Escape Oppression Now: Disrupt the Dominance of Evidence-Based Practice by Nicole Brunker, University of Sydney

This post is the most read of the year on EduResearch Matters and it continues to be read months after publication. Dr Brunker wrote the post in response to an online forum “What counts as evidence in teacher education research and policy?”.  Organised jointly by the Australian Association for Research in Education; Australian Teacher Education Association; Australian Council of Deans of Education in May this year, Brunker found the discussion inspiring. She had never submitted a blog before but was compelled by what she heard at the event. 

She says she has been “incredibly, and pleasantly, surprised by the response”. We both felt there would be pushback but that turned out to be limited. No matter the comment, Brunker responded.

She says she has been overwhelmed by positive responses indirectly through sharing and discussion via social media nationally and internationally, along with direct responses from people nationally and internationally with invitations to meet, requests to participate in the workshop mentioned in the post, and requests for her to contribute elsewhere.

The post was shared and discussed across Australia, the UK, Spain, Finland, Mexico and Canada, highlighting the breadth of concern surrounding the dominance of evidence-based practice and the need to broaden the scope for evidence to inform practice. The post was also inspired later EduResearch Matters posts furthering the discussion. 

Brunker says the next step in this project is a multi-stakeholder workshop and the post has led to people reaching out requesting to attend the workshop leading to participation from around the country. 

“I have also met so many people who have reached out to connect as a result of the post providing wonderful support to develop this project, along with requests to co-author publications and develop further strands to the designed project.”