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Research Synthesis Infrastructures: Shaping Knowledge in Education

Item

Title

Research Synthesis Infrastructures: Shaping Knowledge in Education

Abstract/Description

Research syntheses provide one means of managing the proliferation of research knowledge by integrating learnings across primary research studies. What it means to appropriately synthesize research, however, remains a matter of debate: Syntheses can assume a variety of forms, each with important implications for the shape knowledge takes and the interests it serves. To help shed light on these differences and their stakes, this chapter provides a critical comparative review of six research synthesis infrastructures, entities that support research syntheses through investments they make in synthesis production and/or publication—enabling (and constraining) the ways knowledge takes shape. Identifying our critical cases through purposive selection, we examined research synthesis infrastructure variations with respect to four different kinds of investments they make: in the genres of synthesis they support, in their promotion of synthesis quality, in sponsoring stakeholder engagement, and in creating the conditions for collective work. We draw on this comparison to suggest some of the potential changes and challenges in store for education researchers in future years.

Volume

44

Issue

1

Pages

1-35

Resource type

Background/Context

Medium

Print

Background/context type

Conceptual

IRE Approach/Concept

Primary national context

Open access/free-text available

No

Peer reviewed

Yes

ISSN

0091-732X

Grant funding

Grant number

Spencer Foundation Grant #201900070

Citation

Hammond, J. W., Moss, P. A., Huynh, M. Q., & Lagoze, C. (2020). Research Synthesis Infrastructures: Shaping Knowledge in Education. Review of Research in Education, 44(1), 1–35. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X20907350

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