Achieving Evidence-Informed Policy and Practice in Education

EvidencED

Chris Brown

Emerald

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Hardback

9781787436411

27 November 2017

$116.99

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9781787436404

27 November 2017

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9781787436732

27 November 2017

$116.99

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Description
Contents
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About

The potential for research evidence to improve educational policy and practice is immense. Yet internationally, research used by teachers and governments is currently sporadic rather than systematic. In response, this book brings together seven chapters that encompass a range of research projects and ideas in relation to evidence-informed policy and practice (EIPP) in education. These projects and ideas all share a single overarching purpose: providing insight into how EIPP in education can be achieved.

Underpinning each chapter is the notion that the world is complex. If we are to introduce change in any meaningful way into it, we therefore have to understand and respond to this complexity. This means then that we cannot simply assume that, because it seems rational or common sense for teachers and policy-makers to use research to help improve their decision making or acts of praxis, that they will do so.

Correspondingly, the book represents a holistic journey of discovery and experimentation: of an engagement with the work of thinkers and authors from Eco to Flyvbjerg, via Habermas, Foucault and Aristotle; of ideas ranging from phronesis to trust and social relations; and with diverse research methodologies, including social network analysis and decision tree predictive modelling.

The result is both descriptive and prescriptive: as well as outlining the research and its findings, practical suggestions and strategies for achieving evidence use both in educational policy and practice are provided throughout.

Part 1: Evidence Informed Practice 1, Is Using Evidence to Inform Teaching Practice Rational? 2, Learning From Teachers’ Perceptions of Research Use 3, The Vital Role of Trust and Relationships 4, The Power of Research Learning Communities

Part 2: Evidence Informed Policy 5, The Limits of Evidence-Informed Policy Making 6, How Researchers can Better Inform Education Policy 7, Policy Learning Communities 8, Moving forward

This book details seven research projects and ideas related to evidence-informed policy and practice in education in the UK, aimed at providing insight into how it can be achieved. It describes its nature and how it and be realized, discussing the rationality of evidence use and whether the beliefs and perspectives of teachers in relation to evidence-informed practice align with their evidence-use behaviors, what might facilitate more effective research-to-practice connections, what drives teachers’ perceptions that the school encourages the use of research evidence to support improvements to teaching and whether improvement strategies in their school are grounded in research on effective practice, the concept of research learning communities and their effectiveness, how power differentials between researchers and policymakers and the preferences of government affect policy and the policy decisions made, strategies researchers can use to better inform education policy, and the idea of expertise in evidence use. Some chapters have been previously published in different form elsewhere.
- Annotation ©2018

Dr Chris Brown is Professor in Education at the University of Portsmouth’s School of Education and Childhood Studies, UK. Chris has written four books including 'Leading the Use of Research and Evidence in Schools', several papers and has presented on the subject at a number of international conferences in Europe, and North America. In 2015 Chris was awarded the American Educational Research Association ‘Emerging Scholar’ award.