Who Really Cares about Using Education Research in Policy and Practice?

The OECD Strengthening the Impact of Education Research project uncovered a rich landscape of actors and mechanisms striving to reinforce the quality, production and use of education research in OECD countries. Yet, it also revealed important barriers to the use of research in policy and practice, as well as a lack of systems approaches to increasing research engagement.

This second report of the project explores how a culture of research engagement can be created and nurtured. It brings together leading experts who provide insights into cutting-edge research in the field and international experience gathered from both education policy and practice. In addition, the report provides further analyses of data collected from over 30 systems through an OECD policy survey. The analysis explores what a culture of research engagement might look like in different systems, organisations and contexts. One of the ambitions of this report is to bring to life the concept of a “systems approach” by providing insights into what this might entail. As a result, this report reflects on how organisational and systemic capacity for a quality use of research in policy making and practice can be systematically built. It features concrete examples of deep forms of research engagement and systems thinking, presenting case studies, analyses, tools and processes.