Call for Papers: Knowledge Brokers in Education
Call for Papers: Knowledge brokers in education: How intermediary organizations are bridging the gap between research, policy and practice internationally.
Guest Editor: Dr. Amanda Cooper, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
An emerging field of inquiry has arisen in order to address the oft-cited gaps between research, policy and practice called knowledge mobilization (KMb) in education and knowledge translation (KT) in the health sector (names vary across sectors and countries). KMb includes efforts to increase the use of research evidence in policy and practice in education. KMb occurs through iterative, social processes involving interaction among two or more different groups or contexts (researchers, policymakers, practitioners, third party agencies, community members) in order to improve the broader education system.
Much of the research that does exist on KMb focuses on research producing contexts (such as universities) and research using contexts (such as hospitals and schools) with very few studies addressing the intermediary organizations that often facilitate research use processes. This issue uses the term ‘research brokering organization’ (RBO) to describe third party, intermediary organizations whose active role between research producers and users is a catalyst for research use in education. Intermediaries are important because practitioners rarely come into contact with primary research directly from academic journals or lengthy research reports. Instead, educators engage with research indirectly through colleagues, professional development, the media, and often through various third party organizations. Because of the growing recognition of the prominence of intermediaries, research agencies (e.g. William T. Grant Foundation) and prominent scholars in the field are highlighting the importance of intermediaries’ roles in KMb and emphasizing the need for empirical work on third parties in the KMb process.
This special issue will explore the nature and impact of the work of RBOs in research mediation in education in Canada, the US and the UK, and also looks for evidence on the impact of these efforts. Papers could include (but are not limited to):
- Empirical work exploring knowledge mobilization efforts of research brokering organizations such as ministries of education, state education agencies, district level research services or office, University Research Centres, Advocacy Groups, Issue-based Organizations, Think tanks, professional organizations for teachers or researchers, and network organizations which bring diverse stakeholders together.
- Efforts made by researchers or research centres to make their research more accessible, especially using innovative strategies involving multi-media products, social media or collaborative partnerships
- Empirical studies exploring work with policymakers on evidence-based decision-making.
- Empirical studies exploring how educational practitioners engage with (or fail to engage with ) research-based policy or practice
- Empirical studies exploring how community agencies are involved connecting research to practice in education
- Empirical studies exploring the adoption of evidence-based programs in schools or school districts.
Contributors to this special issue are highly encouraged to develop multi-media component, so all articles will also have a short video abstract that briefly outlines topic, significance, methods, findings and implications
Submission Information: All manuscripts should be submitted electronically through the EPAA website and follow the Journal’s submission guidelines: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/. We will not consider manuscripts submitted for publication or published elsewhere.
Submission Deadline: March 1, 2015.
Publication date: August 2015
Early submissions are encouraged.
Guest Editor: Dr. Amanda Cooper, Assistant Professor, Educational Policy & Leadership, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Keep EPAA open access