The Education Endowment Foundation's Teaching and Learning Toolkit, a free online compendium of evidence-informed educational strategies, was developed to increase the use of evidence in education decisionmaking in England. This case study focuses on the efforts made by the Queen Rania Foundation in Jordan to contextualize and mobilize the Toolkit for a Middle East and North Africa audience.

Taking a Contextualized Approach to Synthesizing and Mobilizing Evidence to Improve Teaching and Learning

A Case Study of Queen Rania Foundation's Contextualized Teaching and Learning Toolkit Effort, Developed in Partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation

Rebecca L. Wolfe, Elaine Lin Wang, Benjamin K. Master

ResearchPublished Jun 29, 2023

This report is one in a series of case studies RAND researchers are conducting as part of an independent evaluation of the BHP Foundation's Education Equity program. This case study focuses on efforts made by the Queen Rania Foundation (QRF) in Jordan to contextualize and mobilize the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF)'s Teaching and Learning Toolkit for a Middle East and North Africa (MENA) audience. The original Toolkit, which EEF developed to increase the use of evidence in education decisionmaking in England, is a free online compendium of evidence-informed approaches for improving teaching and learning. EEF is seeking to disseminate the Toolkit for audiences beyond England by collaborating with regional partners, such as QRF, to translate its body of evidence into local languages, add culturally relevant content, and disseminate the Toolkit to regional partners (i.e., global evidence brokers). By increasing the availability of evidence, QRF and EEF are aiming to increase the capacity of education leaders and practitioners to identify cost-efficient and effective practices to improve teaching and learning in the MENA region. EEF's theory is that contextualized content will be more meaningful, actionable, and influential to local decisionmakers.

With the support of EEF-funded fellows and local partners, QRF completed their translation and contextualization of the Toolkit for an Arabic-speaking audience by Winter 2021 and is now building and leveraging local networks to disseminate the Toolkit.

Key Findings

  • To contextualize and disseminate its toolkit, QRF onboarded a fellow with specialized expertise in education research.
  • QRF also promoted awareness of the toolkit among a general audience through social media and specifically among policymakers and organizations that work directly with teachers, and among target end-users.
  • QRF further developed materials to support uptake of the evidence-based approaches in the toolkit and is iteratively learning and adjusting its mobilization strategy.
  • QRF faced challenges related to translating terminology used in the toolkit, organizational capacity, fading interest after social media campaigns concluded, deeply embedded resistant to change, and a lack of means to track adoption of practices in the Toolkit.
  • This case illustrates that engaging a local partner committed to the same vision and supporting that partner with resources to recruit expert personnel can result in the contextualization of evidence to improve education across cultural and structural barriers.
  • However, willingness of local actors to adopt evidence-based practices is not assured. Long-term changes associated with the Toolkit effort may be slow to achieve and difficult to measure.

Topics

Document Details

  • Copyright: BHP Foundation
  • Publisher: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web-Only
  • Year: 2023
  • Pages: 16
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/RRA239-4
  • Document Number: RR-A239-4

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Wolfe, Rebecca L., Elaine Lin Wang, and Benjamin K. Master, Taking a Contextualized Approach to Synthesizing and Mobilizing Evidence to Improve Teaching and Learning: A Case Study of Queen Rania Foundation's Contextualized Teaching and Learning Toolkit Effort, Developed in Partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2023. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA239-4.html.
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The research described in this report was sponsored by the BHP Foundation and conducted by RAND Education and Labor.

This publication is part of the RAND research report series. Research reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND research reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

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