Build a Relationship between Research and Practice

Abstract

This spring, Canadian governments will decide the fate of two organizations with important roles in fostering education research in Canada. The Canadian Language and Learning Research Network (CLLRNet: www.cllrnet.ca) was established in 2001 as one of the National Centres of Excellence in research, funded by the government of Canada. Almost all of the other research networks in this program are in the sciences. CCLRNet was set up to promote research and the sharing of research knowledge around literacy, especially literacy in children. For five years, it has built a strong network of Canadian researchers and produced a number of useful resources to inform literacy policy and practice. In 2007, despite a very positive external assessment, the National Centres Program decided not to renew CLLRNet's funding. The National Centres are heavily focused on research leading to commercialization, a model that has never worked very well in the social sciences, where research effects tend to be less direct and less commercial. Since that decision, CLLRNet has been seeking funds from various other funders to continue operating. Most important of these are provincial governments through the Council of Ministers of Education (CMEC), the national body that brings together all provincial and territorial education ministers. The network's future status remains uncertain at the time of writing. The second organization is the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL: www.ccl-cca.ca/ccl). The CCL is an independent nonprofit organization with its own board of directors but is funded by the federal government for a five-year period that expires this spring. Its main work has been making research and data more accessible and meaningful to Canadians--for example, by publishing indicators of education progress. The council created some controversy from its creation, as Heather-jane Robertson reported in this column three years ago. In Canada, provinces carefully guard their constitutional jurisdiction over education, and some provinces saw the creation of CCL as an intrusion by the federal government. Jurisdiction over education is especially important in Quebec, where education is closely connected with language and the perceived ability of the French-language polity to flourish in the overwhelmingly English environment of North America. Early in its existence, CCL tried to come to an agreement with the provinces by which it would provide funds for agreed-on activities related to education research and data, but the jurisdictional issues were too strong and no agreement was reached. Now the federal government has to decide whether to renew the existence and funding of the council. An external evaluation of CCL was very positive, and the organization has achieved national recognition in a short time. Still, given the financial crisis, continued opposition from some provinces, and the fact that CCL was created by a different political party than the current federal government, a renewal remains uncertain. One possibility is that the federal government will try to maintain many of the same functions but in a different organizational form. The fate of these two organizations has some important implications for how research is developed and used to support policy and practice in education in Canada. Unlike every other developed country, Canada has had no national or pan-Canadian agency that works to support and promote research in education, and especially to build connections between research, policy, and practice. Even a highly decentralized education system such as Switzerland has a national center for education research. Canada has a national granting council that funds academic research in all fields, including education (the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada), and a national statistics agency (Statistics Canada), but both have man-dates much broader than education, and they are not focused on mobilizing research knowledge. …