ABSTRACT
It will be obvious from the brief description I have given in the book’s list of contributors that I have a vested interest in this topic, and a lesser aim of writing this chapter was to understand what it is I do – sometimes on the basis of careful planning but often by intuition and making it up as I go along – with more insight and disinterest. Moreover, the chapter is written from the perspective of one who has moved from a research-producing environment (the National Foundation for Educational Research) to a research-using environment (the General Teaching
Council for England) – although these ascriptions are already a form of shorthand that distorts the more complex reality of both these organisations and the way they work. As many readers will be aware, I have continued to be intrigued by, and to voice (see, for example, Saunders 2001, 2002, 2003a, 2003b, 2004, 2005a, 2005b), the challenges of responding to the very different perspectives and priorities of policy and research. I do take seriously (personally, even) the demands and desires – articulated by, amongst others, Andrew Morris and Judy Sebba in this book – to try to align them at least to some extent, in an effort to uphold the ‘rationalist ideal’ of research-informed policy-making, as far as this is possible in reality and realpolitik. I count myself fortunate in working for an organisation that is exemplary in trying to enact this ideal.
