Research Mediation in Education: A Cross-Case Analysis of 44 Knowledge Mobilization Intermediaries Across Canada

• In Event: Roundtable Session 85
  In Roundtable Session: Bridging the Gap: Intermediary Roles Brokering Research Use in Education

Abstract

This paper explores the Canadian landscape of intermediary organizations that facilitate knowledge mobilization (KM) in education. KM includes intentional efforts to increase the use of research evidence (data collected through systematic and established formal processes of inquiry from widely accepted bodies of empirical work, rather than from single studies) in policy and practice at multiple levels of the education sector – between individual, organizational, and system levels. The paper is organized in four parts. First it provides an overview of the intermediary landscape including: the kinds and frequencies of Canadian KMIs that exist, when they were founded, and organizational characteristics (size, scope, target audiences, membership composition, and resources). Next, it outlines results from application of a matrix to measure organizational knowledge mobilization efforts of 44 intermediary educational organizations across Canada evaluating knowledge mobilization strategies (products, events, networks) by KM indicators (multiple types, ease of use, accessibility, focus of audience). Third, it explores examples of the strategies that Canadian KMIs are using; consequently, providing a typology of brokering strategies (research product strategies, capacity building and support strategies, event strategies, network strategies, media strategies as well as organizational development strategies and advocacy strategies). The discussion articulates a framework of eight major brokering functions of Canadian intermediaries: awareness, accessibility, engagement, capacity building, implementation support, facilitating linkages and partnerships, policy influence and organizational development.

Author

• Amanda Cooper, Queen's University