Education is regarded as vital for societal modernization and competitiveness (e.g. Mokyr, 2002). However, within contemporary criticism of educational research and policy, a gap has arisen between knowledge that is required by policymakers and professionals and knowledge that is constructed by researchers. This criticism can be summed up as amounting to a general concern that educational research is failing to furnish policymakers and professionals with the knowledge they require. A common argument is that this lacuna arises from the non-cumulative nature of research findings or that researchers are too often just serving their own interests and too little serving the interests of policymakers and professionals. As a consequence, certain actors have emerged and research activities have evolved that are aimed at bridging this gap. This symposium is intended to illuminate the activities of a number of educational actors operating in the space between research that makes explicit and implicit claims on the construction of educational facts and policy makers and professionals.
The theme of the symposium is framed within the perspective of a modern information and knowledge society (e.g. Grundmann & Stehr, 2012) where the production of knowledge, bounded by societal and economic considerations, has a pervasive influence, which, in turn, adds to the importance of educational matters (e.g. UNESCO, 2005). What is less often discussed is how the intellectualizing and organizing of educational facts should not be regarded as trivial, but as a root cause of serious controversies (cf. Habers, 1997). Within the field of education, some research emerges as recognized facts within a public discourse, serving as a basis for informed political and professional decisions, while some research does not. As such, it is important to address how educational knowledge is constructed and organized and on what supposed research grounds political and professional decisions are made.
The symposium will exemplify and explore how the intellectualizing and organization of educational knowledge is framed. In doing so, there will be a focus on research activities and agency within those organizations, inhabiting the field of education, that function as interlocutors between research activity and policy and professional policymakers. The symposium is intended to raise questions on how and by whom educational facts are produced and organized in ‘glonacal’ (the simultaneous significance of the global, national, and local) times (Marginson & Rhoades, 2001).
The symposium will gather together three important, world-wide and wide-spread actors and activities participating in the construction of educational facts: i) International large-scale assessments, exemplified by two studies on TIMSS and PISA respectively, including how scholarly knowledge is generated, organized and disseminated, ii) Systematic research reviews, exemplified by a study focussed on important actors e.g. Danish Clearinghouse and EPPI centre and how they participate in the construction of “evidence”, and iii) Entrepreneurial agencies, who, in tandem, elaborate and construct educational knowledge and policy, through what is termed ‘grey-zone activities’ (Lindblad, Pettersson & Popkewitz, 2015).
The papers presented will deal with different aspects of the field of education, where activities and actors promulgate a shift in focus, where education, in the construction and organization of educational knowledge, is to be understood as universal, non-contextual and possible to be described with numbers. The symposium presents an opportunity to raise questions in relation to how international activities and actors frame national, regional and international discourses on education.
