Designed Dialogues: The Real Politics of Evidence-based Practice and Education Policy Research in England

While it is widely acknowledged that the ideological and structural conditions under which researcher-practitioner-policy maker relationships take place?their form, content, site and scope?shape the nature of the agency of the researcher-practitioner-policy maker, it is rarely possible to discover exactly how the various elements of those conditions combine and with what outcome. Our aim in this chapter is to focus on an instance where the nature of these relationships is more visible?because it is deliberately ?designed' by a particular subgroup of policy makers. The notion of the possibility of this relationship being the result of explicit intention rather than wholly contingent (albeit within a relatively narrow range of possibilities) does, though, require us to examine?at a theoretical level?how these contingencies are narrowed and ?design' made possible.