Co-creating evidence from the bottom up: the Schools2030 approach to understanding what works in raising holistic learning outcomes
Abstract Schools2030’s bottom-up approach, which involves co-creating contextually relevant innovations with and for local stakeholders, strongly aligns with the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) conference focus on the importance of place – by combining forces with local, regional, national and global actors we are seeking to develop locally rooted solutions that are globally informed and aligned to rigorous standards of quality, inclusion and equity.
Over half of Schools2030 research partners are based in the programme focus countries, and all have articulated plans for stakeholder involvement and how they will share and even co-create the evidence they generate with schools. Through this model of research partnership, Schools2030 seeks to counteract the trend in international development and global education research that sees focal countries as sites of data extraction, with analysis and research outputs flowing overwhelmingly from and between western-based institutions.
In this panel presentation, representatives from Schools2030’s Global Research Partners will explain how they are approaching research co-creation with and for school level stakeholders, and what they are learning from this process.
Panel Saba Saeed from ITA Pakistan will discuss a project led by ITA and Zizi Afrique which investigates the relationship between academic learning outcomes and non-academic skills, and contextualises locally-rooted non-academic learning trends within Pakistan and Kenya.
Vendelin Simon from University of Dar es Salaam, and Elizabeth Germana and Andrea Diaz-Varela from Right to Play International will introduce their research that interrogates areas that converge amongst Design Thinking and Play-based teaching approaches, seeking to examine the effect of these on raising holistic learning outcomes at primary school level in Tanzania.
Stephen Bahry from OISE-University of Toronto will discuss research also led by Nazarbayev University which seeks to understand context-relevant definitions of quality education at the school level in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and how this is playing out in current practice.
Renaud Comba from UNICEF Innocenti will outline the role of ‘positive deviance methodology’ in identifying local behaviours and practices that enable schools to achieve better results, which may then be scaled to lower performing schools.
