Session Information
23 SES 04 A, Policies and Practices of Evaluation of Quality in Education
Paper Session
Contribution
The rhetoric of evidence based policy has become pervasive in national and European education policy. (Ball 1998; Cook 2002; Feuer et al 2002; Hammersley 2003; Biesta 2007; Levin 2013; Witty 2006; Hostetler 2005; Hargreaves 1996; Nutley 2010; Lather 2004; Wiseman 2010) Evidence informed policy and practice in education is one of the immediate priorities of the European Commission's Strategic Framework ET2020. The Irish Department of Education and Skills claims as a central function, to provide the Minister and the Government with evidence informed policy advice.
However, evidence based or evidence informed education policy remains a contested and sometimes controversial subject. How educational research enters into and becomes used within a complex, dynamic and highly political policymaking process, is not well understood. The field is characterised by the absence of theoretical consensus explaining the phenomena of 'research utilisation in educational policy making'. While no empirical studies on the use of educational research in policymaking (research use) have been undertaken in an Irish context, the topic has attracted some insightful commentary (Ruane 2010; Sugrue 2009; Lynch 2012; Smyth and McCoy 2013; Galvin 2009). Clearly, there is a long road ahead towards understanding the complex relationship between research and educational policy in Ireland. Given that the demand for evidence informed education policy in Ireland looks set to continue, it is timely that educational research as evidence is the subject of closer scrutiny.
Linear models that suggest that the supply, transmission and application of educational research in policymaking is predictable or routine should be rejected. They fail to adequately address the complex interplay of individual, social, political and organisational processes at work in the interplay between knowledge and power.
This paper argues that the use of educational research, which is the dependent variable of interest, is a complex social process rather than merely an instrumental outcome or a product. Educational research can also serve conceptual and political purposes in the policy formation process. The production, accumulation and use of knowledge cannot be understood in isolation from Foucauldian notions of marginalisation and autonomy. How the supply and demand for research in a knowledge society or knowledge economy is controlled can be explored using Foucault’s concept of power/knowledge. (Foucault 1977, 1991; Butin 2006; Ball 1990)
Independent variables influencing research use, can be categorised as; push or supply side and include type of research, research discipline, researcher characteristics and institutional factors; pull or demand side which include the capacity of policymakers and the institutional culture of public administration; and a range of interaction variables including dissemination and accessibility of findings, interaction between researchers and policymakers and collaboration as a particular instance of interaction.
Research utilisation in education is a contested concept. While there is a long road of theory building ahead, many have proposed explanations and models of the phenomena (Amara, Ouimet and Landry 2004; Cherney et al 2012; Hemsley-Brown 2004; Huberman 1987; Knott and Wildavsky 1980; Oh and Rich 1986; Rich 1997; Weiss 1982; Gleeson et al. 2012). Much of the available theory that attempts to explain how and why educational research is used in policymaking, have been influenced by how research has been used in medical and health policy. The failure to appreciate the inadequacy of the medical model of research use explain research use in education, risks further disappointment and frustration on the part of policymakers and the academy. This paper questions the relevance and application of models and conceptualisations of research use in the natural sciences to the social sciences in general, and to education in particular.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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