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Moving evidence into action through inter-country knowledge exchange: Lessons from the Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX)

Wed, March 13, 8:00 to 9:30am, Hyatt Regency Miami, Floor: Terrace Level, Tuttle Center

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

In over 50 years of supporting applied research for development, Canada’s International Development Centre (IDRC) has generated many lessons about how to do research that supports change and facilitates progress towards positive development outcomes. We know that it is not enough to produce high-quality evidence. Excellent research should ultimately influence action that supports a more sustainable and inclusive world. However, there is widespread acknowledgement that this does not simply happen, regardless of how robust and compelling the evidence is. Levin (2011) pointed out that the expectation that research would immediately result in changes to policy and practice was abandoned long ago.

There is a widely recognized gap between research and education policy and practice (e.g., Joyce and Cartwright, 2019; Newman, Cherney, and Head, 2016). There have been calls for education system transformation around the world for over 100 years, including the recent Transforming Education Summit hosted by the United Nations Secretary General (Sengeh and Winthrop, 2022). The use of contextualized, locally relevant evidence can play a key role in shaping this transformation and ensuring education is a catalyst for positive change. This panel addresses CIES 2024 questions about how to collectively challenge and change the status quo in education, particularly through inter-country knowledge exchange and actively engaging research users in research processes to scale promising and proven innovations in education policy and practice.

That is exactly what the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) aims to support. KIX, a joint endeavour with IDRC, works with over 70 low- and middle-income countries to help them access and use the evidence and innovation they need to accelerate access, learning outcomes, and gender equality through equitable, inclusive, and resilient education systems. KIX is committed not only to producing research, evidence, and innovation that is contextualized and relevant to knowledge users, but also to ensuring that evidence is positioned to be used by a broad range of stakeholders in education systems.

KIX provides a unique platform for low- and middle-income countries to share their knowledge, experiences, and innovation. Four regional hubs act as knowledge brokers, linking education system stakeholders across borders for direct peer exchange and South-South learning, generating research, and offering opportunities for professional development and engagement with national, regional and global expertise. Shared national policy priorities identified through the hubs inform 41 applied, engaged research projects, mostly undertaken by Southern research organizations, which take an integrated approach to knowledge mobilization. Recognizing that there are many valuable innovations in education but that few are brought to scale, a key focus of KIX's research is about how to scale their impact in participating countries. Projects engage national stakeholders in knowledge mobilization and capacity strengthening such that the research can be used, and feed results back into the hubs. Together, KIX is developing new insight into our learning about bridging research and policy - mobilizing research for scaling impact.

KIX has seen many examples of effective inter-country knowledge exchange, not only bringing research users together across countries, but connecting them with researchers directly. By bringing knowledge users into the research production process, KIX is helping to bridge the gap between researchers and research users both within individual countries and across countries. Important lessons and new questions have surfaced around how this type of inter-country knowledge exchange can impact education systems. This panel will bring together representatives from two KIX regional knowledge exchange hubs and two KIX applied research projects to share findings and key lessons that have emerged from their experiences facilitating knowledge exchange across borders and bringing researchers and research users together for co-learning.

The panel will begin with an introduction from the Chair, and an overview of KIX. The KIX Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Asia and the Pacific (EMAP) Hub will then present on their multi-level model of engagement to reach national policy analysts, experts, or researchers, decision-makers, and other stakeholders in the education system, with a particular focus on findings from their learning cycles. The second presentation will be from the KIX Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Hub, focusing on what they have learned about positioning evidence for use through communities of practice and inter-country technical learning visits. Finally, two KIX-supported applied research projects will each present on their experiences co-creating research with knowledge users. One will focus on scaling advisory committees, composed of a range of national officials who have technical knowledge and decision-making authority in the relevant countries, and the value of bringing these committees together across countries to share insights and learning. The other will focus on the project’s participatory approach to their research and the learning they facilitate across geographies, conducted in part with the KIX Africa 19 Hub. Following these presentations, the Chair will moderate a discussion amongst panelists, responding to questions that will be developed collaboratively. The final portion of the panel will be reserved for engagement with audience questions and insights.

REFERENCES

Levin, B. (2011). Mobilising research knowledge in education. London Review of Education, 9(1), 15-26.

Joyce, K.E. and Cartwright, N. (2019). Bridging the gap between research and practice: Predicting what will work locally. American Educational Research Journal, 57(3), 1045-1082.

Newman, J., Cherney, A., Head, B.W. (2016). Do policy makers use academic research? Reexamining the “Two Communities” theory of research utilization. Public Administration Review, 76(1), 24-32.

Sengeh, D. and Winthrop, R (2022). Transforming education systems: Why, what, and how. Center for
Universal Education at The Brookings Institution.

Sub Unit

Chair

Individual Presentations