The Church, which refers to the global community that contains all believers of the Christian faith, can’t afford to ignore educational research. All the riches the Church has can and should be directed towards supporting all forms of research that enhance education. After all, education is a basic human right. Through it, communities around the world are then able to pursue or kick-start the fight for other rights they feel others are infringing upon. The Church owes researchers and the people it serves a duty to ensure everybody benefits from education.
For this reason, how can the Church invest in this kind of research?
Providing Funds
As stated above, the Church is wealthy enough to support credible educational research with finances. All types of research require proper and adequate funding. Without it, the research may need abandoning or postponing, which could hinder the implementation of some highly regarded recommendations that improve education for all. For this reason, and especially since the Church also runs educational facilities, money has become a necessity. Good news is the Church doesn’t have to spend a fortune in all the research.
Commitment to Support the Outcomes
The Church also needs to commit itself to implementing the outcomes the educational research highlights. This level of commitment is essential for learners, teachers, and all stakeholders – including parents. Otherwise, the research would not be as effective as the Church would want. More importantly, the research would only have been a waste of time and money to the researchers who undertook this painstaking process. The Church has to display a willingness to support the outcomes. Such commitment proves the Church doesn’t waste money.
Identifying Problems Affecting Teachers in the Community
Educational research also helps stakeholders to identify problems that affect teachers and other stakeholders within the community. Consequently, authorities can then look for solutions that address such problems, thus ensuring that learners and teachers alike are able to benefit from education. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that some problems are limited to the classroom. Research can pinpoint these too, thereby helping whoever is concerned to come up with proper solutions, strategies, and measures that improve learning.
Presenting the Required Materials
As part of implementing the recommendations of the research, the Church also needs to commit to presenting the required materials. Here, the focus should be on providing all the necessary learning and teaching materials. By doing this, the Church will have eliminated some of the issues that make it harder for learning or proper and effective teaching to take place. In many cases, the research could focus on a particular class, school, or community. Regardless, the onus would still be on the Church to ensure that materials are readily available for all.
Commitment to Present Research Results to the Government
At times, the government may not take researchers seriously. In such cases, it’s better for the government to receive the results from the Church that financed the entire research. After all, governments around the world are always keen to listen to the Church for many reasons. For example, they need the Church’s support to roll out certain programs. By offering to take this role up, the Church would demonstrate the seriousness with which it treats the research, its outcomes, and recommendations.
Asking Congregants to Cooperate with Researchers
Additionally, the Church can invest in education research by asking its congregants to cooperate with researchers. Often, researchers will visit the congregants at their workplaces, schools, colleges, and homes. How the two parties interaction can be a bit awkward if congregants have no idea that the Church has sanctioned the research. Thus, the Church has a role to play to diffuse any tension that might arise in the course of the research. As a start, it should inspire infinite cooperation between the researchers and community members.
The Church must invest in education research in money and by offering other forms of support.