Title: Introduction to dissemination
Course: EDPS0009: Researching Education and Society: Qualitative Methods 2020/2021 > Section: 10. Dissemination

Dissemination is the sharing of findings and outcomes from research projects. When researchers carry out studies, they obviously do so for particular reasons. Dissemination therefore differs depending on the purposes of the research aims.

For example, researchers may want to share their findings with their participants, they may provide recommendations for policymakers, they may need to satisfy the requirements of grant funders or they may publish in academic journals to share with the academic community. In each of these cases the way how the research is presented and the findings are shared will change to meet the context, purpose and audience, which we have talked about briefly last week.

Here are two really useful videos explaining what dissemination is, and how it is relevant in the research process.

One thing that should become evident when listening to these videos and thinking through the dissemination is that the sharing of findings, thus the final stages of the research, need to be planned into the research process. For example, working with policymakers means that researchers may need specific kinds of data to ensure policymakers are confident in the findings. The research process needs to therefore reflect that, too.