Pervasive tensions exist between the rhetoric of educational policy and the manner in which such policy is enacted in schools. Subject to the often-conflicting mandates of Initial Teacher Education policy and secondary school practices, pre-service teachers experience challenges in evaluating their role as prospective educators, while also…

This paper presents a case study on the transfer of research into policy and describes how evidence was used to inform, develop, frame and ultimately agree a national strategy for research and data on children's lives in Ireland. The paper highlights key issues arising in the research-policy exchange, but also argues that evidence on its own,…