Research Agenda, School-based Educational Research 2024 - 2025

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Research Agenda

School-based Educational Research

2024 - 2025

We acknowledge the Dharug, Darkinjung, Wonnarua and Yolŋu peoples who are the traditional custodians of the land on which Barker College, Darkinjung Barker, Ngarralingayil Barker and Dhupuma Barker stand. We pay respect to the Elders past, present and emerging of the Dharug, Darkinjung, Wonnarua and Yolŋu nations and extend that respect to other Indigenous people within the Barker College community.

Barker College is a leader in coeducational Christian education characterised by a transformative global impact shaped by social cohesion, justice, and hope.

It achieves this as an Anglican community inspiring each learner, every experience, every day.

The Barker Institute contributes to building and fostering this learning community by bringing together and working with Barker’s rich intellectual resources to facilitate learning and growth throughout the School and the wider community. This goal is realised by the Barker Institute shaping and affecting conditions where independent and collaborative research takes place, and is supported, sustained, and shared.

The Barker Institute is one of the original school-based centres of educational research. Its primary function is to engage in educational research that inspires thought and action, inquires to create new knowledge, informs policy, improves practice, and includes students, educators and academics. Each of these actions involve, but also extend far beyond, the Barker Community. The Barker Institute also provides opportunities for members of the Barker community to contribute to a wider and ongoing dialogue about teaching and learning to drive education forward. It is a learning hub that enables professional learning and support for staff seeking to be better teachers, particularly where professional learning involves research-related activities or studies.

One of the most important distinctives of the Barker Institute from other educational research centres is that its research takes place in the context of a community whose constituent members are simultaneously experienced educational researchers and experienced educational practitioners. The work of the Barker Institute benefits from a perspective informed by the interplay between understanding educational research discourse and being in the classroom.

The Barker Institute uses the rich intellectual resources of Barker College to facilitate learning and growth throughout the school and the wider community.

Introduction

The Barker Institute Research Agenda is a document published every two years that identifies high-level priority domains on which it will work.

The Research Agenda combines the guiding statements of Barker College with the mission and vision of the Barker Institute to bring together and work with Barker’s rich intellectual resources to facilitate learning and growth throughout the school, the local and global community.

Purpose of the Barker Institute’s Research

The Barker Institute will engage in a range of research projects that seek to impact education by connecting external research to the Barker context, facilitating staff research, conducting research to impact education at Barker, throughout Australia and abroad. The work undertaken by the Barker Institute can be mapped across four tiers. While some research institutions choose to focus on a subset of these tiers, it is the four of them in combination which represent an authentic outworking of the Barker College Mission, Vision, and Values in the research context.

The Barker Institute collaborates, conducts and disseminates first-hand research to inform education beyond the School gates.

The Barker Institute conducts first-hand research to assess, inspire and inform Barker activities.

ReseaRching to impact education

The Barker Institute supports staff as researcher and research-informed decision makers.

ReseaRching to impact Barker

The Barker Institute collates, interprets, informs and applies current research to present contexts.

Facilitating staff research

Interpreting and applying Research

Our Research

Flagship project and research domains

The research of the Barker Institute will align with the five domains, listed in Figure 2 below, that represent its interests and where the Barker Institute seeks to impact education as a school-situated research centre. Through the flagship project and within each research domain, the Barker Institute will generate, synthesise, and curate rigorous research. The Barker Institute will undertake these tasks to present high-quality evidence that is relevant and accessible to education practitioners, policymakers, and leaders. The Barker Institute identified the research domains through a combination of recognising issues facing education that warranted further investigation and pursuing interests that were immediately relevant to Barker College’s educational context.

Continuous consultation with educational practitioners, policymakers and leaders in Australia and further afield remains part of the process by which the Barker Institute defines and reviews its five research domains, ensuring its agility in forming and conducting individual research projects. It is anticipated that work in the research domains may continue into future years, beyond that of the timeline laid out by this document.

