Childwatch International Research Network is supporting a study group called “Bridging the gap between policy and research”. The group is coordinated by Robert J. Chaskin, an Associate Professor at The University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and a Research Fellow at Chapin Hall.
In 2008 Oxford University Press published a book called: Research for Action: Cross-National Perspectives on Connecting Knowledge, Policy, and Practice for Children, edited by Robert J. Chaskin and Jona Rosenfeld. See presentation.
As a follow up of the work presented in this book, Childwatch International is supporting the study group to collect a set of comparative, retrospective case studies that address the relationships between child research and child focused policies and practices. The case-study papers will be developed to include the following content. Each will:
· Present a statement of the issues to be addressed by the research and the nature of the research undertaken
· Briefly describe the relevant national, organizational, and policy context in which the research and dissemination activities took place
· Provide a concrete, narrative presentation of the work (including research and dissemination strategies used, the roles of and relationships among participants and stakeholders, and the barriers and opportunities encountered during the work). This is the main body of each paper. In doing so, it would be good for each paper to attend to those specific elements of the research-dissemination-utilization process explored in the book Research for Action that are relevant.
· Describe the findings of the research, the challenges encountered, and (to the extent possible) the impact it had on policy and/or practice.
The idea is to develop each case study for presentation at a conference being organized around the anniversary of the UNCRC in 2009. Subsequent to that, we will consider publishing the papers, framed by a conceptual framework chapter at the beginning and a synthetic chapter of conclusions and recommendations at the end.
We are hereby inviting submissions of abstracts from those who are interested in preparing relevant case studies. We are especially interested in studies relevant for developing countries and for child focused development policies. Abstracts should briefly describe the case study being proposed and its relevance to the project overall, and provide an indication of how the case study would provide details on the topics outlined in the bullets above.
The abstracts should be sent to: Robert Chaskin at rjc3@uchicago.edu
Before: 30 September, 2008
Childwatch International will contact all authors to present feedback on the abstract and to discuss the next steps in this important work.