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IOE researcher Marie Lall has set up the first joint discussions between representatives of Myanmar's ethnic armed group education departments and a Ministry of Education team that is leading the country's education reform process. This breakthrough is believed to have assisted not only the rebuilding of the Myanmar (formerly Burma) education system but also the national peace process. Lall's research has played a key role in persuading UNICEF, AusAID1 and other international organisations, such as the European Union, to make further investments in the reconstruction of the country's education services. She has also helped to highlight the importance of mother-tongue teaching — an issue that must be resolved if Myanmar's Burmese-speaking majority are to reach a lasting settlement with other ethnic communities.
Researchers from Oxford Brookes University have significantly contributed towards driving improvements to teaching and learning through an evidence-based approach. They have influenced practice and policies, whilst challenging public perceptions about the impact of education. Through their partnership with the University of Westminster, the Westminster Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training has improved teaching and learning in the Learning and Skills Sector, engaged with the design and delivery of enterprise education programmes for Further Education leaders and championed the status of vocational education. They have actively contributed to public debates and their research continues to be disseminated and used in training throughout the UK.
The mode and structure of initial teacher education (ITE) is an instrumental factor in the quality of pupil learning and educational attainment. University of Glasgow research had a direct role in re-shaping ITE by substantially influencing Teaching Scotland's Future: Report of a review of teacher education in Scotland, the government's most comprehensive and radical review of teacher education and professional learning for the last 20 years. The final government report specifically called for a `hub model' of teaching schools, similar to a model being piloted at Glasgow, to be introduced across Scotland, effecting a transformation in the way that Scotland's 49,000 teachers are initially taught and trained.
The global pledge of achieving Education For All by 2015 is compromised by providers' reliance on education services that are designed for sedentary users and exclude nomadic pastoralists. Dr Caroline Dyer (University of Leeds; Senior Lecturer in Development Practice, 2004-2011; Reader in Education in Development, 2011- present) has re-visioned approaches to education for nomadic groups through her analysis of how public policy perpetuates pastoralists' educational marginalisation and design of research-based models of service provision that can deliver pastoralists' right to education inclusion without compromising their mobile livelihoods. Her research led to changes in national policy strategy and re-designed service delivery in Kenya in 2010, shaped policy debate in Afghanistan from 2012, and has supported community and NGO advocacy in India since 2008.
The Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes and Poverty (RECOUP) examined the effects of education on the lives and livelihoods of people in four developing countries - India, Pakistan, Kenya and Ghana. It also investigated how best to improve education and poverty-reduction strategies in and for developing countries. Its research outcomes influenced the volume of UK aid to education between 2008-13. It helped to improve the allocation of UK aid, resulting in greater emphasis being placed on the most needy countries. It brought particular benefits for the aid process in the case of India. It also helped refine international approaches to the education of the disabled.
A unique insight in The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education (2008), and developed through an ESRC Seminar Series, is that a therapeutic ethos in education is creating a diminished human subject through a `dual attack' on the human subject as a knowing subject and the subject-based curriculum.
A conscious public defence of the subject-based curriculum was then undertaken through seminars, debates and conferences involving think tanks, charities and union organisations. The appointment of Professor Dennis Hayes to the London Mayoral Education Inquiry (2012) was one consequence. The Inquiry resulted in funding of £24.5 million for the London Schools Excellence Fund.
In 2008, Professor Frank Hardman led a baseline study of pedagogic practices in Tanzanian primary schools to inform the design of a national school-based in-service education and training (INSET) programme. In February 2011, a pilot of the programme was launched and in August 2012 Hardman was commissioned to lead on an evaluation of the pilot, building on the 2008 baseline. Based on the findings of the 2012 evaluation, the Tanzanian Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) and Prime Ministers' Office-Regional Administration and Local Government (PMO-RALG) are currently planning a national scale-up of the INSET programme.
Prior to 2004 there was no accurate way of determining the value of education to the UK economy. Moreover, education had not previously been considered as part of the economy in the same way as, for example, manufacturing. At this time the British Council commissioned Geraint Johnes to produce a methodology for evaluating the global value of all education exports. The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills used this on 2008-2010 data to calculate its worth at £14.1bn to the UK. BIS have re-used this methodology in subsequent years and estimated that by 2025 the UK value will increase to £26.6bn. The research has also been used in the ongoing debate on immigration and UK Border Agency policy for example the revoking of visas by London Metropolitan University in August 2012, which was widely publicised by national and international media. It has also been frequently cited in government papers and in Parliament.
A twelve-year programme of research (2001-12) led by Professor Gareth Parry on higher education in further education colleges has produced impacts on policy development, institutional strategy and professional practice in England. The beneficiaries are the central authorities for higher and further education, the colleges of further education and their university partners, college managers and tutors, and thereby students and employers. The types of impact are changes to national funding and reporting arrangements; enhancements to policy and organisational learning; and contributions to institutional capacity-building. The vehicles for achieving impact are collaborations with policy, professional and practitioner communities through expert programmes, consultancies, databases, directories and guides to good practice. The reach of the impact is national, cross-sector and institutional, with a wider influence on debates across the UK and international developments including in Australia.
This case study outlines the impact of research investigating the character of a legitimate contribution to schools by religious believers. The impact is twofold. Firstly, it has stimulated considerable public debate by offering an influential alternative to those who object to religious contributions in schools. Secondly, it has influenced the classroom work of teachers in church schools by offering a positive rationale and practical model for developing a distinctively Christian approach to pedagogy. The main beneficiaries are Anglican and Roman Catholic dioceses, their schools and teachers.