Abstract:
Relevant, high quality educational research is clearly a central component of good educational practice, policy, and program improvement.Yet, most countries, especially developing countries, struggle to produce adequate educational research or a consistent consensually developed national educational research agenda. This lack, almost universally prevalent in today's educational world, is the result of a number of complex factors. While many of these factors are common across national and regional settings, many combine in specific ways in individual contexts. This article is based on a study done in selected universities in Uganda. Professors of education and sociology and other educational experts were included because their research agendas frequently involve educational practices. It concludes that educational research is critical to good educational practice, policy, and program improvement. Central to any national research agenda is the participation of the professorial corps of a nation's colleges and universities. In the case of Uganda, it appears that participation in educational research activities is of the highest priority. Yet, financial constraints, lack of institutional support, and low access to critical  resources such as library and database information, work strongly against greater participation and productivity from the critical resource of the academic community. It recommends that both the government and university systems must find a way to improve the incentives offered to university professors, who are perhaps the most qualified collective resource in the country, to engage in an active and even aggressive educational research agenda. The stakes are too high to allow continuing generations of Ugandan children to participate in educations systems that remain largely under-researched.

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Hite, Steven; Mugimu, Christopher, B. (2004). Ugandan university professors' priorities and resources in educational research: some preliminary survey results. The Educational Magazine The Journal of Educational Reseach, Theory and Practice in East Africa. vol.3(2) pp.14 -17