BOULDER, CO (November 17, 2022) – In this month’s episode of NEPC Talks Education, Christopher Saldaña interviews Arizona State University education policy professor David Garcia about his book, Teach Truth to Power: How to Engage in Education Policy.
Garcia explains that the motivation for the book was his experiences as a candidate for state superintendent and for governor. On the campaign trail the issue of school segregation was only brought up once by voters. Yet, the term “school segregation” yields 1.28 million hits on Google Scholar. Based on his experiences as a political staffer and candidate, he has a unique perspective of the disconnect between the issues studied by academics and the issues dealt with by politicians. As a result, he recognized the need to provide researchers guidance about how to go beyond problematizing issues to concretely helping to shape policy.
Garcia notes that academics often approach politicians with the goal of helping politicians to understand or to grasp the complexity of problems. He explains that while politicians are, in fact, often aware of the problems addressed by researchers, they filter knowledge selectively in order to consider what if any action to take to address those problems. He believes that researchers can best contribute to policy creation by using their expertise to predict policy outcomes and forecast solutions.
Garcia offers several tips for researchers interested in contributing to the policymaking process. For example, he encourages researchers to write one-page “action releases” that lead with a practical problem (a real-world condition that is worsening or could be improved), and conclude with an “ask” (a direct and specific request made to the policymaker).
A new NEPC Talks Education podcast episode, hosted by Christopher Saldaña, will be released each month from September through May.
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