This chapter aims to provide insight into what is meant by ‘knowledge mobilisation’ (KM) in the field of research and how we might think about the work and role of universities in sharing research knowledge. To this end, we discuss ideas about mobilising research knowledge generally, and then report on a study that explored the KM efforts of faculties of education, showing how the findings illuminate the way that universities approach this work.

What do we mean by KM?

Studies on the links between research, policy and practice are by no means new to the academic community, and in fact can be traced back to the days of Plato and Aristotle (Estabrooks et al, 2008; Levin, 2008). In recent years, the scope and scale of this field has increased dramatically across disciplines. As in many areas of academia, there is a lack of consistency in terminology being used to address this topic. This is easily demonstrated by the various terms being used throughout this book. For example, John Polesel, in the chapter on the state of KM in Australia, refers to how the term ‘engaged scholarship’ is used to denote the transfer of research from theory to practice involving collaboration (see also Qi and Levin, Chapter One, and Polesel, Chapter Five). Similarly, in Denmark terms such as the ‘transfer of knowledge’, ‘communication’, and ‘knowledge sharing’ are more often used (see Holm, Chapter Seven). In the chapter on the US, Sarah Mason also uses knowledge transfer and dissemination to refer to the activity of moving research to practice (see Chapter Eleven). Muller and Hoadley, in the chapter on South Africa, argue that although the term KM is used, it ‘suffers from … conceptual disorientation’ and needs clarification (see Chapter Nine and also Chapter One). Meanwhile, the Asian countries (China, Korea and Singapore) have taken on the term ‘KM and utilisation’, drawing heavily on the UK and Canadian models (see Chapters Four and Eight in this book; see also Davies et al, 2000; Levin, 2008).