Editorial: Practitioner Research in Higher Education, 12 (1)

A recent report commissioned by the British Educational Research Association (BERA) focuses on ‘close to practice’ research and this is the kind of action and practitioner research championed by the Practitioner Research in Higher Education journal (Wise, Brown, Oliver & Pobletta, 2018). The recommendations included two that are particularly significant for university-based educational practitioner researchers: i) Articulate strategies and career development opportunities for close-to-practice researchers in universities that are likely to support the development of their methodological knowledge ii) Engage with senior figures in universities to raise awareness of high-quality CtP research and its potential in REF-related university processes. The PRHE journal was founded with the intention of supporting development of practitioner researchers across the higher education sector and so we would strongly support the report’s recommendations in relation to persuading senior leadership teams in universities to recognise and support practitioner research activity and ensure that it is valued within institutional pathways for workload, recognition and promotion. The PRHE journal contributes to practitioner research capacity development by publishing research but also professional inquiry papers that report more pragmatic evaluation of innovative practice based on and positioned within underpinning research (Boyd & White, 2017).