OER and SoLEC researchers publish a journal article proposing a new approach to translate and mobilise research results to end-users

There is a widely acknowledged gap between research, policy, and practice owing to a lack of capacity to translate and mobilise research results to end-users including policymakers, practitioners, and community members. Acknowledging this divide, researchers from the Office of Education Research (OER) and SoLEC, Mr Shyam Anand Singh, Senior Research Assistant, Dr Chiam Ching Leen (former staff), Dr David Huang, Associate Dean of Strategic Support and Analytics at OER, and Prof David Hung, Centre Director of SoLEC, published a conceptual paper titled “Mending the Research–Policy–Practice Gap: Conceptualising Research as Social Change in Education” in the Educational Research for Social Change proposing a new approach that employs research as a mechanism for social change. Specifically, the article advances a framework that facilitates the conditions for the mutual understanding of norms, operational roles, academic rigour, and policy and practice outcomes among all stakeholders. The paper seeks to foster increased inter-stakeholder conversations and dialogues to narrow the divide between researchers and policymakers and, correspondingly, improve policy translations from academic research.