Research Forum

Function: To identify and address issues of broad concern to NCTE members interested in advancing research in English language arts; to develop position statements and other publications helpful to teachers, administrators, and policymakers regarding research in English language arts; to maintain a presence in AERA and coordinate efforts to secure private grants and foundation funding for NCTE research initiatives; and to explore ways to increase support for literacy research by engaging other groups in collaborative projects and by creating support materials to help the Council make the case for governmental support for literacy research programs.

The Research Forum met for 90 minutes on Sunday morning. The Forum itself is not presently a body that takes action. Rather, it provides articulation that may lead to action by research stakeholders. The Forum itself has no stake in these actions or outcomes; rather, it provides a medium through which ideas may be generated that are then carried out by its constituent members.

We decided to request that Research programs be more clearly identifiable in the convention program. We also discussed several issues that required funding, which pointed to the Research Foundation as a possible source of money.  Possible collaborations emerging from the meeting included a coordinated effort among the Squire office, the Research Foundation, and CEE to fund and conduct a qualitative meta-analysis on research on teacher preparation.

We also discussed the benefits of having one group—such as the Standing Committee on Research, Squire office, or NCTE Executive Committee—produce guidelines for writing implications-for-practice one-pagers that a number of NCTE bodies appear independently to be producing or planning to produce. The production of such guidelines would assist the coordination of such efforts across the various bodies that see the need to produce them; providing such coordination is a major function of the Research Forum.  The SCR was not directly represented at the RF meeting, and so would need to be consulted in order gauge their interest in taking on this task.

The potential for articulation was evident during the CEE Summit meeting in Lake Forest, IL in June, 2007. The research strand of CEE produced a belief statement that identified collaboration with other stakeholders (e.g., the Research Foundation) on sponsoring research initiatives. Prior to the formation of the Research Forum, the separate entities acted independent of one another and at times in competition with each other. The Forum serves both as a vehicle for and reminder of potential collaborations through which research entities may pool resources and meet common goals.

Peter Smagorinsky, Chair