Alan J. Daly – författare

In educational policy, research and practice circles, there has been much attention in recent times to the power and potential of social networks for supporting educational improvement. Improving the Relational Space of Curriculum Realisation foregrounds the potential of the relational space, and its improvement, in the context of curriculum realisation in particular.

Curriculum reform is a key lever in systems’ efforts to meet ambitious goals for student achievement, progress and wellbeing. Both large-scale reform and school-level curriculum change present learning demands for school leaders and teachers alike, and they simultaneously give rise to challenges and opportunities for those charged with giving effect to them. The authors highlight the role of social capital in addressing those demands, challenges, and opportunities, emphasising the need to improve the relational space within which curriculum change takes place.

Improving the Relational Space of Curriculum Realisation outlines an approach to intervention that helps educators solve problematic patterns in their networks, leverage resources better within and across school networks, and embed relational conditions that are conducive to ambitious curriculum goals being realised.

In educational policy, research and practice circles, there has been much attention in recent times to the power and potential of social networks for supporting educational improvement. Improving the Relational Space of Curriculum Realisation foregrounds the potential of the relational space, and its improvement, in the context of curriculum realisation in particular.

Curriculum reform is a key lever in systems’ efforts to meet ambitious goals for student achievement, progress and wellbeing. Both large-scale reform and school-level curriculum change present learning demands for school leaders and teachers alike, and they simultaneously give rise to challenges and opportunities for those charged with giving effect to them. The authors highlight the role of social capital in addressing those demands, challenges, and opportunities, emphasising the need to improve the relational space within which curriculum change takes place.

Improving the Relational Space of Curriculum Realisation outlines an approach to intervention that helps educators solve problematic patterns in their networks, leverage resources better within and across school networks, and embed relational conditions that are conducive to ambitious curriculum goals being realised.

This book includes a set of rigorous and accessible studies on the topic of “research evidence” from a variety of levels and educational vantage points. It also provides the reader with thoughtful commentaries from leading thinkers in the field. The complex process of acquiring, interpreting, and using research evidence makes for a rich and under examined area in educational research, practice and policymaking. Policy makers, practitioners and scholars are in need of additional knowledge and practical steps in terms of the uptake of evidence into practice. In addition, sharpening understanding in terms of the ways in which research evidence is shaped or adapted at different educational levels (school, district, state, federal) as well the factors that support or constrain the acquisition and use of research evidence is of immediate use.

While professional support for evidence-based practice in schools has never been stronger, credible research has found only weak large-scale effects. This book provides us with key insights about the nature of this problem and a comprehensive approach to its solution; it is a major step toward realizing the considerable potential for school improvement of reciprocal working relationships among policy, practice and research communities. Ken Leithwood, Emeritus Professor, OISE/University of Toronto

The problem of scant research use at school sites is old, but the federal to classroom level scope of this book is unique. The authors'' analysis of the current status leads to despair, but they provide a clear and compelling path forward. Michael Kirst, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University; President, California State Board of Education.

We have come a long way since the linear "Research, Dissemination, Utilization" models of knowledge use of  the 1970s and 80s.  Each chapter in this book lays out new directions for understanding how individuals, relationships andsystems advance or impede the movement of new ideas into policy/practice. Taken together, they redefine knowledge use as a dynamic process that affects and is affected by specific characteristics of the social structures in which is occurs.  It is a "must read" both for those interested in educational change and organizational theory. Karen Seashore Louis, Regents Professor, University of Minnesota