Purpose of the Working Papers
The SPARKS Working Papers serve as references and conversation starters for policymakers, educators, and researchers navigating pedagogical reform. These three papers explain how pedagogical reform can benefit from locally driven collaborative research on how culture, local education ecosystems, and learning theories—collectively called “Invisible Pedagogical Mindsets”—influence pedagogical choices in the classroom and how policymakers imagine reform.
The Focus on Pedagogical Reform
The 2022 United Nations Transforming Education Summit (TES) emphasized the urgent need to overhaul education systems, centering on transforming teacher classroom practices. Student-centered pedagogies are a key focus of education reforms, especially in low- and medium-income countries. These pedagogies are often promoted as “best practices” by international agencies, governments, and education experts. Research shows that efforts to introduce these approaches have not significantly changed classroom practices. The term is considered vague, and the concept often lacks alignment with local realities, making implementation challenging.
The gap between pedagogical research, policy, and practice
Additionally, there is a gap between research on pedagogy, policies aimed at shifting pedagogical approaches, and actual teacher practices. Most research and reform efforts do not address the socially influenced aspects of pedagogy— the Invisible Pedagogical Mindsets —and are often detached from problems relevant to local policymakers and teachers.
Working Paper I: Invisible Pedagogical Mindsets: Developing a Contextual Understanding of Pedagogies
Working Paper I explores what different definitions of “pedagogy” promote, emphasizes the importance of Invisible Pedagogical Mindsets for pedagogical reforms, and introduces collaborative research for policymakers, researchers, and other education actors to understand the impact of Invisible Pedagogical Mindsets in local contexts.
There is no clear consensus on the practical meaning of “pedagogy,” and pedagogical reforms occur in complex ecosystems involving various education actors, such as policymakers, teachers, students, and administrators. In this paper, we explore how culture, local education ecosystems, and prevalent learning theories impact and are impacted by pedagogical approaches in specific contexts. We encourage education actors to use a tailored definition of “pedagogy” that is contextually relevant for policy reform efforts. We explain why global education outcomes have not improved to the extent expected, and we propose that a collaborative research approach can help us understand how Invisible Pedagogical Mindsets affect pedagogical approaches.
Working Paper II: Moving Away from “Best Practices”: Towards Relevant Pedagogical Approaches and Reform
Working Paper II explains why it is important, especially for policymakers, to examine Invisible Pedagogical Mindsets to guide local pedagogical reforms and highlights the challenges of a “best practices” approach, such as the generalized use of student-centered pedagogies.
Similar to the difficulty in defining “pedagogy,” there is uncertainty about which innovative approaches improve classroom practice. While many innovative pedagogies are student-centered, their principles and characteristics depend on the student’s context and cannot be universally defined. Pedagogical approaches are interconnected with many aspects of the education ecosystem, including the curriculum, teacher professional development, technology, and teachers’ prior experiences. Since education ecosystems have different purposes, “best practices” do not always transfer successfully between contexts. We recommend that education actors avoid implementing innovative pedagogies, like student-centered approaches, as standalone solutions. Instead, they should consider the culture, local education ecosystem, and prevalent learning theories to promote pedagogical approaches responsive to their specific contexts.
Working Paper III: Linking Research to Policy to Practice: Collaborative Research for Evidence-Informed Policymaking in Education
Working Paper III details how collaborative research methodologies can ensure that pedagogical research accounts for Invisible Pedagogical Mindsets and responds to local contexts. The paper explores the complexity of decision-making in education, the importance of communicating and disseminating research, and reasons to use collaborative research to contribute locally driven evidence for education policymaking.
The growing demand for evidence-based policymaking in education often results in favoring certain types of evidence. But basing decisions on only certain types of evidence ignores the complexity of education policymaking. To account for this complexity, we encourage education actors to adopt an evidence-informed or evidence-inspired approach to decision-making, considering not only a variety of evidence types but also the variety of other factors that affect policy decisions. Often, there are barriers between researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and other education actors. Collaborative research can contribute evidence that is beneficial for all parties involved and help build supportive relationships among them. We highlight the SPARKS project at the Center for Universal Education as an example of collaborative research partnerships in action.
The Strengthening Pedagogical Approaches for Relevant Knowledge and Skills (SPARKS) project is a collaborative mixed-method research initiative and global network focused on examining the gaps between research, policy, and classroom practice in primary and secondary education in three purposefully selected locations. SPARKS launched Research Policy Collaboratives in Egypt, India, and Mexico to serve as local hubs for collaborative research on pedagogical reform and innovation. In each context, the Research Policy Collaboratives will bring together policymakers, educators, researchers, parents, students, and other community collaborators from the local education ecosystems to discuss how Invisible Pedagogical Mindsets can contribute to or hinder education system transformation. The SPARKS Research Policy Collaboratives also make up the core of the SPARKS Global Network, which meets periodically to share knowledge, research findings, and insights around innovative pedagogies and across contexts.
The SPARKS team welcomes your feedback on the topics covered in these working papers. You can share your ideas, thoughts, or reflections by emailing us at [email protected].
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