Continuous consultation with educational practitioners, policymakers and leaders in Australia and further afield remains part of the process by which the Barker Institute defines and reviews its five research domains, ensuring its agility in forming and conducting individual research projects. It is anticipated that work in the research domains may continue into future years, beyond that of the timeline laid out by this document.

Research as Educator Professional Learning and Development

The Barker Institute supports educational practitioners and leaders in engaging in research as a form of professional learning and development. It recognises the importance of empowering educators to take initiative and act independently in their professional growth. By facilitating engagement in action research projects, the Barker Institute provides a platform for educators to investigate their own practices actively, solve problems, and innovate within their educational settings. This enhances their teaching competencies and fosters a culture of curiosity, creativity and continuous learning and improvement, helping to prepare educators to navigate the complexities of the evolving educational landscape.

Partnerships

The Barker Institute will continue to develop partnerships with other educational institutions to enhance its work, position itself to engage in broader dialogues about teaching and learning, and to ensure its research has impact. Initial work in this area has been undertaken with some positive results. Universities, research organisations, and other schools are examples of those with whom the Barker Institute collaborates and through which it evolves its professional network.

Flagship Project Domain Domain Domain Domain

The Barker Journey

Coeducation

Robotics and AI Education 01 02 03 04 05 Domain

Humanitarian Education

Character and Enterprise Education

Inclusive Education

Flagship Project

The Barker journey is a longitudinal study that tells an ongoing story of a group of Barker students making their way through School in the 21st century. This study takes place alongside the work in the five Research Domains.

The current iteration of the Barker Journey study will end in 2028. This will be when the first fully coeducational cohort to progress from Year 3 to Year 12 at Barker concludes their schooling. The Barker Institute annually publishes an article based on the findings of each year’s interviews and discussions in its journal, Learning in Practice. This is made publicly available on the Barker Institute’s website.

Rationale

The Barker Journey research project captures a longitudinal student perspective on learning, which today is as much about character growth as it is about academic development. The project helps to identify what the next generation of students’ value and contributes to mapping what effective learning and teaching may look like in the future.

The richness of the Barker Journey project comes from their telling their ongoing stories as students first of their generation, allowing us to define the key attributes and characteristics of students for many years to come.

Comparisons can therefore be made to social research that has proposed five emergent defining traits: global, digital, mobile, social, and visual. This information has implications for how education might develop to meet this generations’ needs authentically.

Publication of the Barker Journey and further development of the project

The analysis and findings of each year’s study will continue to be published in the Barker Institute’s journal Learning in Practice and made available to the public via the Barker Institute’s website. Both the concept and progress of the Barker Journey project has attracted international attention. Educational leaders from schools across the world have taken interest in the project’s conclusions and the approach that underpins it. This has opened the exciting possibility of partnering with schools overseas in consultancy as they look to undertake a similar study within their own contexts.

The Barker Journey project may explore questions such as:

What will schools need to do to meet authentically the educational needs of this generation and the next?

How does the current generation of students perceive learning and what does this current generation of students expect of their school experience?

How does the Barker educational journey shape this generation?

Domain 1

Coeducation

The Barker Institute will undertake research projects that will provide research-informed practical advice and guidance to educational practitioners and leaders about coeducation.

The aim of these projects is to investigate the opportunities of schooling in a coeducational environment. It includes research into the process and impact of schools introducing coeducation, and the nature of academic development, wellbeing, and character formation of students in a coeducational setting. Excellence in boys’ education, girls’ education and coeducation are all relevant to the coeducation research domain.

Rationale

Building on a wealth of experience with coeducation in the Barker College Senior School (Years 10-12), 2022 marked the first year that Barker was coeducational from Pre-K to Year 12, across the Hornsby, Darkinjung, Ngarralingayil and Dhupuma campuses. Many other schools in the Australian context are contemplating similar approaches, demonstrating the need for research in both the transition to full coeducation, and the lived coeducational experience. Coeducation in schools is an authentic expression of the workplace and society.

