The Impact of Research on Policy: A Case of Qualifications Reform

Abstract

The relationship between research and policymaking has been discussed repeatedly. However, the debate tends to be in general, abstract terms or from a macro-economic perspective with any examples described in a fairly cursory way. Despite the inherent complexity of the research-policy interface, analyses tend to homogenize 'research' and 'policy' as coherent entities with discussions often focusing on products (research and policies) rather than on the relationships between producers (researchers and policy makers). Here we take one piece of research on qualifications that has influenced policy rhetoric over the last 5 years. We trace the career of the research from its production in the late 1990s in order to understand the conditions of its dormancy, reemergence and use over the ensuing years. The paper serves to document the case, which is important in its own right, but also proposes a typology of ways in which research gets adopted and adapted into policy.

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

“…Public policy is seldom based on solid evidence, and is largely the product of other influences and issues. These include the need for quick solutions or for secrecy, political promises and expediency (Alliance for Useful Evidence & Cabinet Office, 2017), personalities, personal relationships, available funding, convenience, heavy marketing by vested interests (Hess & Little, 2015; Slavin, 2017), self‐interest (Noyes & Adkins, 2016) and ideology (Rutter, 2012). Based on UK prime ministers’ memoirs, Perry et al (2010) suggest that politicians rely more on their instincts than evidence, distrusting much of the education establishment, and preferring to listen to a trusted few, or to their favourite think tanks.…”

“…A number of commentators/studies suggest that research evidence is more likely to be used if its findings are simple or simplifiable (Noyes & Adkins, 2016), or adapted to context (Bertram et al , 2018), perhaps as summaries, overviews or policy briefs (Chambers et al , 2011). Simpler and more defined descriptions of interventions appear to have a better likelihood of success (Langer et al , 2016), or presentations of the evidence need to at least be in user‐friendly formats to help policy‐makers in their decision‐making (Pew Charitable Trusts, 2014).…”

The mathematical backgrounds of undergraduates from England

“…Unsurprisingly, given the findings of our previous work (Hodgen et al, 2014), the higher status universities have a smaller proportion of students with weak school mathematics qualifications: only 6% of Russell Group entrants have at most a C grade compared to 33% across the university sector as a whole. In large part, this is likely to be a consequence of the "signalling effect" of achievement in mathematics as a marker of ability for some high status university subjects and for some high status universities (Noyes and Adkins, 2016).…”

Mathematics in the disciplines at the transition to university

“…One piece of econometric analysis that had been commissioned at the time of the Dearing Review (Dolton & Vignoles, 2002) was gradually becoming more influential through a network of policy brokers and would gain full potency at the end of the decade with the election of a new Conservative-led coalition government (see Noyes & Adkins, 2016a, for an analysis of how this research became common knowledge). Dolton and Vignoles' analysis of historic national surveys showed that there was a wage return to A level Mathematics for people in their early 30s and the original study has since been updated with similar findings (Adkins & Noyes, 2016).…”