An Application of the Social-ecological Systems Framework to Promoting Evidence-informed Policy and Practice

ABSTRACT

Education policy continues to press for increased use of research evidence in decision-making, yet decades of research point to weak links between research and practice. We see evidence-informed improvement not as a problem with schools, but with a larger evidence-use ecosystem. As a step toward building and strengthening multidirectional paths between research, practice, and policy, we explore three overlapping research contexts: production, practice, and mediation. Despite the importance of each of these contexts in evidence-infor5med policy and practice, they are rarely considered together. In this paper, we seek to understand the social-ecological systems in which these contexts are situated and to identify problematic disconnects and promising similarities. This study draws on case studies of research production in institutions of higher education, knowledge mobilization by an intermediary organization, and school-based decision-making. We use Elinor Ostrom’s Social-ecological Systems Framework as a lens on each case, attending to resource systems, resource units, governance systems, actors, and the interactions that coordinate and align those systems to achieve positive outcomes. We then look across cases to identify barriers and opportunities to restructure and reorganize the evidence-use ecosystem in order to redesign and strengthen research-practice infrastructure and more effectively promote evidence-informed policy and practice.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephen MacGregor

Stephen MacGregor is a doctoral student at Queen’s University, Ontario Canada. His research focuses on how education stakeholders, particularly higher education institutions, can build their capacity in knowledge mobilization to enhance and accelerate research impact. His research draws from the traditions of mixed methods and social network theory in order to model and describe the flows of information and resources in multi-stakeholder networks.

Joel R. Malin

Joel R. Malin, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Miami University-Oxford, Ohio and a faculty affiliate with the Office of Community College Research and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A former school psychologist and district-level administrator, his research interests include evidence use, career and college readiness policy and reform, and leadership knowledge and skill development.

Elizabeth N. Farley-Ripple

Elizabeth N. Farley-Ripple, Ph.D., is an associate professor and director of the Partnership for Public Education. Her research focuses on evidence-based decision-making, including how educators, schools, and systems use research and data to inform the school improvement efforts.