It provides enhanced opportunities for inclusive educational practices that meet the diverse needs of every student. Barker strives to provide an exemplary educational environment that challenges and cares for boys and girls in every capacity and this goal means there is a priority to be assigned to understanding more deeply how an effective coeducational environment operates.

Targetted Publications

In addition to disseminating ongoing research in and thinking around coeducation via its website, social media networks, and its journal Learning in Practice, the Barker Institute will work towards publishing its research in this area in such journals as:

• Australian Journal of Education

• Australian Educational Researcher

• Oxford Review of Education

Potential projects may explore questions such as:

How does coeducation meet the educational needs of the current student generation?

What impact has the transition from a single-sex to a coeducational environment had on teaching and learning?

How does our knowledge of teaching boys and girls best help us teach well in any classroom?

Domain 2 Humanitarian Education

The Barker Institute will undertake research projects that will provide research-informed practical advice and guidance to educational practitioners and leaders about humanitarian education.

The aim of projects within this domain is to contribute to the capacity of educational practitioners and leaders to develop learning environments where linguistically and culturally diverse students, such as those with First Nations or refugee backgrounds, can access meaningful learning from within the safety and security of their own cultural heritage and identity.

Rationale

With a concern for our shared humanity, Barker College seeks to be a school where students learn about and engage with diverse cultures in ways that recognise commonalities and differences, create connections with others, and cultivate mutual respect. Barker seeks a culturally responsive education, where a student’s cultural strength and purpose sit alongside the academic expectations of the Australian curriculum. This aligns with Barker’s belief that education is an empowering and enabling right for First Nations students and children and young people with a refugee background.

This presents an opportunity to further investigate approaches to schooling that best meet the educational needs of linguistically and culturally diverse students, including those with First Nations or refugee backgrounds.

It also opens avenues for research to take place on how intercultural learning and understanding can be explicitly valued and taught with greater intentionality, in the context of supporting schools to have a transformative global impact framed by social cohesion, justice and hope.

Targetted publications

In addition to disseminating ongoing research in and thinking around humanitarian education via its website, social media networks, and its journal Learning in Practice, the Barker Institute will work towards publishing its research in this area in such journals as:

• Intercultural Education

• Journal of Refugee Studies

• Journal of International Humanitarian Action

Potential projects may explore questions such as:

How might learning and teaching inspire and empower linguistically and culturally diverse students, including those with First Nations or refugee backgrounds, to achieve goals relating to their studies, their identity, and their life after school?

How might intercultural learning and understanding help prepare young people to have a transformative global impact framed by social cohesion, justice, and hope?

How might schools best design, implement, and evaluate authentic and impactful intercultural learning in the context of humanitarian education?

Domain 3

Character and Enterprise Education

The Barker Institute will undertake research projects that will provide research-informed practical advice and guidance to educational practitioners and leaders about Character and Enterprise Education.

The aim of these projects will be to contribute to the fostering of successful learners who are confident and compassionate contributors to their communities, serving society as ethical citizens.

Rationale

Facing the challenges of the 21st century requires a deliberate effort to cultivate personal growth in students and to foster the ability to fulfill social and community responsibilities as global citizens. This has profound implications for schools and the teaching and learning that takes place within them. Research has shown that students’ capabilities beyond the academic learning of knowledge and skills are important predictors of achievement. Fostering and developing character traits that equip individuals to impact and change their world is increasingly valued, as is the provision of opportunities to engage in practical experiences. These character-based practical experiences ensure learning is not just theoretical but also genuinely experiential, developing capacity and confidence.

In this lies an opportunity for Barker, as an outworking of its commitment to the Christian faith, to investigate further how schools can best position themselves to provide learning opportunities for students to acquire and strengthen virtues, values and the competencies that will help them make wise choices for a well-rounded life and a thriving society.

