Design-Based Implementation Research: An Emerging Model for Transforming the Relationship of Research and Practice

Introduction

This chapter presents an introduction to design-based implementation research (DBIR). We describe the need for DBIR as a research approach that challenges educational researchers and practitioners to transcend traditional research/practice barriers to facilitate the design of educational interventions that are effective, sustainable, and scalable. We examine antecedents to DBIR, including evaluation research, community-based participatory research, design-based research, and implementation research. The four core principles of DBIR are explained: (1) a focus on persistent problems of practice from multiple stakeholders’ perspectives; (2) a commitment to iterative, collaborative design; (3) a concern with developing Design-Based Implementation Research 137 This National Society for the Study of Education Yearbook presents an overview of an emerging model at the intersection of policy, research, and practice called design-based implementation research (DBIR). DBIR applies design-based perspectives and methods to address and study problem of implementation. As the chapters in this volume illustrate, DBIR challenges education researchers to break down barriers between sub-disciplines of educational research that isolate those who design and study innovations within classrooms from those who study the diffusion of innovations. It also aims to reconfigure the roles of researchers and practitioners in bringing about systemic change in ways that make it more likely that practitioners can adapt innovations productively to meet the needs of diverse students and that durable research–practice partnerships can sustain innovations that make a difference.