Defined
One common goal that many research-practice partnerships in NNERPP and beyond are working towards is how to support the use of research evidence in practice. Given that many RPPs intentionally reimagine how education research, policy, and practice are connected and generated, there is great potential to change when and how research evidence is used to inform decision making in policy and practice contexts when working in an RPP. This may be due to greater opportunities to make sense of problems and findings, to collectively discuss implications and relevance to a given context, and to co-design the research.
There are several ways to characterize the use of research evidence. One of the most common, instrumental use, is based on a linear approach, whereby research is produced, and disseminated to practice and policy leaders, who then read and apply findings directly to decision making. Although it may be tempting to rely on such a simple approach to conceptualize how research use may happen, research indicates that this is a rare occurrence in education practice.
Conceptual use of research, which describes shifts in thinking and changes in knowledge around or attitudes towards a particular problem, is actually more likely to occur in practice. RPPs may be especially powerfully positioned to affect this type of use, given the close relationships that typically develop within an RPP across research, policy, and practice actors. These relationships enable trusting ties to emerge, which research has shown is an important precondition to research use. Moreover, because of greater sensemaking opportunities that are more likely to occur within RPPs –discussions where people can think, wonder, and chat about research together–, we think there is likely a corresponding increase in the potential for conceptual use instances as well.
Two additional types of research uses include strategic use and process use. The strategic use of research describes a scenario where evidence is used to obtain a specific result, such as citing a study to garner support for a particular viewpoint or policy. Process use describes how the process of conducting or designing research can affect how individuals think about a problem by gaining a stronger understanding of, and expertise in, the actual research endeavor and given problem. Similar to the conceptual use case, RPPs should, by design, be particularly well-positioned to support this type of research use.
Key Resources
Below, we list some key resources related to supporting the use of research evidence. You can browse a full list of resources in our RPP Knowledge Library.
- “Transforming Evidence for Policy and Practice” website: Transforming Evidence is a multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral community that shares learning about how research evidence is made, shared, and used. Resources available on the website include blogs, reports, podcasts, academic papers, and books on the topic.
- William T. Grant Foundation Use of Research Evidence page: Includes a collection of studies that provide insight into how policymakers, administrators, and service providers acquire, interpret, and use research evidence.
“Evidence & Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate and Practice”: This peer-reviewed journal is dedicated to comprehensive and critical assessment of the relationship between researchers and the evidence they produce and the concerns of policy makers and practitioners.
- “‘What Counts’ As Research? Comparing Policy Guidelines to the Evidence Education Leaders Report as Useful”: This study draws on a nationally representative sample of district and school leaders who reported what kind of research they found useful to their work.
- “Research Worth Using: (Re)Framing Research Evidence Quality for Educational Policymaking and Practice”: A chapter calling the reconceptualization of research quality from the perspective of its expected use, while attending to the power dynamics of how knowledge is defined, constructed, and validated through the research enterprise.
“Identifying and Testing Strategies to Improve the Use of Antiracist Research Evidence Through Critical Race Lenses”: An essay examining how to improve the use of evidence from antiracist research.
“Building Capacity for Evidence-Informed Improvement: Supporting State and Local Education Agencies”: This report summarizes two convenings with state and local agency research office leaders to better understand the role of LEAs and SEAs in strengthening the educational system’s capacity to generate and use evidence for continuous improvement.
- “Improving Use of Research Evidence: Insights From Communication Science”: This NNERPP Extra article introduces key principles of audience engagement from the communication science perspective as an approach to enabling and motivating users to integrate research-based insights into decision making processes.
- “What are the Dimensions of District Capacity That Enable Effective Evidence-Based Decision-Making?”: This NNERPP Extra article examines the full scope of the lifecycle of how evidence informs decision-making in districts.
- “Visualizing Data for Meaningful Impact on Decision Making”: This NNERPP Extra article outlines tips for creating data visualizations that help facilitate effective dialogue with practice-side partners about research findings that affect decision making.
Connection Opportunities
- Subnetworks
- Upcoming webinars: TBD
- Workshops: TBD