Acquiring Research Knowledge

So how is research knowledge really acquired in education? Research knowledge is disseminated through three kinds of sources: primary sources (those used by investigators when they share research knowledge with colleagues in their fields); secondary sources (which provide reports of research knowledge for potential users); and tertiary sources (which interpret research knowledge for the general public). Research reports in primary sources are written by investigators, are subject to peer review, provide details about methodology and findings, and are often rife with jargon.

Those in secondary sources may be written by content specialists, feature clearer writing, and typically provide only a few details about study methods. Those in tertiary sources are often prepared by advocates, propagandists, columnists, or journalists. Writing in tertiary sources usually provides few or no details about studies and may project a distorted view of research knowledge tailored to make headlines or to support the authors' ideological viewpoints. In the United States, the most widely read journals were Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, Education Week, Education Digest, Catholic School Teacher, and Momentum. All six of these journals were secondary sources.

In addition, many of the professional books were works that packaged research knowledge for users. Such packaging was also common in the university courses the principals had taken and in the bulk of professional meetings and workshops they had attended.

Because the typical principal is exposed to many sources of research knowledge and because most of those sources provide only secondary accounts of knowledge, we might expect him or her to be a generalist when it comes to research knowledge which is to know about many examples of research knowledge but have only superficial understanding of most of these examples.