The Role of Champions and Partners in Scaling Education Research and Innovations: Lessons from the UNICEF Data Must Speak (DMS) Research

• In Event: Champions, Environments, & Incentives: Emerging Lessons from Research on Scaling the Impact of Education Innovations around the World

Proposal

The learning crisis is striking, with 53 percent of children in low- and middle-income countries unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated learning loss, particularly among marginalized learners. Yet even in the most challenging contexts, there are schools that outperform other schools, despite operating in similar contexts and with equivalent resources. The outcomes these ‘positive deviant’ schools achieve are likely linked to specific practices and behaviors, either in or in relation to the school.
To identify and scale the practices and behaviors of these schools, the Data Must Speak (DMS) Positive Deviance Research incorporates a mixed method, positive deviance research approach, generating insights from behavioral sciences, implementation research, and scaling science. The DMS research is co-created and co-implemented with champions and partners from all levels of the education ecosystem and at all stages of the research process. These champions play a crucial and essential role in the DMS research scaling process. From research conceptualization and implementation to replication and diffusion to integration into national education systems, DMS champions drive and commit to effective scaling of positive deviant practices and behaviors.
This session will present concrete examples and lessons learned on engaging with champions for improved research uptake and sustainability in the context of large-scale education research based on three main questions:
1. How can champions be identified and cultivated? What characteristics do champions possess?
2. What roles and responsibilities do champions have in the research scaling process?
3. What observable outcomes do champions bring in research?
The team will share some initial findings related to the questions. For example, the DMS team will discuss how their approach identifies and cultivates from the outset both high-level and technical champions within and outside governments and schools. Credible and committed, DMS champions are representatives from the Ministry of Education, bilateral- and multilateral development partners and experts, academics, and/or school staff and community members. They become advocates of the research organically or through the country-level core and technical working groups. DMS champions rise to the occasion and are key to effective research ownership and uptake during the complicated and complex scaling process. The team will discuss the outcomes champions bring at the different stages in the research process. For instance, during research conceptualization, champions promote buy-in by articulating a clear vision of the research. They also facilitate and encourage effective mobilization during the implementation stage. Throughout the scaling process, champions promote the use of the research approaches and methods and integrate research results and findings into the national education sector analysis and planning.

Authors

• Jessica Bergmann, Unicef - Office of Research, Innocenti

• Renaud Comba, UNICEF