Making public educational research: Enabling impact as integral to the educational research process

The notion of 'enabling impact' can extend John Willinsky's call for educational researchers to assume greater responsibility for making their research public. It is indicative of a shift in the culture of research utilization from one dominated by the development of a cultural elite to genuine public access and democratization of research. The notion promotes meaningful uses of research in the larger educational community of researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and the public. It also highlights the ephemeral fate that much educational research may meet. Drawing on the work of Carol Weiss on knowledge creep I discuss how educational researchers working collaboratively in knowledge cultures with concerned institutions and individuals from a variety of professions can work to lessen such creep. Enabling impact does not simply come at the end of the research process; it has to start with the inception of the research idea. Making public educational research with careful attention to influencing impact assumes significance in the newly reconceptualized role for universities as knowledge enterprises embedded in knowledge cultures, both local and global.