Research utilisation and the struggle for the teacher’s soul: a narrative review

In this paper, I argue that the movement for research utilisation in education can be seen as part of an attempt to alter the foundations on which teachers base their decisions, replacing liberal values with which teaching has been associated, with the values of ‘what works’. I review the empirical literature around teachers’ use of research to ascertain why teachers access educational research; how they understand and evaluate research; the effect of teachers’ research use on their teaching and students; and some of the differences between teachers’ attitudes to research. At present, there is little evidence that teachers’ values are undermined by research utilisation but there is a need to keep this matter under review.