What is the difference between inquiry and research?

Robinson (2003) explores the overlap between the roles of practitioners and researchers and makes a powerful argument that good practice for practitioners requires them to conduct an ongoing inquiry into their individual and collective practice.

Both [good research and good practice] require attitudes of openness, intellectual curiosity, and a willingness to step outside a frame of reference to see things in new ways. Most important of all is the ability to recognise that all research and all practice proceeds from a particular frame of reference.

page 28

Robinson says that inquiry involves practitioners in examining the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and strategies that underpin their practice and in testing their assumptions. She adds that it should also be “both scaffolded on the research findings of others and productive of new knowledge about their particular context” (page 29). She argues that the development of teachers as researchers is a “professional necessity”.

Enhancement of the research role of teachers is central to sustainable school improvement, to effective teacher development, and, most important of all, to the professionalism of teachers.

page 29

Like Robinson, Reid (2004) and Cordingley (2003) identify a close relationship between inquiry and research. However, they are each careful to draw a distinction between the two.

There are a number of characteristics of properly constituted research, including that it uses appropriate research methods and methodologies, builds upon the literature in the area being researched, is an accessible activity open to peer review, and that the knowledge that is produced is applicable to other researchers and research contexts. Sometimes inquiry may meet these requirements, often it will not.

Reid, 2004, page 8

This does not mean that there is any less intellectual rigour involved in carrying out inquiry than in conducting research. The key difference is in the developmental aim of practitioner inquiry and in the fact that it is not carried out with the intention, necessarily, of being made public. Removing the necessity to conform to the conventions for published research allows practitioners to focus on the complex task of interpreting evidence and research and applying the new knowledge to their practice.

Not all teacher inquiry aims to produce evidence and understanding in a public form that can be tested and reviewed by others. Some teacher inquiry simply seeks to enhance the practice of the inquirer through the use of evidence … This kind of continuing professional development can accurately be described as evidence-based or informed practice.

Cordingley, 2003, page 108

Inquiry, then, draws on research methodologies and on published research but does not require practitioners to conform to strict research conventions. Some educators will, indeed, be researchers, but all of us should be inquirers into our professional practice.

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