Includes bibliographical references and index.

Scholarly books and journal articles routinely close with policy recommendations. Yet these recommendations rarely reach politicians. How can academics engage more effectively in the policy process? The author offers a how-to guide for scholars and researchers who want to influence education policy, explaining strategies for putting research in a policy context, getting 'in the room' where policy happens, finding unexpected allies, interacting with politicians, and more. Countering conventional wisdom about research utilisation (also referred to as knowledge mobilisation), Garcia explains that engaging in education policy isn't a science, it's a craft - a combination of acquired knowledge and intuition that must be learned through practice. Engaging in policy is an interpersonal process; academics who hope to influence policy have to get face-to-face with the politicians who create policy.