The institute as network: the Scottish Council for Research in Education as a local and international phenomenon in the 1930s

Author: Martin Lawn

Source: Paedagogica Historica, Volume 40, Numbers 5-6, Numbers 5-6/October 2004 , pp. 719-732(14)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

Established in the late 1920s, the Scottish Council for Research in Education (SCRE) was a highly significant and influential institute for educational research, in both the scope and the methodology of its work, in Scotland and abroad. It was one of the first of a new kind of institution; it signalled the rise of specialized research institutes, outside the university yet closely connected to academic work and to the governing of education, across the Western world. Research Institutes are a flexible way of managing tasks and influencing policy: they appear to conform to disciplinary procedures and yet they are free to inquire and suggest policy directions. SCRE did not have a specialized staff of researchers but it did work cooperatively, as a prototype knowledge network, linking together in projects a wide range of Scottish academics, teachers and education managers. Together, they were bound in a movement for reform and experiment.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0030923042000293733

Publication date: 2004-10-01