We are a specialist education market research consultancy. For over fourteen years, we have helped organisations across the education and learning sector understand their audiences, test their assumptions and make better decisions.
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Whether you need to understand what teachers think about your resources, how school choose their suppliers, what learners need from a qualification, or how your brand is perceived across the sector, we design and deliver research that gives you clear, actionable answers.
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We work across the full education spectrum, from early years, primary and secondary school, further and higher education to professional development, in the UK and internationally.
Some of our clients...
How We Can Help
The organisations we work with come to us with very different questions, but they share the need to understand what their audiences think, need and do, so they can make decisions with confidence rather than guesswork.
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Our projects vary enormously. We have helped publishers understand how teachers actually use their resources in the classroom. We have researched what school leaders look for when choosing a new supplier. We have explored whether a professional qualification still meets the needs of the people take it, and what would need to change if it does not. We have tested new product concepts, benchmarked brand awareness, investigated why customers did not renew, and helped organisations figure out whether a major strategic change is worth the risk.
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What connects all of our work is the education and learning sector itself. We understand how schools work, how teachers make decisions, the rhythm of the academic year, and how to design research that fits around the realistics of a busy school or college. Perhaps most importantly, we know how to reach the people you need to talk to and maintain our own teacher panel to support participant recruitment. Our specialist knowledge means we ask better questions, reach the right people, and interpret what we hear in context.
"I am absolutely blown away by the high quality of this work and the insights they have offered us. Wow. It's going to make a huge positive difference."
Ark Curriculum+
How We Work
Every project is different, but our process typically follows four stages:
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1. Scoping and kick-off
We start with a detailed conversation about what you need to find out and why. What decisions will the research inform? Who are the audiences you need to hear from? Who are your internal stakeholders and what matters to them?
2. Research design
We design the research approach, whether that is interviews, focus groups, a survey or a combination. We draft discussion guides and questionnaires for your review, and agree the participant profile: who we need to speak to, how many, and how we will reach them.
3. Fieldwork
We conduct the research, whether that means one-to-one interviews with senior leaders or focus groups of students. You can be as involved as you like - some clients observe sessions where appropriate, others prefer to step back and wait for the findings.
4. Analysis and reporting
We analyse the data, identify key themes and patterns, and deliver a detailed report with clear, actionable recommendations. We present findings to your team and are happy to support you in communicating the results to your board or wider organisation.
As an MRS member, we follow the Market Research Society's Code of Conduct throughout.
A Different Way of Working
We are a small, specialist consultancy, and that is a deliberate choice. I'm Jill, the founder of Insightful Research, and I am personally involved in every project from start to finish: designing the research, conducting interviews, analysing the findings, and writing your report. The person you brief is the same person in the room with your participants, so nothing gets lost in translation.
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That matters more than you might think. Because I carry the full context of your goals into every conversation, I can follow an unexpected line of questioning in an interview, pick up on a detail that connects back to something in your briefing, and adapt the approach in real time. That agility is hard to replicate when the person doing the fieldwork is not the person who understood the brief.
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Behind every project, I am supported by a dedicated project manager and a small, trusted team of experienced research associates who I have worked with for years. That means we can scale comfortably to handle multi-phase programmes, specialist techniques, or projects that need several streams of fieldwork running in parallel, without losing the personal involvement and continuity that our clients value.
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It also means that we are quick to respond, easy to get hold of, and genuinely invested in your project from beginning to end.
Case Studies
The work is great and insightful. I am impressed by how efficiently Inisightful Research managed this project despite the tight deadines, large amount of product information to learn, and this not being the best time of year to conduct schools research."
Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring
Our Methods
We choose the right research methods for your questions and your audiences.
In-depth interviews give you deep insights. One-to-one conversations with teachers, heads of department, senior leaders or other stakeholders let you explore motivations, experiences and unmet needs in detail. We conduct most interviews online via video call, which makes scheduling around the school day far more practical.
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Focus groups bring together small groups to discuss and debate. They are particularly useful for testing reactions to new ideas, and generating insight that only emerges through group discussion.
