Successful Education Research: Guidelines for Getting Going, Getting Funded and Getting Published

As part of the Teacher Education Research and Development Programme (TEP), a project focusing on "Stimulation of practice-based teacher education research", was undertaken by Dr. Roger Deacon and Dr. Ben Parker, in conjunction with the Centre for Education Policy Development (CEPD). As part of the project, a set of research guidelines entitled, Successful Education Research, guidelines for getting going, getting funded and getting published, have been developed. Recognising the vital role of the teacher education system to South Africa's development and the large number of bottlenecks preventing its effective functioning, five organisations formed a consortium in 2005 to implement a Teacher Education Research and Development Programme (TEP) with support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The consortium initially consisted of the Centre for Education Policy Development (CEPD), the Centre for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA) based at the Faculty of Education of the University of Pretoria, the Education Foundation Trust, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), and the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE). The consortium of partnering agencies brought considerable expertise and experience in the field of teacher education. The central problem addressed by the consortium related to the ongoing challenge of the poor quality of teaching and learning in South African schools through sustained investigation of the processes, practices and outcomes of teacher education. TEP thus examined the capacity of the teacher education system to support quality teaching and also looked to the education system as evidenced by learner performance and teacher practices to support an understanding of what is needed in teacher education to improve education in schools. TEP 2005-09 had as its overall goal to contribute to the knowledge and information base for policy formulation and implementation regarding organisation and practice of teacher education, with a particular emphasis on initial teacher education (both pre-service and upgrading), as well as the professional development of school leaders and managers through a blend of research and development projects. Three addendums are included: (1) Sample journal submissions policy and referencing style; (2) Sample covering letter; and (3) Sample journal referee sheet. [These Guidelines were written in conjunction with the Centre for Education Policy Development. They were produced as part of the Teacher Education Research and Development Programme (TEP) funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The development and production of the Guidelines was funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Pretoria, South Africa.