ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of informatics in education research and policy, including potential uses of tools and approaches to inform critical educational challenges of policy resistance and systemic reform. It explores exemplar projects to illustrate the potential role of informatics tools, such as modeling and simulation, in education research. Then, it also discusses specific issues of policy implementation and system reform informatics, and the implications for use of informatics tools and approaches in considering policy issues. The ability of complex social systems to resist policy mandates, to revert to the norm, gains increased attention in educational research. The chapter focuses on the inherent social nature of education policy implementation, understanding policy resistance in educational systems that include not only schools and other formal venues but also the myriad educational resources and communities external to the formal system that directly impact schools functioning and thus policy implementation.
