"Droppin' the Mic": Framing the Implications of Policy-Relevant Research for Maximum Impact

• In Event: Maximizing the Policy Relevance of Research for School Improvement

Abstract

This presentation explores the ways in which researchers can situate their implications as policy relevant. This author explains how researchers might “drop the mic” by purposefully bridging the gaps between research-to-practice and research-to-policy. He provides background about how to position findings for use on the four “Ps,” policy, program, procedure, and practice (Rallis, Rossman, Cobb, Reagan, & Kuntz, 2008). The presentation also provides background about the categories of research use, instrumental, conceptual and symbolic, in order to attend to the “what” and “how” of implications (Weiss, 1979). He extends these discussions into how this framing is dependent on the selection of research methods and communication with the intended user. Further, planning these approaches from the beginning of a study allows researchers to offer direct implications to a target audience through an appropriate dissemination outlet. The audience is encouraged to identify areas of need from proposed collective research agendas within the field, and to think about reform from the “inside out.”

A colleague once said that her approach to writing the implications section of an article was like “droppin’ the mic.” She also gave this advice to her doctoral students, encouraging them to send clear and definitive messages to readers about the ramifications of their research. The “research implications” sections of journal articles are far too often given short shrift, are unconvincing, or underdeveloped. At other times they can be overreaching or undeserved, as when study findings are based on weak research warrants or inconclusive arguments. But when there is the opportunity to frame implications with elocution, researchers should not shy away. Indeed, helping readers make sense of research is an important and often overlooked responsibility of the researcher.

This presentation is intended to help researchers frame the implications of their work. Because effective framing relies on a deep understanding of policy, the concept of policy and how it manifests across the policy-praxis continuum is expanded. Research utilization in education and a conceptual framework for understanding research use are discussed. Further, framing research implications depends on various contextual factors (e.g. Wolcott, 2003), including the type of research conducted, intended audience, and dissemination outlet. To facilitate research use, researchers should address important problems of practice, engage end-users in the research process (when possible), and maintain analytic rigor.

Effectively framing implications depends on many factors, including the research product, audience, and disseminating outlet. Inherent in that first factor is the production of high-quality, rigorous research that is grounded in strong logic and based on valid and trustworthy research warrants. Quality matters and so too does relevance. Performers need to be suitably in tune with their audience in order to successfully “drop the mic.”

Author

• Casey D. Cobb, University of Connecticut