Panel Discussion: Critical Race Perspectives on the Use of Research Evidence

Critical race theory provides a useful lens for understanding how racism pervades our research and policy institutions and ways we might reconstruct them in more equitable ways. On October 1, the Foundation hosted a virtual panel discussion, “Critical Race Perspectives on the Use of Research Evidence,” which featured three researchers offering ideas about how to center race in efforts to improve the use of research in policy and practice.

Speaking on the Foundation’s focus on the use of research evidence in the opening remarks, Senior Vice President of Program Vivian Tseng stated, “Our initiative has often neglected to account for the ways in which race and racism matter for what research is produced, which research is used, and who benefits from the ways research is deployed. … It is our hope that that a critical race lens can help us envision ways of bringing research to bear on policies, practices, and movements that disrupt racial hierarchies.”

Speakers:

Vivian Tseng, Senior Vice President, William T. Grant Foundation (Moderator)

Jamila Michener, Associate Professor of Government and Co-Director Cornell Center for Health Equity, Cornell University

Janelle Scott, Professor of Education and Robert C. and Mary Catherine Birgeneau Distinguished Chair in Educational Disparities, University of California, Berkeley

Fabienne Doucet, Program Officer, William T. Grant Foundation

Presentation Resources

• Research Evidence for an Equitable Democracy (Jamila Michener slides)
• Critical Policy Analysis and the Use of Research Evidence (Janelle Scott slides)
• Critical Race Theory: Identifying and Testing Strategies to Improve URE (Fabienne Doucet slides)

Related Resources

• No Small Matters: Reimagining the Use of Research Evidence From A Racial Justice Perspective

  David Kirkland, 2019

• Centering the Margins: (Re)defining Useful Research Evidence Through Critical Perspectives

  Fabienne Doucet, 2019

• Understanding the Research-Policy Relationship in ESE: Insights from the Critical Policy and Evidence Use Literatures

  Mark Rickinson and Marcia McKenzie, 2020