Formative Research to inform education policy implementation in Africa presented by Kathryn TOURE, Education Research Network for West and Central Africa

Formative Research to inform education

policy implementation in Africa

presented by

Kathryn TOURE,Education Research Network for West and Central Africa (ERNWACA)

4 December 2003

Seminar of Working Group on Education Sector Analysis (WGESA)ADEA Biennale, Grand Baie, Mauritius

Formative Research, WGESA / December 2003 - 2

SummaryThis presentation seeks to describe formative research and its characteristics and illustrate its advantages as applied to the implementation of education sector programs and reforms. It provides examples of formative research as applied in Africa, describes how formative research can be undertaken and what the conditions are for its success.

Formative research is a process-oriented assessment tool and can be adapted for macro-analysis of complex processes, to support systemic change. It draws on case study approaches and uses qualitative research methods.

It provides a mechanism for regular and methodical reflection and dialogue throughout implementation, generates knowledge, builds competencies and confidence, and can improve the results of a systemic change process.

Formative research has been used extensively in the health sector and is newer to education. General principles guide the development of formative research; design of a specific project should be context-specific.

With a view to extending sector analysis beyond policy and strategy development to support and strengthen program implementation, the ADEA Working Group on Education Sector Analysis, building on recent experience on the continent and in partnership with willing ministries, research institutions and development partners, could help refine formative research methodology as applied to education sector analysis.


Outline

What is formative research?

How can it support systemic ed. change?

Why is WGESA interested?



Assessment toolto modify and improve

products or programs

during their

planning, development, implementation.


Formative research

Joël de Rosnay, 1975


What is formative research? Proscriptive rather than descriptive Entails asking:

- What methods worked well?

- What did not work well?

- How can implementation be improved?

- How can the theory informing the policy,

and the policy itself, be improved?




Characteristics SYSTEMIC approach PROCESS-oriented designed to support CHANGE PRACTICAL – informs decision-makers draws on CASE STUDY approach and

QUALITATIVE research methodologies


Actors

Key Questions / Topics

MINISTRY is executing agency

Formative research

ADVISORY GROUP *

RESEARCH TEAM

Coordinating research institution

*researchers, administrators (central/regional/local), teachers, civil society, etc.


EXAMPLE No. 1USAIndiana School District Systemic Change Effort Formative research process accompanied implementation of

Guidance System for Transforming Education (GSTE)

Included studies on:

– Assessing the district`s readiness for change– Core Team concerns: selecting participants,

creating Team dynamic, providing training in systems design

– Identifying competing change efforts– Evolution of mindsets about education

Process is called ``Journey Toward Excellence``


EXAMPLE No. 2

Transforming the South African Higher Education System

South Africa - Norway Tertiary EducationDevelopment Programme (SANTED) Program aim: Help institutions translate critical strategies into

reality. Formative research accompanied implementation of projects to

improve student access and retention rates, esp. for excluded students:– University of Durban-Westville Upward Bound program

(pre-university program to help high school students improve university entrance & success)

– University of Western Cape Equitable Access through Enrolment Management project (2000-2005)


Formative Research aims:– Provide research results during project implementation.– Provide summative results upon completion.– Facilitate sharing of learning experiences between the two institutions.– Provide sound base for decision-making on components to be sustained

and/or modified.– Contribute to the success of the projects.– Develop comparative insights into the processes of leadership and

management and organisational learning. Actors:

– South Africa (SA) Ministries of Finance and Education and Norwegian agency for development cooperation

– Center for Education Policy Development, Evaluation and Management (CEPD) in SA as formative research coordinator

– SA institutions of higher learning (two universities), research partner (Norwegian university)

– Appropriate research entities and individuals at above institutions Activities included: research proposal, reading lists, training seminars, visit

to Norwegian University to ``observe`its quality reform process For more information: http://www.cepd.org.za/content/SANTEDformativeresearch.htm#

EXAMPLE No. 2 (SANTED, con’t.)


EXAMPLE No. 3GhanaFree Compulsory Basic Education (FCUBE)Program, 1995-2005 Mid-term stocktaking on quality of teaching and learning:

– Changes since 1996 vis-à-vis achievement of FCUBE strategic objectives (beneficiary assessment – schools, communities, newspaper reports)

– Development of statistical database for assessing achievements, weaknesses and constraints of the program and mapping strategies for improvement

– Management for efficiency Recommendations included:

– Continuous Assessment training for teachers– Capacity building at district level for management of budget and

other resources – to counter neglect of regional offices in implementation

– National contributory Education Fund – Mobilizing all stakeholders to improve quality of education for girls


