Inspired by Black Lives Matter activism, we used racialized lenses on social‐psychological “mattering” to investigate how Black high school boys’ interactions shaped their perceived mattering. Researchers conducted interviews with 17 self‐identified Black boys who were part of a larger school‐based partnership called The Black Boy Mattering Project. Participants reported experiencing and resisting interpersonal marginal mattering (e.g., evidenced in negative interactions with educators and peers and fueled by racist stereotypes) and described mattering partially through selective love (e.g., inferring significance through athletics, yet deemed anti‐intellectual). Our study exhibits how schools uphold systemic anti‐Black racist notions that shape relationships between Black boys and their peers and educators and diminish adolescents’ self‐concepts. Implications aim to support educators and researchers in radically affirming Black boys in school contexts.

Stemming from federal accountability policy, there has been increased pressure on our educational system to engage in evidence-based decision-making in improvement efforts, from the schoolhouse to the statehouse. At its core, the logic underlying the evidence use movement is that research and data become part of the organizational change process as agencies work to identify, address, and implement solutions to complex problems. At the same time, however, this logic rests on the several assumptions about educational organizations, including behaviors associated with acquiring and using evidence. In this paper, we attend specifically to the idea of organizational search, which is recognized as a core component for organizational learning and change (Huber, 1991). In addition to organizational learning theories, we draw on several concepts applied to the flow of information (here, between research and practice), including dissemination, diffusion, knowledge transfer, and knowledge exchange. Specifically, we hold that the diffusion of ideas happens through certain channels over time among members of a social system (Rogers, 2003), and that there is a push/pull process (Kerner, et al, 2005) driven by values, motivations, and beliefs. This implies social, cultural, and structural dimensions to understanding processes and mechanisms for movement of research-based ideas between and among research and practice communities. In the language of research use, these processes are, broadly speaking, search and dissemination. In diffusion theory, both search and dissemination are planned processes within the larger conceptualization of diffusion that intend to facilitate uptake of new knowledge or innovation (Wilson, et al, 2010; March & Simon, 1958), and include, among others, dimensions of where and how (Lopez-Vega, et al, 2016;Macoubrie & Harrison, 2013).

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