Calling for an Education Knowledge Bridge
A White Paper to Advance Evidence Use in Education
Education.org has released “Calling for an Education Knowledge Bridge: A White Paper to Advance Evidence Use in Education."
This White Paper, created for anyone interested in improving education outcomes, responds to discussions with policymakers, practitioners, and researchers. It draws on a thorough 12-month analysis of 45 organizations and 80 interviews with education sector leaders including ministers, academics, knowledge actors, NGOs, international organization leaders, and practitioners.
KEY FINDINGS
In education, the greatest obstacle to progress isn’t the lack of research but the failure to use existing research:
- While vast sums of data do already exist, these resources are not easily accessed or used by policymakers and practitioners, preventing the development of evidence-based policies that could improve children’s learning globally.
- This knowing-doing gap is at the root of the failure to improve children’s learning worldwide, with the greatest impact on vulnerable and marginalized children – especially girls, minorities, those in poverty, displaced children, and children with learning differences and special needs.
- A critical part of the response to the learning crisis can be met by urgently addressing the education sector knowing-doing gap.
While the building blocks of an Education Knowledge Bridge do already exist, this White Paper calls for urgent collective action to fast-track progress and close the knowing-doing gap in the next ten years. This can be achieved through:
- promoting generation of user-oriented research focusing on evidence gaps in highest areas of need;
- building capacity for sector-wide synthesis comparable to what already exists in the health sector and has turbocharged progress;
- creating actionable guidance from the synthesis for policymakers to seize;
- implementing change by helping policymakers turn guidance into policies and practices; and
- building a culture of evidence use in education.