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…

This article discusses what we know about the underlying social and political conditions shaping research evidence use in education and how this applies to Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs). It discusses types of use, political dynamics and processes, brokers and intermediaries, and racial dynamics and lenses. It also recommends strategies for…

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…

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…

This chapter calls for researchers to reconceptualize research quality from the perspective of its expected use, attending to power dynamics that influence how knowledge is defined, constructed, and validated through the research enterprise. Addressing these concerns when designing and conducting education research can yield more useful research…

Using congressional testimony on teacher quality from 2003 to 2015 and analysis of 60 elite interviews, we show how the political economy of knowledge production influences idea uptake in education policy discourse. We develop and assess a conceptual framework showing the organizational and financial infrastructure that links research, ideas, and…

Although interest in ESE policy studies is on the rise, we argue there is a gap in scholarship about the nature and extent of interactions between policymakers and researchers in the ESE field. This paper addresses this gap by discussing one example of such interaction -- an ongoing research-practice partnership (RPP) between the New York City…

There is an ongoing debate about how best to infuse "evidence" into school evaluation and reform efforts, and what role education researchers can play in this effort. A lot of support has been garnered for evidence-based reform or policies that place a premium on practices that have been proven effective using rigorous research methods;…

This study provides an insight into the challenges faced in establishing a closer collaboration between educational research and its use in the policy-making process. It aims to identify the factors influencing transfer from research to policy-making and the policy-makers' needs, expectations, and perception on the use of educational research.…

This paper presents results from a survey of Romanian education researchers on their experience of research uptake and transfer to policy makers and practitioners. A range of variables are analysed in order to understand the factors they perceived to influence the use of educational research. The researchers' context was analysed, including…

This paper suggests that, while continuing to critically address abiding issues concerning the nature and purposes of mass education, educational research needs to embrace new contexts and emphases as we move deeper into the 21st century. These contexts and emphases--in particular those related to globalization in its various forms, and to rapid…

Interest in research utilisation in policy and practice has grown in the last few years for both academics and users. This interest is partly due to changes in higher education institutions in many countries that emphasise a research-centred approach, which prioritises the dissemination and transfer of research results to end users. The process…

As teacher educators, we want our research to be influential in contributing to educational policy and practice, but there remains little understanding about ways in which teacher educators might more productively engage with each other and policy-makers so as to maximise their research impact. Drawing on an empirical study and policy document…

Researchers have noted with concern the often weak link between research evidence and policymaking, particularly in some areas such as education. In this introductory essay--dedicated to the late Carol Weiss--we consider this issue first by reflecting on how changing historical conditions can shape institutional demands on and for research…

The nexus between research and policy in higher education as in other sectors of society is multimodal and not adequately captured by the notion of a cultural gap between the world of practice and the world of research. Neither can the relationship be seen as unidirectional. This paper sketches out the range of uses of research in policy-making,…