Online research communities provide ongoing, moderated discussion spaces where members share feedback and ideas over a period of days or weeks. They work well for international research, where you can get a lot of insight or work with members in different timezones easily.
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Desk research draws on published data, sector reports, competitor analysis and your own internal data. We often use this at the start of a project to build context before primary research begins.
"The communication was very transparent throughout the project, we knew exactly what we can expect and when. The interviews led to some very rich findings that were shared succinctly, with the additional detailed findings in the report. This research will help us tailor our offering to this specific audience and develop our communications with them."
Oak National Academy
Finding the Right Participants
Education audiences can be hard to reach. Teachers are busy and senior leaders are inundated with requests. International audiences add language, time zone and cultural considerations. Gettings the right people to take part in your research is one of the things that separates specialist education researchers from generalist agencies.
We have several routes to participants and we use the right combination for each project
The Insightful Research Teacher Panel is our own panel, consisting of hundreds of teachers, school leaders and support staff across the UK who have opted in to taking part in our research projects. We have built this panel over several years and it gives us a significant advantage in speed and reliability when recruiting education professionals. We can target by school type, key stage, subject, region and role. Our panel is not available to any other research company, so we are careful to protect panel members' time and ensure they are not over-researched.
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Client databases and mailing lists are often the best route when you need to reach your own customers, subscribers or contacts. We work with you to design invitation and manage the process in a way that protects the relationship between you and your audience. Many projects combine using client lists with our teacher panel to ensure a mix of customers and non-customers.
External recruitment partners help when we need to reach beyond existing networks, for example to find parents of students sitting GCSEs, current A Level students, or employers in a particular sector. We have a network of trusted partners who can help to recruit for even the most niche sample.
Social media targeting through LinkedIn and other channels lets us reach professional audiences with precision. We have run recruitment campaigns both under our own brand and our clients' brands, and this approach can yield useful results.
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We know how to work around the rhythms of the academic year, avoiding exam periods and half terms, building in flexibility for the unpredictable realities of school life, and designing participation so it fits into a teacher's day rather than adding to an already full workload.
"Insightful Research listened and responded to our brief and provided realistic yet ambitious goals at the outset. Throughout the project there was superb communication and organisation that demonstrated deep levels of expertise and established ways of working. Insightful Research have provided us with a great set of insights that, as we hoped, we will be able to apply to a number of other areas of our related development work."
ASDAN
FAQ About Education Market Research
Who do you work with?
We work with any organisation that needs to understand audiences in education and learning. Our clients include publishers, EdTech companies, awarding bodies, exam boards, government departments, charities, universities and membership organisations. We work with organisations of all sizes, from start-ups to multinational companies.
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What makes you different from a generalist market research agency?
We focus exclusively on education and membershi. That means we understand how schools work, how teachers make decisions, how the academic year affects everything from recruitment to response rates, and how to interpret what we hear in the context of the sector. We also have our own Teacher Panel, which gives us direct access to education professionals without relying solely on external recruitment.
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How long does education market research take?
Most education market research projects take between six and eight weeks from start to finish, though it varies depending on the scope. A straightforward set of interviews with a well-defined audience can be quicker; a larger project with multiple audiences or a survey element will take longer. We always work to your deadlines where we can. Our blog post on how long market research takes goes into more detail: ‘How long does it take to conduct market research?’
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How much does education market research cost?
Costs depend on the research design, number of participants, recruitment approach and level of analysis. We provide clear, transparent pricing with a detailed cost breakdown in every proposal. Our page on market research costs gives more information. Read more about education market research costs here.
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Do you work internationally?
Yes. We have carried out research with schools and education professionals in over 20 countries. We are experienced in managing the additional considerations of international research, including language, cultural context, time zones and local recruitment.​
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Stay up-to-date with the Curriculum and Assessment Review and what this means for education businesses
Ready to understand your audience?
If you would like to ask our advice, book a
no-obligation 30 minute consultation with us to discuss your research requirements or to simply have a chat and find out more about what we do.
Alternatively, use the briefing form to start discussing a new project, give Jill Elston a call on +44 (0)7703 462179 or email us jill@insightfulresearch.co.uk