Disseminating and using research knowledge

As a field of study, “research utilization” (RU) has addressed the gap between research and practice for some 80 years, providing conceptual scaffoldings, empirical findings, and periodic syntheses. The core problem, however, is that many social and educational dilemmas are there in the first place not because of absence of knowledge, but because of conflicting interests. As a result, the “soft technology” developed by RU specialists has had an uneven impact. At the same time, the paradigms of the RU field itself are undergoing change, with a greater appreciation of practitioner-generated research, the ascent of postmodernism and the tenets of critical theory. The articles in this special issue cover this territory, with concerns ranging from the epistemological level to new arrangements for exchanging research findings between social scientists and professionals. Michael Huberman has been Visiting Professor of Education at Harvard University since 1991, where he teachers research methodologies and conducts research on knowledge dissemination. He is also Senior Research Associate at the Network, Inc. Miriam Ben-Peretz was born in Germany and educated at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Professor Ben-Peretz served as chair of the Department of Teacher Education from 1978 to 1985, and as Dean of the School of Education of the University of Haifa from 1988 to 1993. She has been appointed president of the Academic College at Tel Hai, Israel. She has published widely, including numerous books, chapters in books, as well as many articles published in scholarly journals. Among her books is “The Teacher Curriculum Encounter” (SUNY Press, 1990).