BackHome
Refresh: OffView Personal Schedule
Session Submission Summary

Co-Producing Knowledge for Systemic Change: Collaborative Research for Education Transformation in a Divided World

Mon, March 30, 2:45 to 4:00pm, Hilton, Floor: Ballroom Level - Tower 3, Continental 9

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

As our world faces deepening social, political, and economic divides, education research must be re-examined as a means to promote peace, inclusivity, and relevance. This panel draws upon experiences from Brookings' Network for Education Systems Transformation (NEST) and Strengthening Pedagogical Approaches for Relevant Knowledge and Skills (SPARKS) initiatives to highlight the importance of collaborative research in a divided world. NEST is a global network of 11 civil society organizations that co-creates contextually rooted evidence and tools to transform education systems. Exploring the three catalytic conditions for systemic transformation—commitment, capacity, and cohesion among actors, also referred to as the "3 Cs" of transformation—NEST's 10-country synthesis research is surfacing the importance of context as a critical consideration for systems change. SPARKS research highlights the significance of understanding how culture, current education ecosystems, and prevalent learning theories (which we collectively refer to as the Invisible Pedagogical Mindset) interact with proposed national reforms aimed at transforming classroom practice. Through Research Policy Collaboratives (RPCs) in Egypt, India, and Mexico, SPARKS convened policymakers, educators, researchers, parents, and students to co-define research questions, co-produce evidence, and jointly interpret findings. These RPC demonstrate how collaborative research can generate locally relevant insights on reforms such as Egypt's Education 2.0, India's National Education Policy, and Mexico's Nueva Escuela Mexicana.
Moderated by comparative education scholar D. Brent Edwards (University of Hawaii), this formal panel is structured in two segments: first, two presentations that offer a global synthesis of the NEST and SPARKS programs; second, a panel discussion of four national case studies (India, Egypt, Mexico, Malawi) that exemplify how collaborative research methods reveal the tensions and opportunities in implementing education reforms across diverse systems.
In the first segment, Modupe (Mo) Olateju, Fellow at Brookings and NEST project lead, presents the findings from the NEST 10-country synthesis report, which investigates how well education systems support the development of the breadth of skills that young people need to thrive in the 21st century. This presentation explores the interaction between two frameworks—4Ps (Purpose, Pedagogy, Position, Power) and 3Cs (Capacity, Commitment, Cohesion)—to identify the enabling conditions for systemic transformation. A key contribution of this study is its emphasis on context as an active agent of change, and on the need to reconceptualize commitment as institutional, relational, and community-driven. It also highlights how systems that fail to integrate local voices and remain dependent on external actors may experience fragmentation and fragility. These insights are drawn from deeply localized research across ten countries and offer new perspectives on how systems change can be achieved through dialogic and participatory approaches.
The second synthesis presentation, led by Ghulam Omar Qargha, Fellow at Brookings and SPARKS project lead, presents the cross-country analysis of SPARKS research in Egypt, India, and Mexico. This work introduces the conceptual frame of Invisible Pedagogical Mindsets shape classroom practice and mediate the implementation of reform. These mindsets operate at multiple levels: cultural beliefs about what the purposes and ways of teaching and learning are, inherited legacies of teacher training and accountability, and epistemological orientations embedded in national curricular and pedagogical models. By surfacing these hidden dimensions, SPARKS demonstrates how many reforms falter not because of technical gaps, but because they overlook the interpretive and relational dynamics of change. Through the use of Research Policy Collaboratives (RPCs), SPARKS created a participatory research platform in each country that brought together diverse actors to co-produce knowledge and influence practice in contextually grounded ways.
The second half of the session turns to national case studies that further develop these themes:
India: Joseph Thomas Rijo, part of the India SPARKS team, presents findings from collaborative research in India, where Dream a Dream worked with educators, administrators, and policymakers to assess how India's National Education Policy (NEP) interacts with existing school cultures and belief systems. The findings show that culture plays a central role in shaping pedagogical reform and that the education ecosystem presents significant structural barriers to reforms, with teachers facing administrative overload, fragmented support systems, and limited infrastructure. The collaborative research process revealed that the report concludes that successful reform must begin with teachers—not as implementers, but as co-creators of pedagogical change.
Egypt: Nariman Moustafa presents research from the Egyptian SPARKS RPC, which examined the implementation of the Education 2.0 reform and its emphasis on student-centered learning. While the Ministry of Education's reform blueprint was ambitious, the RPC revealed cultural and ecosystem-level tensions—including rigid hierarchies, exam-oriented systems, and skepticism among families—that hindered its translation into classroom practice. The process revealed the value of localized inquiry to support both top-down reform and bottom-up change.
Mexico (NEST): Daniela Brito Calderon of Via Education discusses the opportunities and challenges for transforming the education system in Nuevo León, Mexico. The Mexico case study highlights the importance of building a shared intersectoral vision, strengthening local capacity, and fostering social demand for quality education that transcends traditional test-based accountability measures. Despite a favorable policy environment, the study found that fragmentation, political discontinuity, and structural inertia hinder transformation. The research advocates adding two new "Cs"—Context and Communication—to the 3C framework to better account for systemic barriers and enablers.
Malawi (NEST): Nephitaly Benister of CRECCOM presents NEST research in Malawi, where youth skills development has become a policy priority. The study found that while national policies endorse 21st-century skills, weak ecosystem cohesion, donor dependency, and deep inequalities in infrastructure and teacher preparation undermine implementation. The presentation examines how participatory research methods have revealed divergent views on the purpose of education and how reform efforts must better align policy with classroom realities and community expectations.
Collectively, these presentations highlight the crucial role of collaborative research in navigating competing perspectives, bridging cultural and systemic divides, and fostering sustained opportunities for transformation. By examining how research co-production affects reform in diverse contexts, this panel aligns with the CIES 2026 conference theme of "Re-examining Education and Peace in a Divided World." It invites discussion on how education systems—when supported by inclusive, critically reflective research—can become more resilient, equitable, and responsive to the challenges of our time.

Sub Unit

Organizer

Chair

Individual Presentations