Chapter 7: Evaluation and Knowledge Mobilization: Advancing Integrated KT Through the Work of J. Bradley Cousins

Two of us (Kate and Barbara) have the great privilege to be graduate students of Brad Cousins, while Peter was honored to be Brad’s official mentee as a new professor at the University of Ottawa. Along the way, we have benefited from his committed and entertaining guidance while working together on various research and evaluation projects. In this chapter we share some of what we have learned and applied to our work in KMb.

Program evaluation and knowledge mobilization (KMb) share an interest in the use of the results of systematic inquiry, ultimately for societal benefit. Other authors have noted that although KMb and evaluation share these key interests, they seem to be on parallel tracks with little cross-pollination (e.g., Cousins & Shulha, 2006; Donnelly & Searle, 2016; Ottoson, 2009). These authors have highlighted how insights from KMb can be applied to evaluation. In this chapter, we argue that developments in evaluation also have a great deal to offer to KMb (see, e.g., Contandriopoulos, Lemire, Denis, & Tremblay, 2010), particularly through what we know of collaborative approaches to inquiry. We draw from our experiences working with Brad Cousins on KMb evaluations, and from areas of scholarship to which Brad has contributed intensively throughout his career. These areas include his work in participatory and collaborative approaches to evaluation (e.g., Cousins, 1996; Cousins & Chouinard, 2012; Cousins & Whitmore, 1998; Cousins, Whitmore & Shulha, 2012; Shulha, Whitmore, Cousins, Gilbert, & al Hudib, 2016), and more broadly on the use of research and evaluation in practice, in terms of characteristics of use, and factors influencing use (e.g., Amo & Cousins, 2007; Cousins, 2004; Cousins & Bourgeois, 2014; Cousins & Earl, 1992; Cousins, Goh, Elliott, & Bourgeois, 2014; Cousins & Leithwood, 1993; Shulha & Cousins, 1997; Cousins & Shulha, 2006). These themes in the work of Cousins and his collaborators underlie this chapter’s focus on an area of intersection between evaluation and KMb illustrated in Figure 7.1. We suggest there are opportunities for participatory evaluation (PE) and collaborative approaches to evaluation (CAE) to advance collaborative forms of KMb (such as integrated knowledge translation, or “iKT”).