Since 2015, the Education Evidence for Action (EE4A) was established to address, among others, the concern raised by Hargreaves – how do we get researchers to focus on evidence to inform policy and practice in education, and how do we get the policy makers not to just use available evidence, but to also inform and drive research? Now on its 10th anniversary, some progress has been made, but so much more is still needed to achieve the vision.
Just as Hargreaves (1996) described education research as “private, obscure activity, seen as irrelevant by most practitioners, which gives ‘poor value for money”, the situation persists to date. Largely, education research data are held in closed repositories, administrative files and disaggregated databases, and hardly availed to teachers.
Presently, evidence has become a buzzword in global education. However, the availability of usable evidence that provides appropriate, contextualized and workable solutions is still largely deficient. What is available mostly are descriptions of the problem, repeatedly, rather than trialing of solutions. Thus, many decisions are still made to serve political intentions and preserve the status quo (Mugo, 2024).
Now than ever before, for a variety of reasons, teachers and policy makers in education need access to good and relevant evidence, as researchers adapt fast to the evidence needs in their education contexts.
First, teachers play a vital role in equipping learners with the competences to cope and thrive in the rapidly evolving world, often referred to as the 21st century skills (Abualrob, 2019). Second, teaching and learning have been disrupted by the internet and social media, in so much that children now learn from elsewhere, and not just from the teacher and the parent. This necessitates drastic adjustments in how teachers perceive education and organize the learning experience. Third, much has been invested in education and pedagogical practice globally, and the task of researchers and decision makers is to cope with the rising evidence and test the mooted solution to their contexts.
From problem- to solution-focused evidence
EE4A is based on two key premises: that there is good evidence out there that could benefit decisions in education; and that there is value in having evidence producers and users (and these overlap) sit together to examine and apply this evidence. Thus, the platform has fostered a culture of collaboration for evidence use, hosting five biennial conferences, and maintaining a community of practice for evidence use in Kenya’s education.
These conferences have yielded four valuable lessons, which inform the presence and future of EE4A.
While the problem is clear and well understood, uncertain lingers in what works, how, why, and in which contexts.
The inaugural 2015 conference focused on 4 broad themes: education quality, curriculum, governance, equity and inclusion. The Uwezo report, then, among other evidence from PRIMR and other bid evidence initiatives, made it clear that while only one in ten learners completed primary school without the foundational competences of literacy and numeracy, these outcomes were not equitably distributed across genders, regions and households. Various drivers were attributed to this, the key one being the pedagogical practices that teachers used to teach and assess learning, and the weak support to teachers in helping them to improve learning. Overall, this was driven by a lack of ‘outcomes-focus’ by the system, which largely focused on inputs to education.
Six years on, and over COVID-19, the results presented in 2021 showed some slow progress, with 60 percent (down from 70 percent in 2015) of grade four learners not able to read a grade three appropriate text. Even then, gender and regional disparities had persisted, and in some dimensions even expanded. The 2024 Assessments for Minimum Proficiency Levels a and b (AMPL-ab) by UNESCO showed that only 25.5 percent and 36.9 percent of children reached or exceeded the minimum proficiency for reading and mathematics, respectively, at the end of primary school (Grade 6). The report by Usawa Agenda (2024) confirmed these deficiencies, that only 3 in 10 learners demonstrated numeracy proficiency at Grade 4 (10 years). At all levels, learning deficiency has been confirmed by even the national assessments and examinations, and the problem cannot be overemphasized.
The disconnect between university research and the education system calls for attention, and is critical to building an evidence movement
Over the decade of EE4A, there have been massive investments by the government and development partners, a few of them at a national scale, and targeted learning improvement at the foundational level. These include Tusome (Literacy) and the Primary Education Development (PRIEDE) (numeracy). On a smaller scale, thousands of initiatives have been and are being implemented all over the country, including the innovations of individual schools and teachers to improve learning.
At the same time, Competency-Based Curriculum has been implemented since 2016, with massive investments in teacher training (retooling) that have happened over the years. Yet, learning outcomes remain static and inequitable. How come then, the progress is this slow?
What emerges is that very little learning has been documented and shared on why, how and where some interventions work and others don’t, and why even the improvements are not attained everywhere. It is certain that the national-scale interventions hardly inspired changes in research focus, and did not show increased research interest in intervention research. What one would have expected was that the 2023 conference would have been awash with teaching and learning evaluation evidence from academia, but there was hardly anything. For the first time, the 2023 EE4A conference was co-hosted with and at a University, Tom Mboya, to take the evidence battle to the right ground. Similarly, the 2025 conference will be co-hosted not just with a university (Embu), but also with the Forum for Deans of Education, strengthening the connection and attention of university-based researchers.
More and better funding is needed to have the right evidence
To encourage and enhance action research, it is essential to build the capacities of teacher training universities. These institutions often face limited resources, with most students and academics self-funding their research. A study by ESSA indicates that up to 90 percent of African education research is self-funded, while only 10 percent receives external funding. This highlights the need for research on effective university funding models and resources that can help universities engage in better and larger-scale research on pedagogical practices, ultimately informing teacher training and classroom practices. State and non-state partners should have adequate resources (both finances and skills) to ensure each moves their cog where the Ministry and other partners implement innovations, while universities research to fill the gaps as well as new frontiers.
Education conferences are not enough, and we almost have more of them than are needed. What is needed is also the connection to the points of use.
The 2025 conference features collaboration between the Education Deans Forum in Kenya (EDF-K) and EE4A. The conference also targets the ‘excluded users’, among them politicians (parliament), and teachers. The conference is also themed to focus on teachers and teaching, with the intention to elevate evidence that informs better teaching.
Ultimately, the hope is that post-conference, the existing evidence-focused initiatives in Kenya, among them the Unlocking Data Initiative and the Evidence Hub, will pick a few evidence and data pieces, and build the needed producer-user mini coalitions to curate and apply.
Lastly, EE4A and the Deans Forum commit to learning from what has worked elsewhere in driving evidence use to improve learning. What we learn from the Education Indaba in Cameroon and the 2030 Reading Panel in South Africa will yield reflections for informing EE4A now and into the future.
Join the movement
The membership of EE4A is open and targets institutions and individuals focusing on evidence generation and use, for the improvement of education. Ask us how to join and bring your contribution via ee4a@ziziafrique.org.
