'READY FOR LIFT OFF!' OUR STRATEGY 2023-2028
Education.org aims to be a ‘constructive disruptor’, shaking up the status quo and challenging conventional thinking and approaches. Since we began our work in 2020, we have focused on establishing the exact needs of education leaders; devised the key components of an ‘Education Knowledge Bridge’ that must be constructed to meet their needs; and refined our own methods of evidence synthesis to provide the highest-quality guidance for those leaders.
Our new Strategy 2023-2028, 'Ready for Lift off!', sets out our ambitions for the second phase of our organisational growth: in which we aim to build on the lessons we have learnt, further systematise our work, and invest in scaling up our activities to expand our impact. We have developed three exciting Strategic Goals, each with a series of Objectives and intended Outcomes to focus our work in that area, and these Objectives will evolve and change as we achieve them in the coming years.
Goal 1: Establish an Evidence Synthesis Gold Standard
Our Ambition:
Education.org will pioneer and promote a new method of evidence synthesis specifically for leaders shaping decisions about education systems around the world; and provide syntheses and policy papers addressing the most important issues they face.
Our ambition to embed a high-quality standard for evidence synthesis that speaks to leaders influencing decisions about education systems is the cornerstone of the impact we want to make, building on the first synthesis we developed and tested in 2022.
Our Objectives:
Education.org will:
1. Improve, codify and communicate the methodology of its unique synthesis process focused on actionable evidence for decision makers.
2. Define and build the operating model to support this synthesis work at sustainable scale, embedding an equity lens in making decisions about topics of focus, sourcing and analysing evidence, generating insights, and supporting uptake.
3. Lead the development of an evidence typology framework, with education knowledge actors and practitioners, to increase the inclusion of relevant contextual evidence in plans, policies and guidelines.
4. Conduct a growing number of high-quality evidence syntheses per year by 2028 on key questions and issues for education decision makers, beginning with priorities in Sub-Saharan Africa and considering geographic expansion as opportunities and capacity allow.
5. Promote development within the education sector of skills related to evidence synthesis and knowledge translation; and expand Education.org’s network of professional and dedicated supporters committed to grow our work, influence, and profile.
6. Identify and adapt existing and new enabling technological tools to expedite and simplify the ways evidence synthesis for decision makers are both produced and used (such as automated language processing and AI).
Anticipated Outcomes:
- Education.org’s qualitative evidence synthesis approach and methodology are increasingly recognised as a valuable contribution to decision-making inside the education sector.
- Increasing numbers of leaders making or influencing decisions about education systems in national, regional, and global organisations have used Education.org’s high-quality evidence syntheses in developing national plans, policies and guidelines – especially for improving learning for the hardest to reach children and young people (for example: girls, displaced learners, and those with learning differences).
- A new typology for ‘grey literature’ in education widens the range of relevant sources regularly used by education leaders in defining new approaches to long-standing challenges.
- A dedicated and growing community of thematic and regional synthesis champions and contributors are supporting Education.org’s work.
- A strengthened infrastructure for evidence syntheses in the education sector is established as a freely-available global public good.
Goal 2: Transform the way Leaders Work with Evidence
Our Ambition:
Education.org will catalyse a transformation in the way education sector leaders, starting in Africa, work with evidence, by increasing their commitment and capacity to put evidence at the centre of system-level decision making.
We have entered into official partnerships with the Ministries of Education in Sierra Leone and Kenya and are exploring new country relationships and alternative models of effectiveness. Through these deep partnerships we will foster stronger institutional commitment and capacity to put evidence at the centre of decision making.
Our Objectives:
Education.org will:
1. Explore alternative country models for strengthening long-term evidence culture among education ministers and policy directors.
2. Grow its existing partnerships in strengthening ways of engaging and using evidence for decision making with the Ministries of Education in Kenya and Sierra Leone, to cover at least ten additional countries in sub-Saharan Africa by 2028, depending on country model/s defined in objective 1.
3. Establish an ‘African Education Leadership Council’ for Ministers of Education and Senior Officials to identify key issues for syntheses and provide a forum for mutual support and leadership.
4. Develop at least three exemplars for the creation and use of education evidence synthesis across Africa; and develop a standard toolkit for institutional evidence infrastructural strengthening (including processes, reviews, and incentives) that can be adapted to different national contexts.
Anticipated Outcomes:
- There is a growing community of political leaders and senior education officials in Africa who are committed and able to use and promote high-quality evidence syntheses in their decision-making.
- The body of high-quality evidence applicable for education system leaders, starting in Africa, grows and is informed by their requests and recommendations.
- Global, regional, and national leaders influencing education systems recognise the role of syntheses in elevating priorities for new research.
- Funders recognise and routinely support activities and investments related to the flow and use of research products.
Goal 3: Build an Education Knowledge Bridge
Our Ambition:
Education.org will lead a global movement committed to building an Education Knowledge Bridge, by forging a network of individuals and partnering with organisations who share its commitment to evidence-informed policymaking.
This goal aims for outcomes that will both contribute to and benefit from achieving Strategic Goals 1 & 2. Our White Paper advocating for an ‘Education Knowledge Bridge’ in 2021 has inspired the creation of new initiatives related to evidence use and knowledge brokering in the education sector. Over the next five years, and closely linked to the implementation of our other Strategic Goals, we will forge a network of individuals and partner with organisations who share our commitment to evidence-informed policymaking.
Our Objectives:
Education.org will:
1. Advocate for and support implementation of the recommendations of Education.org’s White Paper on building an ’Education Knowledge Bridge’; working with partners from diverse communities and organisations who share our vision and mission.
2. Crystalise and communicate the innovative approaches and methodologies we are developing and applying.
3. Amplify the voices of actors and communities whose work is in greater need of uptake; and heighten the use of locally generated evidence and its place in regional and global syntheses.
4. Elevate the evidence needs related to the most marginalised and hard to reach children and young people.
Anticipated Outcomes:
- The recommendations of Education.org’s White Paper are increasingly being implemented by the different actors it seeks to influence.
- Increasing numbers of education professionals, researchers and policy makers are interested and involved in the production and use of evidence syntheses.
- Evidence synthesis increasingly addresses issues related to the hardest to reach learners, through disaggregating evidence, insights, and knowledge translation for smaller sub-populations.
- Education.org partners are making more evidence-informed portfolio and investment decisions.
- Education evidence actors on the frontlines recognise the added impact of having their work included in syntheses.
- Academic, development, humanitarian and philanthropic actors consistently seek to identify leadership priorities and challenges in their focus areas.
