Evidence on evidence uptake across the education ecosystem: Parents, teachers, nongovernmental organisations and policymakers

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Achieving evidence-based education reform at scale relies on, amongst many factors, evidence uptake. By evidence uptake, we mean the use of evidence or evidence-based interventions for concrete changes in behaviour or policy by key stakeholder groups in global education, including governments, implementers, teachers and parents. Amid global financial pressures, understanding how key stakeholders respond to different types of evidence as well as the enabling factors that result in evidence uptake is an increasingly important area of research within education, and particularly within low- and middle-income countries. This panel, featuring government officials and researchers, highlights four papers that investigate questions of evidence uptake by education stakeholders across different contexts.

Paper 1 presents findings from outcomes funding mechanisms across two national education systems in Ghana and Sierra Leone, providing survey data from over 1,800 schools and qualitative implementation insights from interviews with service providers on how governments can structure incentives and implementation can respond to them to facilitate evidence uptake and scaling. Through multi-level assessment of teacher practices, head teacher management, and district and caregiver engagement, the study reveals concrete mechanisms through which interventions are taken up and embedded within national education systems.

Building on these system-level insights, Paper 2 examines evidence uptake among frontline education stakeholders – teachers and parents – through a randomized trial across Bangladesh, India and Nepal. The study investigates how evidence uptake is influenced by different types of evidence, comparing responses to descriptive versus causal evidence and evidence from global versus local contexts. Findings demonstrate that parents and teachers respond to scientific evidence by investing time in additional remedial instruction, revealing that certain types of evidence can have a direct impact on classroom and household practice.

Paper 3 shifts the focus to evidence uptake within government bureaucracy, examining how systematic data compilation can drive policy change in resource-constrained systems. A core challenge identified in the evidence uptake literature is that robust evidence alone rarely translates into policy action. This case study follows the development of a Deprivation Index in Kalaburagi, the least developed division in the Indian state of Karnataka, and how the Index was used as a strategic advocacy instrument to make abstract deprivation tangible and secure increased resource allocation for the division. The research contributes empirically grounded insights into how evidence must be co-produced with stakeholders, technically validated and sustained through repeated engagements to achieve uptake within government systems.

Lastly, Paper 4 explores how teacher agency affects evidence uptake through a randomized trial of Pakistan’s Targeted Instruction Program (TIP). When a low-cost smartphone application for supporting teachers to deliver the program was offered optionally rather than mandated, larger foundational learning gains were observed (0.15 SD vs 0.09 SD), revealing that autonomy in evidence-based tool adoption enhances both teacher buy-in and intervention effectiveness.

To round out our panel, we will have two discussants from Brink Innovation and the Jacobs Foundation to contribute insights on innovation for evidence uptake within the global education ecosystem, and the role this can play in achieving the learning goals of policy makers and practitioners. They will situate the presented research within broader advancements in the literature, synthesize the findings, draw connections between the papers, and highlight the significance of furthering research on evidence uptake across contexts for improved learning at scale.

These presentations collectively aim to advance the growing field of research on evidence uptake within education in the Global South. The panel aligns with the field of comparative and international education in its recognition that ‘evidence’ is not neutral and ‘evidence uptake’ is neither linear nor mechanistic. Rather, evidence uptake is rooted in context, framing, subjective perspectives, and complex networks of relationships. The four papers in this panel lend themselves to comparative insights across varied contexts in West Africa and South Asia, using methods and ways of knowing that span from randomized controlled trials to mixed methods analyses to qualitative research-in-action.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Organizer

• Sarah Melville, What Works Hub for Global Education, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Chair

• Michelle Kaffenberger, What Works Hub for Global Education, University of Oxford

Individual Presentations

• What Works Hub for Global Education Outcomes Fund Study: Ghana and Sierra Leone - Jennifer Opare-Kumi, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford; Noam Angrist, Youth Impact; What Works Hub for Global Education, University of Oxford

• Do Practitioners Respond to Evidence? Experimental Results from Three Countries - Sharnic Djaker; Noam Angrist, Youth Impact; What Works Hub for Global Education, University of Oxford; Shwetlena Sabarwal, World Bank

• Leveraging data for educational equity: Evidence uptake for increased administrative resource allocation in the most deprived division of Karnataka (India) - Akash Shankar, Government of India

• Free to choose: Introducing Technology for Foundational Learning in Pakistan - Tahir Andrabi, Pomona College; Juan David Baron

Discussants

• Lea Simpson, Brink

• Ines Charro, Jacobs Foundation