Then and now: Twenty years of education research methods use in the United Kingdom

Abstract

There have been debates about the quality and usefulness of education research for a long time, with opinion often dividing along methodological lines. Those on different sides of an apparent methodological schism often bemoan the lack of recognition and resources afforded to their chosen approach. Whatever one's position on the existence, or persistence, of education research's own version of the ‘paradigm wars’, it is nevertheless the case that research design and methods are central to its identity, its usefulness and the impact it makes upon society. This paper contributes to wider debates around the status of education research as a field, or discipline, by exploring the extent to which the research methods used by education researchers working in UK higher education, and beyond, have varied over the last 20 years. It reports the findings from a comparative analysis of two large-scale surveys—the ESRC-funded Research Capacity Building Network survey of 2002 and the BERA-funded Higher Education Research Census 2022. Both surveys explored the methods used by education researchers, mainly based in higher education, and took place against a backdrop of concern, from within and outside the field, about the quality and reach of its research. The findings show that education researchers draw from a variety of different methods and approaches but that the range of tools that they use has narrowed a lot over the period considered. Furthermore, there appears to be an increase in methodological polarisation, particularly between a minority who only use numbers in their research and a majority who never do. This is despite the considerable resources devoted to building research capacity to undertake numeric and combined research.