Universities and the Mobilization of Research Knowledge in Education: An International Perspective

• In Event: To Promote Research Is Not Enough: Research Capacity, Knowledge Mobilization, and Learning for Educational Change

Abstract

Purpose and Perspective:

Education research is much criticized for its lack of quality and impact (Levin, 2011; Nutley et al., 2007). Around the world, universities play a crucial role in the research process in education (Munn, 2008; Sá et al., 2010). In most countries they are the largest producers of research in education, and many university researchers are deeply involved in efforts to share that knowledge with practitioners and policy-makers (Cooper et al., 2011). The substantial amount of exhortation in this field is not matched yet by solid empirical evidence on how universities organize to do that work or on the effects of current efforts (Levin, 2010).

Methods and Data:

This paper draws from a comparative study of the role of universities in the sharing of education research knowledge in nine countries. Leading researchers at universities in Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America prepared analyses of the state of education research mobilization in their countries based on a common framework that addressed:
- The current state of university-based research in education, including amounts, funding sources, research structures, dominant methods, capacity and any indicators of quality;
- Strategies and mechanisms currently used by universities, faculties of education, and various researchers and research centers to share their research and to increase its impact;
- Major policies, data or research that has been influential in forming the current arrangements.
This paper provides a synthesis of those reports.


Results and Significance:

Major findings across the nine countries include:
- A relatively small number of universities and researchers tend to dominate the education research landscape;
- Universities are making many efforts to improve awareness and use of their research, but on the whole these remain sporadic and poorly coordinated, with little evidence as to their effectiveness;
- The degree and impact of partnerships between universities and other elements of the education system around research knowledge mobilization are highly variable depending on each country’s history and institutional structures.

The paper concludes with suggestions for steps that universities could reasonably take that would increase the likelihood that their research in education would be more widely known and used, including strategies for knowledge mobilization, research partnerships, graduate students’ work, and approaches for professional development and initial teacher education.

Authors

• Benjamin Levin, OISE/University of Toronto

• Jie Qi, OISE/University of Toronto