Recent discourse about the impact of university research has focused on "what" research impact is and less on "how" it manifests. To explore these two questions, we draw on knowledge theory and build on the distinction between explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. We propose that tacit knowledge and knowing are necessary…

Practice-oriented educational research is renowned for its impact, both in educational practice and research. Yet, existing studies on the impact of practice-oriented educational research reflect a proliferation of ideas on what impact is, can or should be. This study aims to contribute to an in-depth understanding by establishing a theoretically…

The use of research evidence is increasingly seen as critical to improving practice across many areas of public policy. At the same time, the role of relationships and relational work have become far more widely recognised in many fields of professional practice. This paper brings together these two developments by focusing on the relational…

The evaluation of research to allocate government funding to universities is now common across the globe. "The Research Excellence Framework," introduced in the UK in 2014, marked a major change by extending assessment beyond the 'quality' of published research to include its real-world 'impact'. Impact submissions were a key determinant…

The complexity of contemporary higher education policy making and the multitude of evidences and actors in policy networks mean that relationships between higher education researchers, policy makers and research evidence are not straightforward. In this article, we use a theoretical lens of time, Adams' Timescapes, to explore this relationship and…

This paper critically examines the reasons for and processes of sharing SoTL findings with students. Framed by our commitment to SoTL's role to make teaching "community property," we interpret sharing SoTL findings with students as an act of knowledge mobilization, where SoTL might be disseminated, translated, or co-created with the…

This article describes how research-based knowledge was used in practice in an action research project which examined student dropout. The research was conducted as 'research circles' and involved systematic and organised cooperation between researchers and practitioners, in this case college teachers. Based on interviews with the teachers, we…

The Evidence to Action project (2019-2021), led by MDRC and the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) and supported by Arnold Ventures, initiated a body of work designed to disentangle the barriers that exist between research and state-level higher education policy and partnered with state higher education agencies to…

Research competencies can empower teachers to inquire into their work and innovate in the field. In particular, conceptual competencies in consuming empirical research (CCER) are expected of K-12 teachers, but little is known about how teachers develop CCER. To address this gap, the authors conducted a case study with 12 teachers enrolled in a…

When Sweden began to experience a steady decline in student achievement results in PISA and TIMMS, the Swedish National Agency of Education initiated a model of collaboration with Swedish universities aimed at providing support to schools with falling student achievement scores. In this article, we examine how such projects can work at the local…

Social scientists' involvement with the legal system is critical for tackling inequities in education and informing legal developments in ways that are grounded in empirical realities that document the myriad ways race shapes educational opportunity and outcomes. This study examined the experiences of social scientists who have participated in…

With this article, we aim to spur a conversation on research implementation in the context of collaborations of mathematics teachers and educational researchers, with a special interest in projects situated in university mathematics education. Implementation has been often discussed in relation to the education of school teachers, and we suggest…

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…

International research emphasises that Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) has a key role to play in initiating and processing changes in Physical Education (PE). However, several researchers also find that it is a significant challenge for PETE to contest ideological approaches regarding PE practices among PE student teachers. Stronger…

This paper considers whether the impact agenda that has developed over the last decade in UK universities is likely to help create the conditions in which critical educational research makes a more visible difference to society. The UK audit of university research quality (the research excellence framework (REF) now includes an assessment of…