Who Cares about Using Education Research in Policy and Practice?
Strengthening Research Engagement
Across the OECD, enormous effort and investment has been made to reinforce the quality, production and use of education research in policy and practice. Despite this, using research in education remains a challenge for many countries and systems. The OECD launched the Strengthening the Impact of Education Research project to respond to this challenge.
This publication reports on the first phase of the project. It maps the various structures, processes, actors and relationships that reinforce the quality, production and use of education research in policy and practice. The publication brings together leading experts who provide insights into recent research and international experience gathered from both policy and practice, including from other sectors such as health, agriculture and environment.
The publication provides a first set of analyses of data collected from over 30 systems through an OECD survey. It describes the mechanisms used to facilitate research use in education policy and practice, and the levels of engagement of various actors in these processes. By mapping the drivers of, and barriers to, using research systematically and at scale, the publication sets out an agenda for future inquiry. It can be a resource for policy makers, educational leaders, teachers and the research community.
Improving research-policy-practice engagement: Lessons learnt and ways forward
This chapter summarises the main lessons learnt from the volume. It begins by connecting the themes discussed in the publication with wider societal challenges. It then summarises six key lessons. Two relate to conceptual developments: The need for shared understanding, vocabulary and conceptual clarity; and a call to view policy and practice as two parts of the same whole rather than separate contexts. Three pertain to enabling systematic and high-quality production and use of research: The need to improve research quality and use it well; the need for deeper and more meaningful collaboration between researchers, policy makers and practitioners; and enhanced governance through renewed leadership, stronger incentives and appropriate funding. Finally, a last message calls for a greater focus on understanding “what works in what works’’. The chapter ends with a proposal to advance this agenda in two concrete ways.