Many hands make light work? Reflections on a research-practice partnership project to develop TILES: The Toolkit for Improving Language Education in Scottish Schools

This chapter outlines the development of TILES (Toolkit for Improving Language Education in Scotland), a self-evaluation tool which supports primary and secondary teachers to deliver Scotland’s 1+2 languages policy. The 1+2 languages policy, which launched in 2012, aims to give all primary and secondary pupils in Scotland the opportunity to learn two languages in addition to their language of education (English for 99% of pupils, Gaelic for 1%). The policy marked a key shift from the previous language-in-education policy in Scotland, and had significant professional development implications both for primary teachers and secondary languages teachers. In acknowledgement that the 1+2 languages policy set an ‘ambitious and challenging agenda for language learning and teaching in Scottish schools’ (MacAulay, 2012, p.4), local education authorities and schools were given eight years for policy implementation (2012-2020). In 2017, Scotland’s 32 local authorities were grouped into six regional improvement collaboratives, and we used this regional grouping as an anchor for a research-practice partnership between the five local authorities within the South East Improvement Collaborative and the University of Edinburgh. We first conducted research into the successes and barriers to the implementation of the 1+2 languages policy, and then worked in partnership with teachers to create the Toolkit for Improving Language Education in Scotland (www.tiles.education.ed.ac.uk). The online self-evaluation and continuing professional development tool integrates research, policy and practice to support teachers and schools to create high-quality language learning experiences for pupils. This chapter reflects on the successes and challenges of the research-practice partnership process, and highlights key lessons for future research-practice partnership projects, including the importance of (i) aligning project scope with available resources, (ii) allowing time for the partnership process, and (iii) engaging in professional reading to inform decisions about which ‘type’ of research-practice partnership aligns best with project aims, and the roles of researchers and practitioners within this.