Session Information
23 SES 04.5 PS, General Poster Session
General Poster Session
Contribution
The paper aims to analyze the relationship between educational research and its use in the policymaking process in the Romanian educational system. We examine the knowledge-mobilization process between research and policymaking and the particular roles of the parties involved, ranging from researchers, managers, education professionals and policymakers. The research identifies some of the missing links between research and policy and our results focus on research production mechanisms, identify obstacles and opportunities arising from the mobilization of research into policy and, finally, offer suggestions for improvement.
It is generally acknowledged among educational theorists and practitioners that qualitative educational reforms and innovation which lead to major social change should be based on research. However, as it may be inferred from empirical assessment, policymaking in education is based, more often than not, on political will rather than on evidence. Moreover, the link between research and policymaking has been subjected to intense debate, the literature in the field showing that academic research rarely has a policy impact and often fails to meet the policymakers’ needs (Coburn & Talbert, 2006; Hess, 2008; Levin & Edelstein, 2010; Cherney, Povey, Head, Boreham, & Ferguson, 2012). There is a series of explanations for the missing link between the two fields, one of them referring to a lack of communication and interaction between researchers and policymakers, due to what could be perceived as the separate, almost parallel contexts in which they develop their work.
However, there seems to be a general agreement in what concerns educational policies’ failure to find grounds in educational realities analyzed by research in this field (Ion & Iucu, 2012, 2014). Some of the factors which lead to this relate to the shortage of time between developing a research and implementing a policy, the lack of coherent transfer mechanisms and lack of communication between researchers and policymakers. Adding to these, there are other organizational factors influencing the production of research and its transfer: stakeholders’ engagement, the political and leadership contexts, as well as the financial context.
Knowledge-transfer between research and policy-making is a topic of interest beyond academic inquiry, as evidence-based educational policies represent a priority at both national and international levels, through the approach of various institutions such as the European Commission, or through different European strategies in the field. When analyzed in this context, the educational research field in Romania appears to be under-developed, lacking initiatives for improving the knowledge-transfer from research to policies (Kappel & Ignat, 2012), an approach which could also be identified in other former Communist countries in the region (Kwiek, 2012), offering a sense of how the context and cultural traits influenced the development of the field.
Therefore, our research aims at developing a systematic analysis of the impact educational research has on educational policies in Romania, in order to provide a better understanding of the context, of the culture of research, of the interaction between the different interested parties, as well as the concrete mechanisms, institutions or channels, which allow for relevant research results to be transferred and mobilized in policy-making, with significant long-term impact on the educational system and society as a whole.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Cherney, et al. (2012), 'What influences the utilization of educational research by policy-makers and practitioners? The perspectives of academic educational researchers', International Journal of Educational Research, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2012.08.001. Coburn, C., & Talbert, J. (2006). Conceptions of evidence use in school districts: Mapping the terrain. American Journal of Education, 112, 469–495. Hess, F.M. (2008). When research matters: How scholarship influences education policy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Ion, G. & Iucu, R. (2014). Does research influence educational policy? The perspective of researchers and policy-makers in Romania. Proceedings of the Bologna Process Researchers’ Conference, www.fohe-bprc.forhe.ro Ion, G. & Iucu, R. (2012) Impactul cercetării în ştiinţele educaţiei: perspective de studiu. Revista De Politica Ştiintei şi Scientometrie –Serie Noua 1(2): 99 –107 Kappel, W. & Ignat, M. (2012) Some problems of the Romanian applicative research’ Revista de politica ştiintei si scientometrie –Serie noua,1 (2): 137 –41 Knott, J. and A. Wildavsky (1980) If Dissemination Is the Solution, What Is the Problem?, Science Communication 1(4): 537-78. Kwiek, M. (2012) Universities and Knowledge Production in Central Europe, European Educational Research Journal 11(1), 111 – 126. Landry,R.,Amara, N., & Lamari,M., (2001a) Climbing the ladder of research utilization – Evidence from social science research. Science Communication, 22(4), 396–422. Levin, B., & Edelstein, H. (2010).Research, policy and practice in education. Education Canada, 50(2), 29–30.
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