Research is a core function of the Faculty of Education. Drawing from and returning to the communities that we serve, the boundaries between teaching, research, and service are necessarily blurred. As in all professional schools, much of our work is collaborative, whether among faculty members or with other colleagues from the community, across the country and around the world. Our work, particularly but not exclusively in the understanding of human behaviours, organizations and cultures, places us in the vanguard of efforts to further establish the University of Calgary as an internationally-recognized, learner-centred research institution.Following from our surveys of faculty, conducted during the 2003-2004 academic year, and conversations around research that took place at Faculty Retreats in December 2002 and 2003, the Research Advisory Committee has identified four areas of research strength. In each of these areas there exists a critical mass of researchers with interests in the field, broadly defined.

The Faculty of Education has a multi-disciplinary, multi-focused approach to research. Our work engages primarily with three of the four Strategic Academic Priorities (SAPs) outlined in Raising our Sights: An Academic Plan for the University of Calgary 2002-2006

Human Behaviour and Learning

Human behaviour and learning includes research strengths in cognition and development; theories of learning; child and adolescent development; school psychology; and counseling psychology. This area addresses two SAPs: (1) Understanding Human Behaviour, Institutions and Cultures, and (2) Advancing Health and Wellness.

Literacies and Pedagogies

Literacies and pedagogies includes research strengths in print, visual and electronic literacy; curriculum studies; interpretive studies in education; educational technology; second language learning; and gifted education. This area addresses two SAPs: (1) Understanding Human Behaviour, Institutions and Cultures, and (2) Creating Technologies and Managing Information for the Knowledge Society.

Professional Education

Professional education includes research strengths in professional education; policy analysis; workplace education; educational leadership; and adult, community and higher education. This area addresses the SAP: Understanding Human Behaviour, Institutions and Cultures.

Diversity and Difference

Diversity and difference includes research strengths in citizenship education; diversity and pluralism; intercultural and international education; educational contexts: inclusive and special education; and rehabilitation and disability studies. This area addresses the SAP: Understanding Human Behaviour, Institutions and Cultures.

Relationship to the Academic Plan

Our work as educational researchers contributes a unique and necessary perspective to the SAPs of the University. It is noted that two strands of inquiry weave throughout the four areas of Faculty research strength. These strands are a concern for equity and social justice, and a knowledge that our work informs the conceptualization, development, implementation, and evaluation of public policy in many fields – education, social work, health, and so forth.

These four categories are not considered to be inclusive of all the research conducted by faculty members and students in the Faculty of Education. Each individual has their own research program, and curiosity-driven investigations are commonplace. It is evident that there is a close relationship between the four categories of research described here and three of the four SAPs.

To different degrees, our collective work encompasses all three of the SAPs noted above. By extension (e.g., environmental education, science education and research) our work also addresses the fourth SAP, Energy and the Environment.

Summary

Educational research is a vibrant part of the culture of the Faculty of Education. Our research strengths fit the University of Calgary’s academic plan. We are specifically aligned to pursue research in a university and global context.

Our work has a close and enduring relationship to the broader research directions of the University, provides a high return to community, and bridges the boundaries between teaching, research, and service. Multidisciplinary research is evident through new faculty and graduate-student recruitment and partnership developments.

Our capacity to pursue new research collaborations is quickly increasing, based upon a solid research legacy. This will only be more evident over time at local, national and international levels. We will be a leader in research that is exemplary among education faculties in Canada.

Through these efforts the members of the Faculty of Education, individually and collectively, contribute to the goal of the University of Calgary to become one of the top five research institutions in Canada by the year 2010.

Faculty of Education
16 March 2004