ERIC Number: EJ1038117
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Feb
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1573-1812
EISSN: N/A
Advancing Policy Makers' Expertise in Evidence-Use: A New Approach to Enhancing the Role Research Can Have in Aiding Educational Policy Development
Brown, Chris
Journal of Educational Change, v15 n1 p19-36 Feb 2014
This paper explores the notion of evidence-informed policy making and the factors that have hindered its development in the UK to date. It then explores Flyvbjerg's notion of "phronetic" expertise and hypothesises that the learning that accrues from engaging with multiple cases could also lead to policy-makers developing competency in relation to evidence use. As a result, I contend that, given the issues that abound with current attempts to embed and enact evidence informed policy making, the "phronetic" approach presents an alternative and viable way of establishing enhanced levels of evidence use within educational policy development. As such, the paper not only proposes educational change but as a consequence, it also puts forward suggestions for ways of facilitating more effective educational change in terms of the development of educational policy. In particular, the paper spotlights a need for current thought in this area to move away from rational and linear perspectives, to ones where policy makers are continuously incorporating the most up to date evidence into their thinking, enabling it to be intuitively conjoined with other pertinent and salient factors in order to provide a holistic and well-rounded decision in relation to given issues. I argue that this could occur most effectively via the establishment of policy learning communities and processes to facilitate the creation of knowledge within them. I also suggest that expectations of individuals and organizational cultures will need to change to accommodate participation by policy officials within such communities.
Descriptors: Educational Policy, Expertise, Evidence, Policy Formation, Educational Change, Research Utilization, Government (Administrative Body), Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A