For public policies to be effective, efficient and durable, accepted wisdom suggests they need to be informed by evidence. Indeed, evidence-informed policy making is the mantra for translating research into practice.

Yet nuance is required to understand what counts as credible and reliable evidence, how evidence from one context can legitimately be applied to another, and how such applications play out in the complex realities of policy making.

What evidence counts in education policy making?

The shift from policy being evidence-based (which assumes evidence alone can and should inform policy) to evidence-informed (which recognizes the roles of politico-cultural and socio-economic dynamics) attests to the fact that what counts as evidence as well as its applications are neither linear nor technical processes, but inherently political ones saturated with power dynamics. Consequently, what evidence counts in education policy making is both contested and contestable.

Historically, global institutions put primacy on the evidence needs of their clients and established architectures that reached down into national policy-making circles. These institutions were critiqued for having epistemological biases that were shaped either by factors or actors other than those they purportedly served, or enduring post-colonial mandates from a bygone era.

This raised questions about the relevance and appropriateness of exogenous agendas that coupled policy agendas (and attendant evidence) with external financing.

At the same time, evidence from other sources, notably domestic academia, research institutes and civil society, has increasingly been regarded as more endogenous and relevant, even though it often lacked the infrastructure, financing or scale to inform national policy making.

The bridge between evidence and policy

In the last few years, the OECD has published reports on Using Education Research in Policy and Practice.

The reports find a range of barriers that limit the use of research by policy makers and practitioners that include: lack of relevant research, lack of financing, low quality of research, lack of relationships between different actors involved in research and its use including, significantly, limited trust between policy makers and researchers who often do not share the same understanding of education research and its use, and a lack of mechanisms that facilitate the use of research.

Education.org released a white paper in 2021 that called for a ‘knowledge bridge’ to advance evidence use in education. They suggest that government policy makers rely heavily on government data, including from other ministries, that can be quickly accessed, from sources they can trust, which are rarely from elite academic outfits.

A partnership-driven knowledge system approach

In contrast to the history of much educational research and knowledge mobilization, GPE KIX emphasizes that knowledge production and use should be driven by those closest to the issues – led by governments and institutions based in lower-income countries working closely together as those at the center of policy dialogue and decision making.

GPE KIX recognizes that knowledge and evidence are not neutral, facts are not self-evident, and their generation and – moreover – use are a political process infused with power dynamics.

As a knowledge system initiative, GPE KIX supports research, knowledge production and exchange, and capacity strengthening of government and non-government policy stakeholders that respond to national priorities and needs.

More precisely, it coalesces relevant knowledge and perspectives into policy dialogue through active rapprochement between governments, civil society organizations, research institutions and academia.

Over 120 partners are actively involved in KIX across more than 70 countries.

Since 2020, over 1,600 applications for funding have been received, from which more than 60 applied research grants have been awarded. Additionally, over 76,000 policy stakeholders have participated in 1,725 events (including online) and 370 outputs from KIX have led to 267 recorded instances of national policy use, citation, or intention to implement.

Research outputs range from gaming technology to supporting refugees in Sierra Leone.

The KIX project on scaling innovations, ROSIE, is generating new learning and practical actions to help governments and partners implement innovations at scale.

This blog is therefore part recognition and part invitation. It is an acknowledgment of those organizations and institutions already using KIX to inform policy with evidence.

It is also an invitation to the education research and practice community to join GPE KIX; strengthening a culture of evidence use requires not only thinking differently about knowledge use but the active, coordinated and collective engagement of those closest to the issues.

To connect with GPE KIX, contact @email or @email.