Targetted Publications

In addition to disseminating ongoing research in and thinking around character and enterprise education via its website, social media networks, and its journal Learning in Practice, the Barker Institute will work towards publishing its research in this area in such journals as:

• Journal of Character Education

• International Journal of Lifelong Education

• International Journal of Christianity & Education

Potential projects may explore questions such as:

Why is character and enterprise education important?

What traditional and innovative models of teaching best facilitate character and enterprise education?

How can the effectiveness of character and enterprise education be both monitored and measured?

Domain 4 Inclusive Education

The Barker Institute will undertake research projects that will provide research-informed practical advice and guidance to educational practitioners and leaders about Inclusive Education.

The aim of projects within this domain is to allow practitioners and leaders to live up to a noble goal of education as meeting the needs of all learners with their unique and developing gifts, talents, personalities, differing abilities or circumstances.

Rationale

It is widely recognised that every learner is unique and applying a generic approach to education or classroom instruction fails to provide optimal challenge or opportunities for all students, let along meet the needs of exceptional learners. Inclusive education ensures students with disabilities or learning difficulties are not excluded from valuable instruction. Inclusive education allows gifted students to be challenged and extended in exciting ways.

Most importantly, recent research reveals that when inclusive practises are incorporated into educational settings, all students benefit and gain greater access to learning opportunities. Barker College, and the educational sector as a whole, has a responsibility and opportunity to develop capacity and confidence amongst diverse learners in and beyond the classroom. Technology, including the rapidly becoming ubiquitous field of Artificial Intelligence, enhances teachers’ ability to provide bespoke instruction. Embracing this technology, holding fast to the human connection and discernment, will support inclusivity in learning communities, for the benefit of all.

Targetted publications

In addition to disseminating ongoing research in and thinking around inclusive education via its website, social media networks, and its journal Learning in Practice, the Barker Institute will work towards publishing its research in this area in such journals as:

• International Journal of Inclusive Education

• Australasian Journal of Gifted Education

• Learning and Individual Differences

Potential projects may explore questions such as:

What are the principles behind assessment practices that are genuinely inclusive, meaningful and rigorous?

How do classroom teachers provide differentiated instruction to all leaners?

How can school-wide learning support initiatives best enhance learning in and beyond the classroom?

Domain 5 Robotics and AI Education

The Barker Institute will undertake projects that will provide research-informed practical advice and guidance to educational practitioners and leaders about Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.

The aim of these projects will be to provide educational practitioners and leaders with an evidencebased understanding of issues and topics that will inform the future of education globally.

Rationale

Engaging in educational research on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) recognises the role they have today and the increasing role they will have in the future. Research in this domain seeks to anticipate what skills and capabilities students will need, given the current and growing relevance of Robotics and AI throughout the world. They offer an interdisciplinary learning experience, integrating concepts from computer science, engineering, and mathematics with philosophical questions of the changing nature of epistemology, learning, questioning, and truth. The complex problem-solving and critical thinking involved in the fields of Robotics and AI foster important competencies. These topics, often seen as exciting and innovative, enhance student engagement and motivation in learning.

They also raise significant ethical considerations, prompting students to reflect on technology’s societal impact. Furthermore, the potential for innovation in AI and Robotics encourages creativity, inspiring students to devise new ideas or solutions. This research domain will therefore not only seek explore the utlisation of Robotics and AI in education but also investigate how a sustained curiosity and passion for learning can be cultivated amongst students today and into the future.

Targetted Publications

In addition to disseminating ongoing research in and thinking around the future of and innovation in education via its website, social media networks, and its journal Learning in Practice, the Barker Institute will work towards publishing its research in this area in such journals as:

• International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education: Official Journal of the International AIED Society

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Futures in Education and Society

• International Journal of Innovation in Education

Potential projects may explore questions such as:

How might schools best design learning for students today and into the future so that they will possess the knowledge, skills and dispositions required for individual, collective, and global success?

Are our research and innovation systems prepared for an era of global, open and internet-intensive inquiry?

How does the inclusion of AI and Robotics in the curriculum impact student engagement and motivation to learn?