A.12. When Research Becomes Policy Instrument: Academic Knowledge in Educational Governance and Possibilities for Resistance
Contemporary educational policies increasingly mobilize academic research not merely as a knowledge resource but as a legitimation and governance instrument. From evidence-based policy movements to partnership engineering programs, researchers find themselves embedded in policy-making processes that reshape educational problems while marginalizing populations ostensibly targeted for support.
Convened by researchers examining educational policies in Mediterranean and European contexts, this panel invites critical analysis of how academic knowledge is instrumentalized within educational governance, and how researchers navigate, resist, or reproduce these dynamics. We welcome papers exploring: (1) research as legitimation device—how expertise validates policy choices, constructs "evidence-based" frameworks, or produces governance tools (evaluation grids, partnership standards, indicators); (2) research as engineering—when scholars are solicited to optimize coordination, design instruments, or arbitrate conflicts, blurring analytical and operational roles; (3) structural effects—how policy agendas structure research objects, marginalize critical perspectives, silence beneficiary populations, or depoliticize inequalities through technocratic framings.
We particularly encourage contributions examining: educational partnership programs where research legitimates coordination imperatives while sidelining the structural dimensions of educational inequality and pedagogical questions; international assessment regimes (PISA, OECD) producing policy convergence; think tanks and consultancy markets positioning academic credentials strategically; comparative policy transfer processes; and reflexive accounts from researchers navigating commissioned work.
By interrogating instrumentalization mechanisms, this panel also seeks to identify resistance possibilities: methodological choices that center marginalized voices, research designs refusing deficit framings, collaborative approaches challenging technocratic depoliticization, or analytical frameworks making power relations visible. How can educational research contribute to democratic transformation rather than reproducing inequalities through ostensibly neutral expertise?