This paper reports on joint research internationally funded by the British Council, as part of the BRIDGE project. The primary purpose of BRIDGE is to support collaborative partnerships between British and Russian Higher Education Institutions to develop joint research and dual awards where possible. Partnership between the University of Herzen (Russia) and School of Education, University of Leicester (UK) aims at the development of a postgraduate programme with a focus on educational leadership and joint research in the field of educational leadership to ensure that the new programme meets the needs of its intended participants, namely Russian school leaders, university managers-academics, and Ministry of Education officials. This work has enabled joint research to take place. The research team consists of a three member team from University of Herzen and a three member team from the University of Leicester. Teams from both universities have been meeting regularly since June 2005, to plan, design and conduct research. The study is guided by three research questions developed in the joint meetings: 1) How is educational leadership conceptualized in Russia and the UK? 2) How do Russian and UK teachers describe the impact upon their professional lives of undertaking postgraduate study with a focus on educational leadership? 3) How do Russian and UK teachers describe the impact upon their professional development of different mode(s) of learning, particularly face-to-face lecturing, distance learning, and blended learning? Theoretical Frame: The current paper explores methodological issues in conducting international collaborative research made possible by the partnership developed between the UK HEI and Russian HEI. The research includes examination of , diverse educational systems and organisational cultures with differing demands on time and expectations. Design frameworks for the research were negotiated that took account of different traditions of doing research, and varying research priorities in institutions. The importance of translation of tools for data collection and of the data collected is also considered against a backdrop of physical distances, and delays in email exchange and communications. This paper seeks to answer four key research questions. First how was the research study designed? Second, how were the data collection tools designed? Third how was the research design negotiated between the UK and Russian researchers? Finally, what was the ethical framework within which the research decisions were made?

The paper discusses how the study was designed in three stages of data collection. The data was collected from a range of educationalists both from Russia and UK, enrolled on postgraduate courses focusing on educational leadership. In each case, pre-course questionnaires were administered in the first week of the programme, followed by mid-course, semi-structured interviews conducted six months later, finally followed by post-course questionnaires distributed at the end of the academic year as the last phase of direct data collection. Some UK participants were full-time international students, undertaking full Masters degree programme. Other UK participants were taking part-time postgraduate courses whilst working within government schools, holding positions of considerable responsibility. The Russian participants, in some cases, held similar middle and senior leadership positions in government schools, but there were also people working in higher education, the local authority, and the private sector (details of the precise method of sampling will be given during the presentation). The data collection tools were drafted and consisted of a pre-course questionnaire, mid-course semi-structured interview and post-course questionnaire. These were circulated among UK and Russian teams. Through negotiations, provisional consensus was achieved between the Russians teams and the UK teams. The final versions were agreed. As far as possible, the data collection instruments were administered within an ethical framework in the same way to all those being researched, though the Russian participants could respond in either English or Russian. As of January 2007, data is still being processed and exchanged, and more extensive analysis is required.

In the global context with internationalisation of education and increasing work mobility, collaborative research has gained high significance for developing theory and practice in the field, and for advancing the knowledge boundaries. The paper draws attention to the challenges in doing international research and the efforts to attend to methodological and ethical as well as practical issues in doing international collaborative research. Finally, funding is available for up to three Russian colleagues to co-present, thus allowing the international colleagues a unique opportunity to question Russian researchers in the field.