Making evidence matter : a new perspective for evidence-informed policy making in education

Bibliographic Information

Making evidence matter : a new perspective for evidence-informed policy making in education

Chris Brown

Institute of Education Press, c2014

  • : pbk

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Note

Includes bibliographical references(p.150-162) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

The arguments in favour of policy makers adopting an `evidence-informed' approach are well established. In practice, however, the routine use of evidence is yet to be incorporated into educational policy making, with research being used to inform decision making in ad hoc, sporadic, and inconsistent ways. Policy makers are also prone to carefully selecting the evidence they do use, with alternative arguments dismissed as unfashionable, un-robust, or ideologically unsound. But, the work of government affects the lives of millions. If policies fail, therefore, they are likely to do so at huge cost to the taxpayer, while also resulting in inequitable, inefficient, or undesirable outcomes for large numbers of the population. Grounded both in empirical and theoretical analysis, this book re-examines the arguments in favour of an evidence-informed approach to education policy; spotlights the factors that lead to a wide variety of evidence and perspectives being disregarded by policy makers; and sets out why a paradigm of partnership between researchers and policy makers is required in order to improve the future for policy development. It argues that policy will never be `evidence-informed', nor will initiatives be truly successful in the long term, unless both researchers (as storytellers) and policy makers (as audiences) understand and play their part in the `evidence-informed' process. This book is aimed at both educational researchers and policy makers interested in enhancing the use of research outputs in policy making. While the book's primary domain is education, the concept of evidence-informed policy making has salience across a number of sectors, notably health and social care.

Table of Contents

  • CONTENTS: Acknowledgements
  • Preface
  • About the author
  • Introduction
  • 1. An introduction to evidence-informed policy making
  • 2. Strategies to enable researchers to increase the impact of their work
  • 3. The policy development process
  • 4. A sociological account of knowledge adoption
  • 5. The post-modern social world, and changing trends in the production of knowledge
  • 6. The consequences of power
  • 7. Notions of expertise
  • 8. Resolving the 'evidence dilemma'
  • Summary
  • References
  • Index

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details
  • NCID
    BB14488869
  • ISBN
    • 9781782770206
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    London
  • Pages/Volumes
    xii, 166 p.
  • Size
    24 cm
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