A critical analysis of teacher capability, opportunity and motivation for evidence-based practice

Stanescu, A. (2025) A critical analysis of teacher capability, opportunity and motivation for evidence-based practice. EdD thesis, University of Reading. doi: 10.48683/1926.00127412

Abstract/Summary

Secondary school teachers in England are increasingly expected to engage with evidence-based practice (EBP), yet little is known about how they navigate this expectation within a high-stakes, low-trust policy environment. Existing research often frames the challenge as a research–practice gap but tends to overlook the systemic conditions that shape teachers’ everyday opportunities to use evidence. This thesis addresses this gap by examining the constraints teachers face, deepening understanding of how they conceptualise, access and apply evidence, and the extent to which current policy structures enable or hinder authentic evidence use. The thesis critically analyses teachers’ engagement with EBP and posits an ‘accountability paradox’: mechanisms designed to raise standards erode professional autonomy and create barriers to meaningful evidence use. Using the COM-B model (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation–Behaviour) as the analytical frame, the study explores how these factors interact to shape teachers’ adoption of EBP. Situated in a constructivist–interpretivist paradigm, the research reports a reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with ten teachers across two schools. The Critical Incident Technique grounds accounts in lived episodes, and COM-B is applied as a deductive overlay on inductively generated themes. Findings show teachers operate a ‘tripartite epistemology’, blending formal research, professional experience and local context in response to a technocratic–managerial model that risks de-professionalising practice. Motivation is shaped by reflective processes, automatic impulses and a foundational ‘vocational aspiration’ that helps explain how early mastery experiences yield a ‘confidence dividend’. The study also identifies a cycle in which lack of opportunity, principally time, erodes capability and, in turn, diminishes intrinsic motivation, producing a ‘policy paradox’. The thesis advances the case for the ‘primacy of opportunity’, arguing that progress towards an evidence-informed profession depends on improving the systemic conditions of teachers’

Item Type	Thesis (EdD)
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/127412
Identification Number/DOI	10.48683/1926.00127412
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > Institute of Education
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