About education research

The department values research and the benefits the findings can deliver to the development of policies and education outcomes.

Types of research

A range of research is supported including:

• quasi-experimental randomised trials
• literature reviews
• case studies
• action research
• evaluation.

This includes work conducted in schools by staff, external researchers and involving staff or students in their school or work context or uses the department’s data, systems, networks and resources and intellectual property.

Priorities and standards

The department encourages research that:

• supports the strategic plan
• has educational benefit
• improves departmental policies and procedures
• contributes to national education initiatives.

Your research must meet the following standards:

• be well-constructed
• comply with ethical standards
• be of strategic value
• provide educational or other benefits
• minimise disruption to students and schools
• produce relevant, useable and high quality findings.

To assist you the following guidelines  have been prepared which incorporate the Human Research Ethics Handbook:

• Quality research guidelines DOCX (37.4 KB)
• Quality research guidelines PDF (212.7 KB).

Applying to conduct research

You must obtain approval to conduct research in Northern Territory schools or to use department data. This approval also applies to departmental employees conducting research.

To obtain approval you must fill in the application to conduct research*:

• Application to conduct research DOCX (72.1 KB)
• Application to conduct research PDF (170.3 KB).

A guide been produced to assist with the application:

• Guide for completing the application to conduct research PDF (164.8 KB)
• Guide for completing the application to conduct research DOCX (40.7 KB).

Complete forms and send it with supporting documents to researchapps.det@nt.gov.au

*Please note that the National Projects – Application to Conduct Research in Schools form is accepted by the Department of Education. Go to the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) website for more information.

Where a research project requires participation of non-government schools, researchers must seek separate authorisation from the relevant organisations.

Research partnerships

You may be able to obtain support or partnership with the department for a particular research project that is of interest to the department.

The research partnerships guidelines and procedures provide further information:

• Research partnerships guidelines and procedures DOCX (39.7 KB)
• Research partnerships guidelines and procedures PDF (104.2 KB).

Research approval process

For more information read the overview of research approval process and the phase 1 – research approval process.