PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AMONG FUTURE HUMANITIES TEACHERS: AN EXPLORATIVE STUDY OF ATTITUDES

A key objective supported by the international education community and European education policy is the integration of educational research into initial teacher education (Hall, 2009; Trinchero, 2013). The aim of this objective is to improve the quality of teaching and the promotion of a teaching culture based on reflective practice (Hemsley-Brown et al., 2003). However, the literature suggests that both in-service and pre-service teachers in university courses often express negative attitudes towards research, especially when it comes to using research in teaching (Papanastasiou, 2005). Interesting differences between the various groups studied so far emerge from a more detailed analysis. For example, there are gender differences, with men having a more positive attitude towards research than women (Babalis et al., 2012). Differences can also be observed between those with a scientific background and those with a humanistic background (Seher, 2018), and postgraduate students seem to have a slightly more positive attitude than undergraduate students (Van Tran, 2023). In this context, the focus of this exploratory study is on the attitudes of humanities students, future teachers, within a university course in educational research. The main aim is to deepen the understanding of how practical group work experiences, with a focus on conducting field research, can have a positive impact on students' attitudes towards educational research, even in the absence of any previous experience of other research courses. The data, collected through self-administered questionnaires during the course, indicate that students involved in group work generally have better attitudes than their peers who do not participate in such activities and prefer to attend lectures without practice. These findings highlight the importance of integrating practical work opportunities into educational research courses in order to promote a positive research culture within teacher education.