ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the establishment of Swedish Institute for Educational Research (SIER) in Sweden as an illustrative case to explore the interplay between research, policy and practice on the educational Agora. It discusses the process from SIER’s political initiation, formation and establishment and its production and dissemination of the first research reviews. The chapter focuses on the formalisation and standardisation of knowledge, as well as issues of legitimacy within the scope of the broker agency. The legitimacy of educational knowledge is dependent on the strength and stability of different network relations. The chapter looks at the delegation of knowledge and the procedures through chains of translation and inscriptions found in education research reviews. In the light of the general international evidence movement, and in combination with an intensive debate about the falling levels of Swedish school results, the establishment of SIER became a legitimate policy solution.
