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Authors: Dr. Priya Goel, Dr. Juuso Nieminen, and Ms. Xiujuan Xie

We are thrilled to commence the SCAPE Blog, featuring scholars and scholarship in the Academic Unit of Social Contexts and Policies of Education (SCAPE) at the University of Hong Kong. Welcome!

This blog commences in a time when we continue to navigate the ongoing pandemics that persist due to systemic racism and COVID-19, as well as the current crisis in Ukraine and struggling regional democracies. Accordingly, it is more important than ever that education scholarship informs important decisions in education policy, programmes, and practice (Fawcett et al., 2020). Electronic blogs are a key platform to initiate conversations about complex educational and social problems. The easy access and open nature of blogs have made this a crucial medium for knowledge dissemination on learning and teaching. Learning and teaching-focused blogs have been especially powerful in supporting researchers, teachers, school leaders, and parents, particularly as we have grappled with remote learning. At the same time, blogs have also become a crucial tool for information consumption literacy training in classrooms, as educators have begun to consider teachers’ and students’ media literacy as a key competency and set of skills.

Indeed, the blogosphere has become a crowded, polarized echochamber ripe with ideological advocacy and the misuse and abuse of evidence (Castillo et al., 2020; Menter, 2016). The advocacy echochamber in the education policy blogosphere has directly advanced advocacy for en vogue global education reforms, such as standardization, performance accountability, privatization, and competition (Henig, 2008; Scott et al., 2016). However, there are bright spots of exemplars of responsible, impactful public research dissemination. With a grant focal area on improving use of research evidence, the William T. Grant Foundation remains committed to funding and promoting research and knowledge on evidence use for education policy and practice. More recently, the Consortium for Higher Education Research in ASIA (CHERA) has emerged as a crucial source of evidence-based, theory-laden knowledge on higher education. In terms of blogs, the Learning Policy Institute, NOORAG, and the London School of Economics are models of appropriate evidence use and diversity of opinion, thus serving as models for how blogs can positively shape the ways in which we understand and approach critical issues in education. In line with these exemplar blogs, The SCAPE Blog aims to positively contribute to education policy directions. Specifically, the SCAPE Blog aims to be an eminent, English-medium source of evidence-based knowledge on education policy and society, with a focus on Greater China and East Asia.

What do we publish? SCAPE Blog Content

Our Research Soundbites offer snapshots of the recent research findings of SCAPE Scholars. The Research Soundbites convey novel empirical and conceptual knowledge to support educational policy and practice. Education and Society blogs, on the other hand, offer evidence-based commentaries on pressing complex educational and social problems. With a primary focus on education in Greater China and East Asia, these blogs bring attention to the enduring relationships between schools and society. Our blogs offer references, hyperlinks, and Twitter connections, which we hope will inspire readers’ and SCAPE Scholars’ mutual engagement!

Who are we? SCAPE Scholars

The SCAPE Blog’s inaugural editorial team includes Dr. Priya Goel (Co-Editor), Dr. Juuso Nieminen (Co-Editor), Ms. Xie Xiujuan (Bonnie) (Student Assistant Editor), and Ms Erica Lam (SCAPE Executive Assistant). SCAPE Scholars include academic staff and Research Postgraduate students in the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Education SCAPE Academic Unit.

References

Castillo, E., La Londe, P. G., & Owens, S., Scott, J., DeBray, E., & Lubienski, C. (2021). E-Advocacy in the information market: How social media platforms distribute evidence on charter schools. Urban Education, 00(0), 1-29. doi: 10.1177/0042085920953885

Fawcett, W. J., Charlesworth, M., Cook, T. M., & Klein, A. A. (2020). Education and scientific dissemination during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anaesthesia, 76(3), 301-304.

Henig, J. (2008). Spin Cycle: How Research Is Used in Policy Debates: The Case of Charter Schools. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

Menter, I. (2016). Use, misuse and abuse of research in the education White Paper. The Times of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/use-misuse-and-abuse-research-education-white-paper

Scott, J., DeBray, E., Lubienski, C., La Londe, P. G., Castillo, E., Owens, S. (2016). Urban regimes, intermediary organization networks, and research use: Patterns across three school districts. Peabody Journal of Education. doi: 10.1080/0161956X.2016.1264800