Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Bogenschneider, Karen
• Corbett, Thomas J.

Titel

Approaching Policymakers: The Critical Choice of Advocacy or Education

Ist Teil von

• Evidence-Based Policymaking, 2021, p.293-321

Auflage

2

Ort / Verlag

Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This chapter focuses on a seminal decision each knowledge broker faces, whether to be an educator or an advocate. To decide, we need better definitions of key terms, more experiential evidence, distinct strategies for individuals and institutions, and a greater appreciation of context. Advocates largely consider themselves combatants in a war of ideas and values. Educators, on the other hand, disseminate knowledge and evidence per se, not their own values or predetermined solutions. They prefer enlightened self-interest. Confounding the issue are institutions and their representatives, who claim to be independent and nonpartisan when they are not. Some argue that academics have a normative obligation to use their position to advance social justice, whereas some academics have been able to achieve social justice using the dispassionate education approach. The authors present a number of guiding questions to help individuals decide which approach is most optimal: 1. Does the optimal approach depend on my professional expertise and personal demeanor? 2. Does the optimal approach depend on what identity I desire in the policy world? 3. Does my choice depend on my personal beliefs about objectivity and neutrality? 4. Does the optimal approach depend on my professional position and my organization's mission? 5. Does the optimal approach depend on policymakers' preferences in the target policy setting? 6. Can I choose advocacy in one setting and education in another? 7. Does the optimal approach depend on what purpose my involvement is intended to serve in the policy culture? The chapter ends with a discussion of the choices of research organizations and professional societies about optimal approaches to policy outreach. This chapter focuses on a seminal decision each knowledge broker faces, whether to be an educator or an advocate. It argues that getting a handle on how to engage policymakers depends on the context. To dissect the complexities of context, seven guiding questions are proposed that researchers and other professionals can use as they decide on the approach that would be optimal for them as they engage policymakers. Pivotal touchpoints for research organizations and professional societies also are discussed. The chapter addresses an age-old question that dates back to the origins of scientific inquiry and continues to perplex social scientists and research societies to this day: What is the most reasoned approach for engaging policymakers? It discusses the influence of community institutions on the choice of approach. The chapter examines how the institutional location of researchers, intermediaries, or practitioners affects their decisions about advocacy or education.