RESEARCH CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP

AFRICA – ASIA UNIVERSITY DIALOGUE FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

KENYATTA UNIVERSITY, KENYA

3RD MARCH 2010

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SESSION 1.2

RESEARCH & POLICY FORMULATION

By:Prof. J. O. Olembo

Dept of Educational Management, Policy & Curriculum Studies

Kenyatta University

Key concepts Addressed in this paper: Research and Policy Formulation

Research is a systematic effort to increase the stock of knowledge;

Policy on the other hand is a set of principles guiding decision making;

Policy provides a framework against which proposals or activities can be tested and progress measured

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The focus of this presentation is research and policy formulation.

The emphasis is on public policy which actually refers to the policy of a government.

Our dialogue is to show linkages between research and policy formulation

Research and Policy Linkages

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If research has to influence policy, it has to have the following characteristics:

A wide geographical scope including experiences of neighbouring countries as well as international community.

The educational research arena is increasingly one of international and national focus. However there are policies that are formulated at lower levels other than at national and international that need to be informed by research findings. In terms of education this level could be at the individual school.

Essential factors to be included in the policy formulationprocess:

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Researchers should ensure that their research agenda are driven by government research needs. In some countries such as Britain government sponsors research that addresses its agenda. In USA the government would sponsor research that may not be tried to its agenda.

The results of research study must be subjected to wide forum of debate or peer review for the government to accept the findings into policy making process

Essential factors to be included in the policy formulationprocess: (Continued)

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The outputs of the research must be based on local involvement and credible evidence. These have to be communicated via the most appropriate communication styles and formats;

The rigidity of government system in terms of policy formulation process must be considered as an important limiting factor to the link between the policy makers and the researchers

African governments have a tendency of relying on external expertise at the expense of developing their own research capacities.

Factors affecting the relationship between policy makers and researchers:

1. External influence: The external influences of the world that dictate the research procedures Local view on the donor funded researches;

2. Internal influence: The quality of the research, relevance and credibility of the research policy makers.

In a book entitled Issues in Education Research in Africa, the authors, Kilemi Mwiria and Sheila Wamahiu, have highlighted some key issues.

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Internal Influencies highlighted by Kilemi & Wamahiu

I. The Politics of Educational Decision makingII. Poorly done and disseminated research III. Declining levels of Research FundingIV. The gap between educational researchers and

policy makersV. Winning the support of government and the wider

publicVI. Focusing on relevant research

Factors affecting the relationship between policy makers and researchers: (Continued)

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3. The political context: i.e., the political structures and processes. Policy formulation is a political process where needs, goals and intentions are translated into a set of objectives, laws, policies and programs, which in turn affect resource allocation and outputs which are the basis for evaluation, reforms and new policies

Five challenges of educational leadership research and development;

1. Fragmentation of policy makers, practitioners and researchers, but also among the researchers themselves

2. Irrelevance which was also mentioned earlier by Kilemi and Wamahiu

3. The low quality of research

Challenges of educational leadership research and development (Continued)

4. Low efficiency and;

5. Low utility with low rates of application of educational research findings partly attributed to poor dissemination of results among other constituencies.

These challenges were identified by Bill Mulford in a paper published sage in April 2005.

Sources of Educational policies

Policies stem from the society. Their formulation is indeed a process.

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Major sources of policy

1. The executive branch of government

2. Education boards

3. Special state commissions

4. State auditing agents

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Major sources of policy (Continued)

5. State courts or the judiciary

6. Budget controllers

7. The legislature which makes policies in parliament

8. Basic social changes in the society (e.g. Gender policy in education)

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The policy process

The policy process describes the manner and steps which the policy issues arise, how they are arrived at, their implementation and evaluation.

The linear model is the most widely used in policy formulation

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The Linear model comprises of the following segmentalsteps

I. Recognizing and defining of the issue to be dealt with;

II. Identifying possible course of action to deal with the issue

III. Weighing up the advantages and disadvantages of each of these alternatives

IV. Choosing the option which offers the best solution

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The Linear model (Continued)

V. Implementing the policy

VI. Evaluating the outcome

The first four steps need to be taken seriously with researchers who wish their research to influence policy formulation.

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The Linear model (Continued)

Researchers are required to:

i. Identify steps in formulation of the policy;

ii. Identify the research inputs in the policy formulation and;

iii. Use the explanatory variables to analyze input that can influence policy formulation.

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Evidence based policy

Researchers need to put the best available evidence from research findings that will influence policy makers consider

research at the heart of policy formulation

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Evidence based policy (Continued) Policy makers sometimes are incapable of using research based

evidence because of the following:

1. The speed at which research evidences are being provided;

2. Superficiality of the research evidence;

3. The secrecy in which research is being undertaken;

4. Scientific ignorance of the policy makers;

5. The manner and language in which research findings are communicated.

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Various agencies policy makers have used to provide information to assist in education policy formulation

i. Education commissions

ii. National research councils and institutions

iii. National examiners councils

iv. Teachers’ service commission

v. Education institutes such the Kenya institute of Education with reference to curriculum

vi. Quality assurance and standards in matters to do with quality and standards

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Various agencies (Continued)

However these agencies rely on research departments and institutes to carryout research for them.

There is also a tendency to turn on external and international agencies to provide funding and expertise on major researches. When that is done the local research development is stifled

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