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Panel 5 – BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE
of the Department. We have the impression, though, of a lack of active
engagement of those involved with Learning Lund with Nordic educational
researchers in general and we would have liked to see dialogue with
others in the Nordic research community that could have been fruitful
for both sides.
2.4 Collaboration
As mentioned above, the Department admits to a lack of collaboration
with other institutions, though there is evidence of individual engagement
with international activity at conferences and symposia. While
some collaborative taught courses have been or are being established,
there is as yet no clearly defined profile for collaborative intra- and
interdepartmental research as well as cooperation with colleagues in other
parts of Sweden and in other countries. Possibilities for such collaboration
– perhaps on an interdisciplinary basis – might be explored with
profit. In this connection involvement with NOCIES and applications
to NORDPLUS could be focused on research potential as well as on
networking on the one hand and on support for teaching on the other.
While the development of a distance Master of Education course in Syria
might enhance the teaching experience of departmental staff and draw on
their expertise (and so constitute a positive initiative) the possibilities such
engagement with the Middle East provides for research should become
part of the collaborative research process: otherwise providing such a
course will simply be a distraction from serious research effort. Similarly,
commendable work in the field of ‘personnel administration’, while
having potential for research, seems largely limited to teaching.
2.5 Research activity and teaching
There is a tendency in social science departments to require doctoral students
to undergo an intensive period of research training in their first year.
There are evidently procedures in place for such training in Lund, but it
is not clear whether existing interdepartmental programmes adequately
cover what is required in such training. What is clear, however, is that the
research efforts of faculty members should feed in to teaching, and that research
engagement should in particular contribute to the research training
of doctoral students. One particular circumstance which impedes practice-based
research and its use in teaching is the lack of a teacher training
programme now that that aspect of the Department’s work has moved to
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