Issue/question: A swathe of education policy in England now heavily emphasizes teachers’ use of research evidence as a means to improve teaching and learning (Greany, 2015). This use of research by teachers is referred to as evidence informed practice (EIP). At the same time, drawing on the idea of other forms of capital such as social and cultural capital (e.g. Boudieu, 1986), it is also suggested that the notion of research capital (RC) corresponds to situations in which teachers can use research to improve teaching and learning, and where they also seek to do so collaboratively and via networks (Brown, 2017). As yet, however, no research has been undertaken into how levels of research capital can be raised. Key ideas/approach: The Chestnut CE Learning Federation is a family of three small Church Infant Schools based in the Hampshire villages of Rosebush, All Saints and Southampton Common, who all work closely together under the leadership of the Federation Headteacher and Governing Body. One of the Federation’s improvement plan objectives is for it to become a research engaged Federation. This entails schools collaborating to rigorously review the quality of the education they offer, understand what they need to do to improve, take appropriate evidence-informed action and evaluate the impact of their actions. A qualitative methodology was employed to explore both the context for the roll out of the Chestnut’s model for research engagement, and what is required from this approach if it is to move the Federation towards the optimal position of high research capital. A total 15 teachers were interviewed in September 2016 (representing the whole of the federation’s teaching staff). Findings were analyzed inductively. Main findings: Findings suggest that it is possible to characterize teachers’ EIP behaviours according to a combination of their attitudes towards using research for network improvement and teachers’ engagement with research. Findings also highlight the requirement for Chestnut Learning Federation to promote the idea of community and ensuring that staff are both encouraged and supported, with leadership modelling, to engage in research use in a networked way. Here all staff must move beyond the superficial exchange of practices and resource towards meaningful research-related collaboration that has demonstrable benefits for both individual teachers and the Federation as a whole.

Bourdieu, P. (1986) The forms of social capital, in J. G. Richardson (Ed), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241-258) (New York, NY, Greenwood). Greany, T. (2015) How can evidence inform teaching and decision making across 21,000 autonomous schools? Learning from the journey in England, in C. Brown (Ed), Leading the use of Research & Evidence in schools (pp. 11-29) (London, IOE Press).