This symposium is concerned with mobilizing research knowledge for teaching and teacher education. Knowledge mobilization addresses the process by which knowledge is transferred from its originating community – often a research community – to other communities, which are often policy or practice communities. We understand research use to refer to the ways in which research is understood and used by policymakers and practitioners (Cain, Wieser & Livingston 2016). When research-generated knowledge is used by practitioners, we can refer to research-informed practice. If research aims to directly provide the fundament for teaching, we can refer to it as research-based practice. The symposium contributions address challenges that appear when knowledge from one domain is transferred to another knowledge domain. In the case of this symposium, this transfer is between research knowledge on teaching and teaching practice. The terms and concepts may be varied and there may be a lack of agreement about its use (Cain 2015). However, many of these terms reflect the idea that three processes are involved: knowledge generation, knowledge mobilization and knowledge use. As there is no commonly-agreed term to describe the entire process, we refer to the whole process as one of knowledge mobilization.

Knowledge mobilisation is a key to scaffold professional development of teachers. Professional development today refers to school contexts that are rapidly changing and evolving, and often includes perspectives to address heterogeneous cultural backgrounds of students, social change, and technology in everyday culture. Educational research aims to provide perspectives and strategies for teachers to act with respect to these contexts, often arguing that strategies based on sound investigation are more effective than individual strategies. However, teachers are sometimes hesitant to draw on educational research (Ion & Iucu 2014). This hesitation is attributed to the complex relationship between educational research and pedagogical practice, and researchers concerned with teacher knowledge and knowledge mobilisation argue that a transfer from research knowledge to teaching does not happen in a simple, rationalist and straightforward way: Biesta (2012, 16) argues that “competencies in themselves are not enough to capture what teaching is about, [and] the idea of education as an evidence-based profession makes even less sense”, since knowledge is always mobilised with respect to specific classroom contexts. Other authors highlight that knowledge is mobilised in processes of reflection, and argue that teacher reflection is rarely “investigated as an interconnected process of deliberate thought, action, and problem solving” Mena Marcos (2009, 201). May researchers argue that change in teaching and classroom management is not encouraged by simply providing teachers with research papers, and consequently asking them to put suggestions from research into practice. This symposium takes their arguments into account in its presentations: Presentations focus on (1) the relational conceptualisation of research knowledge, personal knowledge, and teaching, (2) frameworks in which this relationship is established, (3) how teachers relate their beliefs to educational research, and (4) dissemination activities which provide teachers with research results. 

Biesta, Gert. 2012. The Future of Teacher Education: Evidence, Competence or Wisdom? Research on Steiner Education 3 (1), 8–21. Cain, Tim 2015. Teachers’ engagement with published research: addressing the knowledge problem. Curriculum Journal, 26(3), 488-509. Cain, Tim, Wieser, Clemens, & Livingston, Kay (2016). Mobilising research knowledge for teaching and teacher education. European Journal of Teacher Education. 39(5), 529-533. Ion, Georgeta, and Iucu, Romita (2014). “Professionals’ Perceptions about the Use of Research in Educational Practice.” European Journal of Higher Education 4 (4): 334–347. Mena Marcos, Juan, Emilio Sánchez, and Harm Tillema. 2009. Teacher Reflection on Action: What is Said (in Research) and What is Done (in Teaching). Reflective Practice, 10(2), 191–204.