Advantages Appropriate for analyzing macro and complex

processes Support policy implementation process Promotes dialogue tethered to

implementation and improvement Expands research base Facilitates appropriation of research results

for decision-making Builds competencies and confidence Steers the process of change to improve

results


Formative research moves us toward “learning systems” described by ADEA as follows:

Move towards a system of learning institutions

Focus on learning permeates such a system and gives it coherence

Emphasize continuous improvement and a sustained effort over time

Rely on evidence based strategies grounded in lessons from experience

Create framework for systemic learning from national, regional and international experience

Towards a Learning System


Criteria for pilot countries country desire, commitment well-conceived education sector program, at initial stages of

implementation history of using research in decision-making country willingness/ability to “convince” sector funders to

support process network of in-country funders that will fund process (with

WGESA seed grant) good researchers and national research institutions that will

contribute to success/value of exercise fairly good statistical database or monitoring system that

brings relevant key data


Burkina Faso: Plan décennal de l’éducation de base (PDDEB), 2001-2010

Gambia: National Education Policy, 1988-2003; developing new via highly participatory process

Ghana: Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) Program, 1995-2005

Mali: Programme Décennal de l’Education (PRODEC), 1998-2008

Niger: Programme Décennal de Développement de l’Education (PDDE), 2003-2013

Nigeria: Universal Basic Education program Sénégal: Programme Décennal de l’Éducation et

de la Formation (PDEF), 2000-2010

ERNWACA / ROCARE countries with sector programs (examples)


Knowledgeable about national situations, Facilitator

Well-situated among governments,funding and technical agencies,and research community

Understands analytical work as a technical activity and as political activity

Can contribute to refining approach and promote its use

WGESA involvement – why?


Review formative research as applied to education and reform processes

Identify pilot countries

Provide seed grants, technical expertise and mechanism for exchange among pilot countries and international partner(s)

Conduct meta-analysis of formative research process

Promote model of formative research and lessons learned on wider scale

WGESA involvement – how?


Articulation with WGESA strategies

Africanization:– deeper appropriation of sector analysis – national and regional capacity among

individuals and within institutions– more local shaping of issues and

approaches Renewed SA: beyond planning to

implementation


Bibliography ADEA (2003). Le defi de l’apprentissage: ameliorer la qualite de l’education de base en Afrique subsaharienne.

Document de travail en cours d’elaboration. Breier, Mignonne (University of the Western Cape, South Africa) (2002). Some reflections on the South African visit to

Bergen (Norway) as part of the SANTED formative research project, prepared for SANTED Seminar Proceedings. Chevrier, Jacques (1994). La recherche en education comme source de changement. Les Editions LOGIQUE, Montréal

(Québec), Canada. Feldberg, Karen and K.Tornes (2002). Sector Wide Approach Programmes in the Development of the Education Sector:

From Project to Process and Partnership. Oslo: Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. Journey Toward Excellence: A systemic change effort in the metropolitan school district of Decatur Township,

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, facilitated by Indiana University, http://www.indiana.edu/~ syschang/decatur/formative_research.htm

Kremmerer, Frances (1994). L’analyse sectorielle de l’education et ses utilisations, UNESCO/IIPE, Paris, France. Obanya, Pai and Kathryn Toure (2003). Emerging Trends Emerging Trends in Research on the Quality of Education: A

synthesis of educational research reviews from 1992-2002 in eleven countries of West and Central Africa. ERNWACA for ADEA. Bamako, Mali.

Reigeluth, Charles M. and Theodore W. Frick (1999). Formative Research: A Methodology for Creating and Improving Design Theories. In C.M. Reigeluch (ed.), Instructional-Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory. (Volume II). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.

Savoie-Zajc, Lorraine (1993). Les modeles de changement planifié en education, Les Editions LOGIQUES, Montréal (Québec), Canada.

Tornes, Kristen (2003). A Model for Formative Research, based on experiences from the cooperation between Norwegian and Nepalese ministries of education. Report to NORAD, Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, 24p.

Viens, Daniel and James Lynch. Decade of Reform and Innovation in Higher Education in Madagascar: Institutional Capacity-Building in a Development Perspective, World Bank, www.worldbank.org/afr/findings/english/find159.htm, 4p.

Voices of Urban Nigerian Youth: Formative Research and Communicating for Change, http://cfcnigeria.org/CONTENT/ready-or-not/formative_research.htm

Also see studies I was unable to access: Carr, A.A. (1993). Selecting community participants for systemic educational restructuring: Who should serve? Unpublished

dissertation, Indiana University Graduate School, Bloomington, Indiana, USA Naugle, L. (1996). Formative research of the Reigeluth process model and an effort to initiate school restructuring.

Unpublished dissertation, Indiana University Graduate School, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.

Documents

Formative Research to inform education policy implementation in Africa presented by Kathryn TOURE, Education Research Network for West and Central Africa