Research Literacy in Practice: Tracking and Supporting Early Career Teachers

Nordplus Horizon project:
Summary of the project (250 words max)
ReLiP-ECT (Research Literacy in Practice: Tracking and Supporting Early Career
Teachers) is a follow-up to the Nordplus-funded TREL project (NPHZ-2023/10004). TREL
identified a range of research-literacy-supporting practices across Nordic and Baltic schools
and universities, including increased teacher self-efficacy through research engagement,
greater readiness to use research in professional contexts, and positive effects on teachers’
professional identity. At the same time, it revealed a critical gap: how pre-service teachers
transfer, practice, and sustain their research literacy once they begin working in schools.
To address this, ReLiP-ECT will recruit early-career teachers (ECTs) and explore how they
mobilise research literacy in their first years of teaching. Using classroom observations and
semi-structured interviews with ECTs, principals, and department heads, the project will
map how research literacy is understood and enacted in practice. In addition, the project
will establish Communities of Practice (CoPs) to provide structured support and to better
understand how research-informed practices can be sustained in schools across eight Nordic
Baltic countries (Handbook of Best Practices, 2024). Building on the organically grown TREL
network, ReLiP-ECT brings together a broad but complementary consortium, as each partner
represents a distinct national approach to research-based teacher education (e.g. research
hubs in Norway, teaching schools in Finland, and action research mandates in Lithuania). This
diversity is a core asset of the project, enabling systematic comparison, mutual learning, and the
sharing of practices across contexts while foregrounding the voices of ECTs working in different
educational systems. The breadth of partners is a deliberate design choice to ensure that
research literacy is examined and supported across diverse institutional types, while
depth is ensured through clearly assigned work package leadership and focused roles.
ReLiP-ECT will generate several outputs: the continued development of the Nordic-Baltic
academic and professional network; a Digital Research Hub that offers resources, networking
opportunities, and follow-up support, inspired by TREL’s critical-friendship model; and policy
briefs with evidence-based recommendations for teacher education and school leadership.
Building on insights from the forthcoming TREL book (Gokturk-Saglam et al., in press), the
project prioritises accessible, practice-oriented tools for teachers.Furthermore, from the
outset, the project is designed for sustainability through institutional anchoring, reusable digital
infrastructure, and integration into existing teacher education and induction structures.
ReLiP-ECT Nordplus contributes to Nordplus objectives by strengthening school–university
collaboration, enhancing teachers’ research literacy, and promoting innovative, cross-sectoral
approaches to professional development and policy dialogue