaken for a variety of motives and with a great variety of aims. Research is often the activity of the individualist and attempts to build a framework within which different pieces of research can slot together to serve a broader purpose do not always succeed. In terms of motive, the Department's concern with research is frankly, and I believe properly, one primarily of self-interest. It is the task of the universities to promote and carry out research to expand the boundaries of knowledge. The Department has a job to do, and it is looking for help from research in doing that job better. And it is a different job from that of a French or Swedish Ministry of Education, since there are broad areas of responsibility which are the province of the LEAs.