Informed Dialogue: Using Research to Shape Education Policy Around the World

The authors of this book explain how decisions about education and educational policymaking can be informed by research-based knowledge. They develop a framework to organize three approaches, which are: policy dialogue as persuasion, policy dialogue as negotiation, and policy dialogue as participation and organizational learning. The book includes a nine-stage model for how best to employ research to influence this type of learning using a participatory approach. A current review of literature in research utilization in education is also discussed.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Concepts and Issues Research Utilization: Why It's Important, Why It's an Issue, Why It's Difficult What Do We Mean by Informed Policymaking? Why Education Policies Are So Difficult to Inform Approaches to Informing Policy for Education Utilization as Using Pre-Cooked Conclusions Utilization Stimulated by Providing Decision Makers with Data Informing Policy by Constructing Knowledge Case Studies of Use of Information in Policymaking Namibia: Consultation for Change, the Etosha Conference Conducting an Education Sector Assessment in Egypt Conducting an Education Policy Survey in Honduras Conducting an Education Policy Survey in Colombia Conducting a Participatory Sector Assessment in El Salvador Policy Dialogue as Organizational Learning in Paraguay Fitting It All Together: A Model to Inform Policy with Research-based Knowledge Bibliography Index

About the Author :
FERNANDO REIMERS is a Policy Fellow (Education Specialist) at the Harvard Institute for International Development. On leave from Harvard he is currently serving as senior education specialist at the World Bank. He is coauthor (with D. Warwick) of Hope or Despair: Learning in Pakistan's Primary Schools (Praeger, 1995) and author of other books and articles on education and development. He has advised governments, universities and international agencies in 10 countries in Latin America, as well as in Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan. NOEL McGINN is Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University and Fellow (emeritus) at the Harvard Institute for International Development. He is coauthor (with R. G. King, R. Guerra, and D. Kline) of The Provincial Universities of Mexico (Praeger, 1979) and editor of Crossing Lines: Research and Policy Networks for Developing Country Educators (Praeger, 1996). He has published many other books and articles on education and development. He has advised governments, universities, and research centers and international agencies in 24 countries in all continents on issues of education policy. He was the principal investigator of Project BRIDGES, a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development to research the determinants of student achievement in developing countries.

Review :
"Every education minister, World Bank official, and educational researcher should read this book. Its lessons are critical to improving the education provided to the world's children."-Richard J. Murnane Prof. and Chair, Program in Administration, Planning and Social Policy Harvard Graduate School of Education "Explores the link between reseasrch and policy change by providing frameworks for understanding and managing the difficlut tasks of turning research into dialogue and dialogue into meaningful policy change. It is valuable reading for those who operate at the nexus of research and practice."-Merilee Grindle Edward Mason Professor in International Development John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University "This book is a frank account of, and a valuable reflection on, what happens when researchers work with policy makers in lesser developed countries to inform policy changes....It would be a useful reader in graduate courses in policy analysis and research and a helpful reference to practitioners and scholars engaged in education reform around the world."-Maris O'Rourke Senior Education Advisor, The World Bank "This book is, above all, an eye opener in terms of its frankness in criticizing why research very often fails to inform policy implementation, and why policy makers, more often than not, choose to ignore policy recommendations based on the scholarship of discovery and synthesis. Reimers and McGinn have given us a book that is useful as a description of what works and what doesn't in international development assistance projects."-Carlos Alberto Torres President, Comparative and International Education Society