Formative Research to inform education policy implementation in Africa

1. Formative Researchto inform educationpolicy 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

2. Summary This 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.

3. What is formative research? How can it support systemic ed. change? Why is WGESA interested? Outline

4. What is formative research? Assessment tool to modify and improve products or programs during their planning, development, implementation.

5. Formative research Joël de Rosnay, 1975

6. 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? What is formative research?

7. What is formative research?

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

9. Actors Key Questions / Topics Coordinating research institution Formative research ADVISORY GROUP * MINISTRY is executing agency RESEARCH TEAM *researchers, administrators (central/regional/local), teachers, civil society, etc.

10. USA Indiana 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. 1

11. Transforming the South African Higher Education System South Africa - Norway Tertiary Education Development Programme (SANTED) EXAMPLE No. 2 • 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)

12. 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.)

13. Ghana Free 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 EXAMPLE No. 3

14. 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 Advantages

15. 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

16. 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 Criteria for pilot countries

17. Burkina Faso: Plan décennal de l’éducationde 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)

18. 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?

19. 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?

20. 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 Articulation with WGESA strategies

21. 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 Researchon the Quality of Education: A synthesis of educational researchreviews from 1992-2002in 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.