Using Evidence to inspire Community Agency: Lessons from ALiVE Research Translation and Dissemination Process

• In Event: Building a social movement to enable local voice for education transformation in Africa. Lessons from a Regional Education Network.

Proposal

East Africa’s education curricula have evolved in response to an educational system that caters to the needs of 21st-century learners. However, data-related constraints that limit accountability and learning needed to improve policy and practice in this area persists. In a bid to strengthen the use of evidence to integrate 21st-century skills in East African education systems, the Assessment of Life Skills and Values in East Africa (ALiVE) initiative developed a contextualised measure of 21st century skills that was used to generate robust evidence on how young people perceive themselves, others, as well as their problem-solving and collaborative abilities. A problem-solving approach was adopted in disseminating the findings from the initiative with the aim of enhancing local communities’ voices and agency for life skills and values education.
This paper draws on critical social theory to explore how the ALiVE research translation process mobilized a critical mass and amplified community voices in advocating for life skills and values which was achieved through four key processes:
Establishing an effective evidence ecosystem through agenda setting: The ALiVE team focused on priming public opinion, gaining media coverage, and capturing the attention of political institutions, governments, education systems, local communities, school leaders, and parents. The aim was to create an interconnected “evidence ecosystem” that inspires a shift in educational priorities towards 21st-century skills.
Framing evidence to promote critical consciousness and community awareness: The structure and messaging of the evidence were tailored to facilitate community dialogues and engagement, fostering awareness and critical consciousness among the population.
Facilitating dialogue and co-creation of a shared understanding of life skills education challenges: Through community dialogues, various stakeholders engaged in critical analysis and review of the evidence using a problem-posing model. This process stimulated dialogue and the co-creation of knowledge, leading to a common understanding of the importance of life skills and values education. Equipped with increased understanding and agency, stakeholders approached the challenges of life skills education not merely as a narrative but as a problem that demanded attention.
Encouraging reflection and collective action within local communities for life skills and values: Drawing on Freire's concept of praxis (1970), which combines reflection and action to transform the world, each community, armed with a clear understanding of the challenges at hand, devised actions to address barriers to life skills education within their specific contexts.
By leveraging evidence as a protest toolkit, the ALiVE initiative successfully rallied stakeholders in East Africa around the cause of life skills and values education. Through an agenda-setting perspective, framed evidence, dialogue, and collective action, the initiative stimulated a transformative process that empowered local communities to address the pressing challenges in their educational systems. This experience offers valuable lessons for leveraging evidence as a catalyst for change and fostering an education system that aligns with the needs of learners in the 21st century.

Author

• Stella Rose Akongo, Luigi Giussani Institute for Higher Education