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 these new demands. Overall, the study found that there are few supports available to researchers to assist them in KMb efforts. Even where supports do exist, they are not heavily accessed by researchers. Researchers spend less than 10% of their time on non-academic outreach. Researchers who do the highest levels of academic publishing also report the highest levels of non-academic dissemination. These findings suggest many opportunities to make improvements at individual and institutional levels. We recommend (a) leveraging intermediaries to improve KMb, (b) creating institutionally embedded KMb capacity, and (c) having funders take a leadership role in training and capacity-building.
Networks are frequently cited as an important knowledge mobilization strategy; however, there is little empirical research that considers how they connect research and practice. Taking a social network perspective, I explore how central office personnel find, understand and share research knowledge within a research brokering network. This mixed methods case study focused on the first two cohorts of school district Mental Health Leaders participating Ontario's Child and Youth Mental Health program (N=37). Data were collected and analyzed in two phases: 1) the administration of a social network survey to all participants (response rate = 97%), and 2) follow-up interviews with key informants identified by the social network analysis (N=11). The findings indicate that this is a sparse network and the pattern of incoming ties tends to focus on a subset of individuals. When the identified key players (who are sometimes but not always program staff) are removed, network activity is cut by more than half; the removal of the remaining program staff members renders the network virtually non-existent. Research knowledge typically flowed in a single direction as there were few reciprocal ties within the network. Interview data Education Policy Analysis Archives Vol. 23 No. 123 yielded some important insights indicating that participants perceived formal CYMH events as their main access points to research knowledge and that Mental Health Leaders who were identified as prominent sources of research knowledge had pre-existing relationships with CYMH program staff.Conectando los puntos: entendiendo el flujo de conocimiento de la investigación dentro de una red de intermediación de investigación Resumen: Las redes se citan con frecuencia como una importante estrategia de movilización de los conocimientos; sin embargo, hay poca investigación empírica que considere cómo se conectan la investigación y la práctica. Tomando una perspectiva de redes sociales, exploro cómo el personal de una oficina central encuentra, entiende y comparte los conocimientos de investigación dentro de una red de intermediación de investigación. Este caso de estudio de métodos mixtos se centró en las dos primeras cohortes de Líderes (N = 37 participantes) del distrito escolar de salud mental del programa de Jóvenes y Niños Salud Mental de Ontario (CYMH sigla en inglés). Los datos fueron recogidos y analizados en dos fases: 1) la administración de una encuesta de red social a todos los participantes (tasa de respuesta = 97%), y 2) entrevistas de seguimiento con informantes clave identificados por el análisis de redes sociales (N = 11). Los resultados indican que se trata de una red dispersa y el patrón de los vínculos entrantes tiende a centrarse en un subconjunto de los individuos. Cuando los actores clave identificados (que son a veces, pero no siempre personal del programa) se retiran, la actividad de red se corta por más de la mitad; la remoción de los miembros del personal del programa restantes hace que la red prácticamente inexistente. El conocimi...
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