Education faculty as knowledge brokers: Competing for access to New York State print media and policy influence

Authors

  • Gary Anderson New York University http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5466-3438
  • Nakia M. Gray-Nicolas Queens College, CUNY
  • Madison Payton New York University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.29.5648

Keywords:

knowledge mobilization, media, policy, academics

Abstract

In an environment in which new policy entrepreneurs and networks are influencing policy and public opinion, many university faculty are increasingly seeking ways to mobilize knowledge beyond academic conferences and journals. Using New York state as a case, we searched Access World News to compare the level of media access of academics with other knowledge brokering organizations (KBOs; e.g. think tanks, teachers’ unions, advocacy organizations, etc.). Our data shows relatively low levels of access for academics and provides profiles of those academics with high levels of access and what we might learn from them. We provide a discussion of the strategies of those academics who are successful at accessing the media and how disinvestment by the state from higher education and current incentive systems make it more difficult for academics to engage in knowledge mobilization beyond universities.   

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Author Biographies

Gary Anderson, New York University

Gary L. Anderson is a professor of Educational Leadership at New York University. A former high school teacher and principal, he has published on topics such as critical ethnography, participatory action research, new policy networks, the new professional, and knowledge mobilization and the media. His most recent books are The politics of education policy in an era of inequality: Possibilities for democratic schooling with Sonia Horsford & Janelle Scott (2019, Routledge) and The new democratic professional: Confronting Markets, Metrics, and Managerialism, with Michael Cohen (2018, Teachers College Press). 

Nakia M. Gray-Nicolas, Queens College, CUNY

Nakia M. Gray-Nicolas, Ed.D., is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership in the Education and Community Programs department at Queens College, City University of New York. Her research interests are informed by her personal experience, years as a secondary school teacher, higher education program director, and non-profit youth services director. Her research focuses on college readiness, equity and access, distributed leadership and community engagement, intersectionality and the experience of Black women in academia. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and books.

Madison Payton, New York University

Madison Payton is a doctoral student at New York University.

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Published

2021-02-01

How to Cite

Anderson, G., Gray-Nicolas, N. M., & Payton, M. (2021). Education faculty as knowledge brokers: Competing for access to New York State print media and policy influence. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 29(January - July), 12. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.29.5648