• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Researching Education

  • Index
  • Issues
    • Issue 1
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 3
    • Issue 4 [v2(1)]
    • Issue 5 [v.2(2)]
    • Issue 6 [v.2(3)]
    • Issue 7 [V2(4)]
    • Issue 8 [V2(5)]
    • Issue 9 [v2(6)]
    • Contents
      • Conversations
      • Published Projects
  • Subscribe
  • Terms & Conditions
  • About
  • Contact

Conversation: Mark Rickinson on relationships around research use

10 November 2021 by Mark Rickinson and Charles Crook Leave a Comment

When researchers collaborate with educational practitioners or policy-makers, it will be important to establish firm mutual understandings around participants’ motives and aspirations. Mark Rickinson and Anne Edwards have published a paper providing a conceptual framework for theorising and managing such relationships.

Rickinson, Mark, and Edwards. Anne,”The relational features of evidence use.” Cambridge Journal of Education (2021): 1-18.

The paper focuses on the character and quality of human relationships that can be built in these research collaborations. It distinguishes and elaborates ‘relationship expertise’, ‘common knowledge’, and ‘relationship agency’. The conversation below is based upon the arguments put forward in this paper.

Download here a conversation transcript in Microsoft Word format, or in PDF format

Conversation outline

00.00: What is meant by the phrase “evidence use”?

01.59: “Researcher” is probably clear. But who do you see as the principle partners in the role of “practitioner”

05.10: It’s recognised that researcher/practitioner collaborations can be troublesome – where do such tensions arise?

07.37: Explain ‘relational expertise’ is it a form of interpersonal competence?

10.33: Is it thereby a blend of the cognitive competence of empathy and the social competences of communication?

11.43: Is this competence something that is slowly and professionally constructed through experience of collaborating?

13.36: Explain ‘common knowledge’ – is it the product(s) of exercising relationship expertise?

16.21: Explain ‘relationship agency’ – is it the practice reward of building common knowledge?

17.37: What is your view of the interpersonal or institutional strategies that might achieve this greater transparency?

22.17: Is this conceptual configuration here a matter of what might be termed ‘meta-collaboration’?

23.24: Have your interviews with collaborators included the voice of practitioners, and is it resonant with researchers?

27.38: Is there a reality of researchers and collaborators sometimes having different and less-compatible agendas?

34.10: Research relationships have been neglected as themselves a research topic – are you pursuing this?

36.19: Anything to add?

Further references

Rickinson, M., Cirkony, C., Walsh, L., Gleeson, J., Salisbury, M., & Boaz, A. (2021). Insights from a cross-sector review on how to conceptualise the quality of use of research evidence. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1), 1-12.

Rickinson, M., Walsh, L., Salisbury, M., Gleeson, J., & Cirkony, C. (2021). Using research evidence to improve practice. Building Better Schools with Evidence-based Policy, 239.

Rickinson, M., Walsh, L., Cirkony, C., Salisbury, M., & Gleeson, J. (2020). Quality Use of Research Evidence Framework

Rickinson, M., Cirkony, C., Walsh, L., Gleeson, J., Salisbury, M., & Boaz, A. (2021). Insights from a cross-sector review on how to conceptualise the quality of use of research evidence. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1), 1-12.

Rickinson, M., Sebba, J., & Edwards, A. (2011). Improving Research through User Engagement. Routledge.

Authored by:

Mark Rickinson
more posts

Mark is Associate Professor in the School of Education Culture & Society, Monash University, Australia

    This author does not have any more posts.
Charles Crook
Charles Crook
Website | more posts

Charles Crook is Emeritus Professor of Education and a member of the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Nottingham

  • Charles Crook
    https://researchingeducation.com/author/charlescrook/
    Conversation: (Reflexive) Thematic Analysis in qualitative research
  • Charles Crook
    https://researchingeducation.com/author/charlescrook/
    Conversation: Has the method of experiment persistently failed educational inquiry?
  • Charles Crook
    https://researchingeducation.com/author/charlescrook/
    Conversation: 'Quantitative Ethnography' - a perspective on educational research methods
  • Charles Crook
    https://researchingeducation.com/author/charlescrook/
    Conversation: Uninformative randomised control trials in educational research

Filed Under: Published Projects

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Copyright © 2025 · Researching Education · Website Charnwood Web Design · Log in

  • Home
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Acceptable Use Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. All non-necessary cookies are disabled unless you decide to enable these. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.

CookieTypeDurationDescription
_gaAnalytics2 YearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_gtag_UA_780707_86Analytics1 minuteGoogle uses this cookie to distinguish users.
_gidAnalytics1 dayThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary1 HourThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary1 HourThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Non-necessary".
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT