Amanda Cooper

Queen's University | QueensU · Faculty of Education

Factors influencing evaluation use has been a primary concern for evaluators. However, little is known about the current conceptualizations of evaluation use including what counts as use, what efforts encourage use, and how to measure use. This article identifies enablers and constraints to evaluation use based on a scoping review of literature pub...

This essay describes an art-informed inquiry to develop inclusive spaces and advance critical thinking about identity where artist-researcher-educator/researcher collaborations are enacted through oil pastels, collages, and an exhibit as a catalyst for expanding thinking about assessment identity. Those involved considered how assessment identity i...

Systemic disruptions from COVID-19 have transformed the assessment landscape in Canada and across the world. Alongside repeated shifts to emergency remote teaching, large-scale assessments and summative evaluations were cancelled in many jurisdictions, and repeated concerns were raised about ensuring equity and access to quality education. This pap...

Background Interest in using arts-informed approaches within research to increase stakeholder engagement is growing; however, there is little work describing how these approaches are operationalised across contexts. This article addresses that gap by exploring the use of arts-informed approaches across three projects. Aims and objectives We explor...

This article considers the opportunities and challenges of mixed methods integration within the context of conducting developmental evaluations with diverse stakeholders. The article proposes a four-part planning framework that explicitly maps the eight principles of developmental evaluation to key questions about integration: Why integrate? What w...

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in temporary school closures across the world, increasing pressure on educators to rapidly cultivate new skills. This novel research examines the implementation and impact of remote teaching and learning in early primary contexts in Canada from the perspectives of key stakeholders. There is a particular need to invest...

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools across North America closed to in person learning in March 2020. Since then, it has becoming increasingly clear that physical distancing will need to be prolonged in the 2020/2021 school year and possibly resumed in the future. In response, education ministries shifted teaching and learning online. Research is...

At-home learning initiatives arose as a response to school closures due to COVID-19. This study interviewed 17 secondary teachers to explore the implementation of at-home learning in the province of Ontario, Canada. Findings suggest four thematic areas arising from the data: growing equity disparities, poor policy communication, factors influencing...

Purpose This scoping review utilizes findings from 80 articles to build a research model to study research-practice-policy networks in K-12 education systems. The purpose of this study was to generate a broad understanding of the variation in conceptualizations of research-practice-policy partnerships, rather than dominant conceptualizations. Desi...

Co-production is rapidly gaining purchase as an approach to making research matter more to diverse audiences. There exists a wealth of information about co-production in areas such as public administration and sustainability science, but comparatively little within the specific area of research communication. In particular, little is known about th...

Globally, K-12 education systems are grappling with how best to integrate research and evidence into policy and practice. Research-practice-partnerships (RPPs) have arisen as a potentially powerful mechanism for school improvement. This study investigates the ways four research-practice-policy-partnerships are addressing impact by (a) reporting on...

The patterns of practice characterizing coproduction as an approach to research communication are explored through semistructured interviews with researchers ( N = 6), journalists ( N = 6), a community liaison ( N = 1), and editorial staff ( N = 2) who participated in the coproduction of podcasts. Despite various challenges encountered by participa...

There has been increased interest in how researchers might collaborate with end users to increase the impact of their work. In Canada, efforts to extend research impact beyond academia are called knowledge mobilization (KMb). This study surveyed SSHRC- funded educational researchers to assess their KMb efforts in relation to three areas: stakeholde...

Researchers are under increasing pressure to disseminate research more widely with non-academic audiences (efforts we call knowledge mobilization, KMb) and to articulate the value of their research beyond academia to broader society. This study surveyed SSHRC-funded education researchers to explore how universities are supporting researchers with t...

Researchers are under increasing pressure to disseminate research more widely with non-academic audiences (efforts we call knowledge mobilization, KMb) and to articulate the value of their research beyond academia to broader society. This study surveyed SSHRC-funded education researchers to explore how universities are supporting researchers with t...

Background: Within the realm of public education, there is a well-known ‘knowledge to practice gap’ on current conceptions of classroom assessment. A collaborative research project undertaken by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and a research team at Queen’s University explored the roots of this gap from the perspectives of pra...

Arts-based knowledge translation (ABKT) is a process that uses diverse art genres (visual arts, performing arts, creative writing, multimedia including video and photography) to communicate research with the goal of catalysing dialogue, awareness, engagement, and advocacy to provide a foundation for social change on important societal issues. We pr...

There are few tools that exist to measure knowledge mobilization (KMb), the process of connecting research to policy and practice, across diverse organizations and sectors. This article reports on a comparison of KMb efforts of 105 educational organizations: faculties of education (N = 21), intermediary organizations (N = 44), school districts (N =...

Interest in how to better connect research to policy and practice is gaining momentum globally. Also gaining widespread agreement is the view that intermediary organizations have an important role to play in facilitating multi-stakeholder partnerships between researchers, practitioners and policymakers in order to increase the mobilization of resea...

Alongside a growing interest in knowledge mobilization (trying to increase the connection between research, policy and practice) there has been a transformation of how knowledge is produced, accessed and disseminated in light of the internet and social media strategies. Few studies have explored the use of social media for research dissemination. T...

Knowledge mobilisation (KMb) attempts to address research-policy-practice gaps in education. Research brokering organisations (RBOs) are third party, intermediary organisations whose active role between research producers and users is a catalyst for research use in education. Sample: 44 Canadian RBOs in the education sector. Methodology: employed a...

This paper, part of a larger study, investigates the ways research is used by leaders in Canadian schools and districts, an area in which there is relatively little empirical evidence. The paper analyzes survey results from 188 education leaders in 11 school districts across Canada about school and district practices related to the use of research....

This chapter aims to provide insight into what is meant by ‘knowledge mobilisation’ (KM) in the field of research and how we might think about the work and role of universities in sharing research knowledge. To this end, we discuss ideas about mobilising research knowledge generally, and then report on a study that explored the KM efforts of facult...

This chapter provides insights into what is meant by ‘knowledge mobilisation’ (KM) in the field of research and how we might think about the work and role of universities in sharing research knowledge. It discusses ideas about mobilising research knowledge generally and then reports on a study that explored the KM efforts of education faculties, sh...

Research by universities plays an increasingly important role in shaping education policy around the world yet there is much dissatisfaction with the ways that they share that work. This much-needed, original book analyses efforts and systems in nine countries to mobilize research knowledge, describing the various factors that support or inhibit th...

This paper explores the increasingly prominent role of research brokering organizations (RBOs) in strengthening connections between education research, policy and practice across Canada. This paper is organized in three sections. First, it provides a literature review of research mediation-exploring terminology, models and empirical work (albeit sp...

This chapter explores knowledge mobilization (KM) in education, efforts to increase research use in policy and practice, in three sections: theory, research and practice. The first part offers explanations of basic concepts and outlines what we are learning about how KM happens (including a model of research impact). Part two explores KM as a growi...

The purpose of this collaborative research is to learn about the ways research is encountered and used to shape policy and practice in Canadian secondary schools. Eleven Canadian school districts took part, each implementing one of three modest interventions to strengthen the role of research evidence in their work. Several measures were used to as...

Knowledge mobilisation (KM) is our label for the emerging field of inquiry that seeks to strengthen connections between research, policy and practice across sectors, disciplines and countries. This paper first outlines the challenges associated with improving KM across public services. Next, it examines contributions from the health sector (finding...

The last decade of education change has been characterized by the rise of evidence-based policy and practice agendas. Internationally, we are witnessing efforts to increase and incorporate research use in public services. This article examines efforts in education to address the research–practice gap through an emerging field we term knowledge mobi...