Education: The State of the Discipline. A systematic scoping review of the literature on the structures & processes that influence research activities in the UK

Abstract

The aim of this systematic scoping review is to understand the structures and processes that influence education research activities in the UK. It provides insights into the academic debates on education research in universities, and addresses the effects of neoliberal reform, marketisation and competition on higher education (HE) and the identities and experiences of academics.

We conducted a systematic scoping review that spanned three decades (1990–2020) and sought to understand the formal and informal structures and processes that influenced education research as a discipline in HE in the UK. This study – the first review of the literature on this topic at this scale – complements previous mapping activities commissioned by the British Educational Research Association (BERA) (see Oancea, 2010; Whitty et al, 2012; Oancea & Mills, 2015). A separate, peer-reviewed article based on this research has also been published in Review of Education (Stentiford et al., 2021).