Research Synthesis Infrastructures: Shaping Knowledge in Education

Abstract

Research syntheses provide one means of managing the proliferation of research knowledge by integrating learnings across primary research studies. What it means to appropriately synthesize research, however, remains a matter of debate: Syntheses can assume a variety of forms, each with important implications for the shape knowledge takes and the interests it serves. To help shed light on these differences and their stakes, this chapter provides a critical comparative review of six research synthesis infrastructures, entities that support research syntheses through investments they make in synthesis production and/or publication—enabling (and constraining) the ways knowledge takes shape. Identifying our critical cases through purposive selection, we examined research synthesis infrastructure variations with respect to four different kinds of investments they make: in the genres of synthesis they support, in their promotion of synthesis quality, in sponsoring stakeholder engagement, and in creating the conditions for collective work. We draw on this comparison to suggest some of the potential changes and challenges in store for education researchers in future years.