How and When Do Policymakers Use Evidence? Taking Politics into Account

Jackson, Elisabeth; Purnawati, Endah Bayu; Shaxson, Louise

doi:10.1007/978-981-13-0167-4_5

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In order to use evidence to inform policy, policy‐makers would need a range of skills and knowledge that they may not currently possess—such as the ability to source, evaluate and use evidence (Jackson et al , 2018). David Laws, a former Minister of Education in England, claimed that education policy‐makers are not very good at dealing with evidence, their civil servants are not very good at providing them with secure evidence, and many policies rely largely on ‘hunches’ (The Guardian, 2017).…”

Section: The Possible Barriers To Evidence‐usementioning

confidence: 99%

What is the evidence on the best way to get evidence into use in education?

Gorard

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Siddiqui

2020

Review of Education

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For decades there have been calls by concerned stakeholders to improve the quality of education research, and some progress has been made towards creating a more secure evidence base in some areas. More programmes and approaches that have a reasonable evidence base are now also being used in schools (but not in policy, and not necessarily because they have a reasonable evidence base). However, there has been no equivalent improvement in secure knowledge about how best to get that evidence into use, or even what difference it makes when such evidence is used. This paper looks at what little is already known about the different ways to get research evidence into use in education by summarising the results of a large-scale review of the literature. A total of 323 of the most relevant studies were looked at across all areas of public policy, and judged for quality and contribution. Very few (33) were of the appropriate design and quality needed to make robust causal claims about evidence-intouse, and even fewer of these concerned education. This means that despite over 20 years of modest improvement in research on what works in education policy and practice, the evidence on how best to deploy these findings is still very weak. We consider studies in terms of several issues, including whether they look at changes in user knowledge and behaviour, or student outcomes, and how evidence is best modified before use. Providing access to raw research evidence or even slightly simplified evidence is not generally an effective way of getting it used, even if that evidence is presented to users by knowledge-brokers, in short courses or similar. What is more likely to work for both policy and practice is the engineering of high quality evidence into a more usable format and presenting it actively or iteratively via a respected and trusted conduit, or through population measures such as legislation. Having the users actually do the research is another promising approach. Expecting each individual study they fund to have an impact is not the way forward, as this may encourage widespread use of ineffective or even harmful interventions. Publicly-funded users, including policy-makers, should be required to use evidence-led programmes from those libraries providing them and which are appropriate and relevant to their aims. Research funders should support these approaches, and help to build up libraries of successfully tested programmes. Researchers need to be scrupulous, looking at their new evidence in the context of what is already known and not looking to obtain 'impact' from single studies. More and better research is needed on the best routes for evidence-into-use. However, the improvements required of all parties are as much ethical in nature as they are technical or scientific.Keywords use of evidence, engineering of evidence, translation of evidence, research impact, knowledge transfer, robust evidence.

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Section: The Possible Barriers To Evidence‐usementioning

confidence: 99%

What is the evidence on the best way to get evidence into use in education?

Gorard

See

Siddiqui

2020

Review of Education

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“…Looking at the teachers and school factors, we can find that at the individual level, teachers' research use can be impacted by their: views on whether research is useful or not; ability to understand academic language and adapt findings to their own classroom context; prior experience with educational research; commitment and willingness to innovate; access to high-quality research training; research skills; and personality traits and attitudes (e.g., openness to learning new approaches; see e.g., Gorard et al, 2020;Jackson et al, 2018;Lysenko et al, 2014).…”

Section: Teachers' Engagement With Research Evidence Informed Practic...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Unlocking the potential of research‐informed practice: Insights into benefits, challenges, and significance among teachers in Catalonia, Poland, and England

Ion,

Kowalczuk‐Walędziak,

Brown

2024

Euro J of Education

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This survey‐based study delves into the intricate interplay of research utilisation in the pedagogical approaches of a sample of 534 teachers across Catalonia (Spain), Poland, and England. Applying Baudrillard's Theory of Consumption lenses, we present novel insights into the multifaceted aspects of research use, including its benefits, costs, and significance within the teaching profession. Our findings underscore the interdependencies among the perceived benefits, costs, and significance of research utilisation, bolstered by factor analysis. Specifically, our results indicate that teachers regard research as a means to enhance their understanding of educational theories, providing valuable insights to inform their teaching practices. Moreover, research empowers teachers to challenge entrenched conceptions and adopt innovative pedagogical strategies. In addition, the significance of research use is associated with its alignment with school priorities and integration into the decision‐making processes. Furthermore, teachers identified various obstacles to research use, including issues of research literacy, support mechanisms, and the accessibility of research resources. The study sheds additional insight into the dynamics of research utilisation among teachers operating within diverse national contexts. It underscores the intricate relationships between individual and organisational factors that shape and influence teaching practices.

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“…User‐derived barriers include: User‐practitioners can often feel suspicious or threatened by evidence, especially where the evidence contradicts the users’ values and what they understand as their expertise (Hemsley‐Brown & Sharp, 2003) A simple lack of power, time (Gerrish & Clayton, 2004) and/or resource constrains users’ ability to enact change meaningfully, even where implementation guidance is clearly articulated A lack of knowledge on the part of policy makers and more strategic personnel constrains evidence‐use. In many cases, users do not have sufficient understanding or the skills to understand evaluation data or use the evidence generated in contextualised ways (Jackson et al, 2018). …”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring barriers and solutions to encouraging evidence‐into‐use within an embedded evaluation approach: Reflections from the field

Forbes

2022

Review of Education

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Despite increasing pressure for policy and practice to adopt a more evidence‐based approach, transferring evidence into use remains a stubborn challenge. This is largely due to a number of researcher‐derived and user‐derived barriers at play within institutions, organisations and systems that constrain active engagement with evidence. This paper contributes to current debates on evidence‐use by suggesting that embedded evaluation approaches might overcome such barriers, through the creation of social capital that can be drawn upon by embedded evaluators to: (i) build trust, confidence and understanding around evaluation and evidence, on the part of local practitioners and policy makers; (ii) develop a co‐productive evidence infrastructure that might draw together diverse stakeholders, as well as encourage user‐engagement with varied forms of evaluation data (both numerical data and rich narrative accounts), to capture the richness of the unfolding story of complex educational initiatives. To illustrate this, this paper presents six reflective vignettes that ponder the barriers, and potential responses sought, within a two‐year exploratory case study that aimed to actively engage local education‐related stakeholders, leading a borough‐wide place‐based initiative, with evidence. Data reported within these vignettes were collected through a series of semi‐structured interviews, supplemented by an embedded evaluator's field notes and analysed thematically. Although more research is needed, this paper concludes that the embedded evaluation model might have potential to respond to the diverse challenges associated with evidence‐use, by positioning the evaluator in a relationally elastic way that might enable them to embed evidence‐into‐use pathways within policy and practice both actively and iteratively.

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How and When Do Policymakers Use Evidence? Taking Politics into Account

Cited by 5 publications

References 8 publications

What is the evidence on the best way to get evidence into use in education?

What is the evidence on the best way to get evidence into use in education?

Unlocking the potential of research‐informed practice: Insights into benefits, challenges, and significance among teachers in Catalonia, Poland, and England

Exploring barriers and solutions to encouraging evidence‐into‐use within an embedded evaluation approach: Reflections from the field

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