In Ireland as elsewhere, the value of putting evidence and scientific advice at the centre of public policy-making, has rarely been more evident. The prominence of the science-policy interface has renewed interest in the prospects for evidence based policy (EBP) in education. Notwithstanding the political rhetoric around EBP in education, little…

Evidence-informed change (EIC) has gained attention recently because it is seen as a lever to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of educational change. Important questions are: how is EIC conceptualized, what counts as evidence, and what factors can support EIC in practice? Because of the complexity of EIC, we aimed to understand these…

Does empirical evidence or ideology most influence homeschooling policy? It depends. Where empirical research and social experience abound, regulations seem less restrictive but where there is less data or experience policies seem more restrictive and ideologically driven. By comparing Europe and the United States with a look at South Africa,…

Research at the intersection of social science and genomics, 'sociogenomics', is transforming our understanding of the interplay between genomics, individual outcomes and society. It has interesting and maybe unexpected implications for education research and policy. Here we review the growing sociogenomics literature and discuss its implications…

Since the 1990s, there has been a growing demand for evidence-based education policy and practice. This demand stems from concerns that education systems are not meeting the needs of a changing world and that education research lacks rigor. While this demand aims to improve the quality of education, silos between different actors often hinder how…

Parental involvement is crucial for children's academic success, with their engagement known to play a significant role in enhancing learning outcomes. Despite this recognition, the current learning crisis highlights a lack of effective mechanisms to foster parental engagement, resulting in disenfranchisement from the learning process for many…

This paper offers analysis of the policy drivers and legal frameworks associated with school exclusion in Northern Ireland. This activity is timely given limited analysis in this area in recent decades. The research is an element of an UK-wide, multi-strand, ESRC Large Grant project, examining the Political Economies of School Exclusion and their…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015 requires that K-12 educational agencies invest federal education funds in evidence-based practices. We estimated what percentage of Title I funds at a large school district are invested in practices supported by a single study meeting one of the top three tiers of evidence as defined by ESSA. Over 95%…

Purpose: To advocate educational improvement science (EIS) as an emerging transdisciplinary field, I reflect on the three major pathways of educational advancement in human history, discern the misuses and pitfalls of reform, and theorize how education can be improved to better serve its mission. Design/Approach/Methods: Employing a…

This article seeks to provide a new paradigm for questioning how quality and excellence in teaching practices are understood and evaluated. By combining ideas from complexity theory and Michel Foucault's conception of polymorphous correlations, I argue that a shift away from the forms of thought that engender reductionist evaluations can become a…

Purpose: The direction of causality between job satisfaction and job performance (known as the holy grail of industrial psychologists) is undetermined and related research findings in different organizational contexts are mixed. Based on the ample literature, mainly from Western countries, on the relationship between job satisfaction and job…

The U.S. education system is facing severe challenges, including student learning loss, declining academic performance, a youth mental health crisis, and increasing absenteeism. Yet these challenges also provide a catalyst for transformational change. But a new paradigm for education cannot be done without the support for transformative school…

The paper studies the rise of neuroscience in initial teacher education, paying attention to the relatively recent Australian Government (2023) report titled 'Strong Beginnings'. In taking up a critical policy sociology lens, we focus on the first priority within the reforms, which is mandating brain science and the 'brain and learning' as core…

Over the past six decades, the field of teaching modern foreign languages to young learners has come a long way, from the early surmises about the advantages of a young start to today's widespread integration of foreign languages into curricula in public and private schools. The chapters in this book bring together internationally renowned…

This paper seeks to raise awareness among educational researchers and practitioners of some significant weaknesses and internal contradictions of randomised control trials (RCTs). Although critiques throughout the years from education scholars have pointed to the detrimental effects of this experimental approach on education practice and values,…