SERN’s Impact as a Field Catalyst

In its research on field catalysts, The Bridgespan Group points to five characteristics of a field that can be used to assess the impact of a field catalyst since the ability to advance equitable systems change relies on a field’s development across these domains.

DEFINITIONS

FIELD-LEVEL VISION AND AGENDA

The combination of approaches field actors will pursue to address barriers and develop solutions to the field’s focal problem or issue.

KNOWLEDGE BASE

The body of academic research and practical knowledge that helps actors better understand the issues at hand, and identifies and analyzes shared barriers.

ACTORS

The set of individuals and organizations that together help the field develop a sense of shared identity and common vision.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The “connective tissue” that enables greater innovation, collaboration, and improvement among a field’s actors over time.

RESOURCES

Financial and non-financial capital that supports the field’s actors and infrastructure.

SERN’S IMPACT

FIELD-LEVEL VISION AND AGENDA

The concept of student experience is “on the map” in that a wider set of influential education leaders, funders, and researchers now see student experience as connected to their work and feel responsible for stewarding it forward.

KNOWLEDGE BASE

A larger body of practically relevant, interdisciplinary research is contributing to our understanding of student experience, and key findings from this research have been identified, synthesized into a coherent body of insights, and made accessible to actors outside of academia.

ACTORS

A broader, more diverse group of scholars have gained recognition for their research and leadership in the student experience field.

INFRASTRUCTURE

There are stronger relationships and growing collaboration in the field, both among researchers and across sectors and silos (e.g., across research and practice), as well as increasing practical application of insights from student experience research.

RESOURCES

Funders are allocating more resources to projects that integrate student experience and related concepts, and SERN’s re-granting directed more philanthropic funding to racially minoritized scholars and early career scholars in the field.

HOW SERN CATALYZED FIELD CHANGE

KNOWLEDGE DEMOCRATIZER

Synthesized and translated student experience research and made key insights accessible and digestible for non-academic audiences

DISRUPTOR OF POWER DYNAMICS

Elevated diverse voices and interrogated conventional thinking and practices, including via (re) distribution of resources

EFFECTIVENESS AMPLIFIER

Enabled other actors in the field to “move further faster” and be more effective at what they did

SILO-BUSTER AND BRIDGE BUILDER

Intentionally constructed spaces and brokered relationships that spanned the realms of research, policy, practice, and philanthropy; enabled interdisciplinary dialogue and cross-pollination of ideas