The RISE Podcast

Education Research - From Systems Thinking to a Science of Implementation

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 23:00:00 +0000

This episode is a recording of a panel conversation that took place at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government during the RISE Annual Conference in September 2023. For the purposes of clarity and length, this podcast is an edited version of the conversation.

The panel featured Nompumelelo Mohohlwane from the Department of Basic Education in South Africa; Rachel Hinton from the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; and former RISE Research Director, Lant Pritchett. This conversation was moderated by Laura Savage from the International Education Funders Group.

The panel looks back at the questions that existed at the start of RISE and whether enough has been learnt ten years later. They reflect on the difference between the motivating questions for RISE and the What Works Hub for Global Education. They go on to debate what commitment to learning really means and what cultural shifts are needed for it to materialise, and connected to this, what implementation science really means. The conversation ends with a reflection on the meaning of the thematic shift from systems to implementation.

Links

Nompumelelo Mohohlwane (webpage)
Rachel Hinton (webpage)
Lant Pritchett (webpage)
Laura Savage (webpage)
Contract teachers – Why do they work in an NGO setting but not with government? (journal article)
South Africa Department of Basic Education Research Agenda, 2019 – 2023 (report)
South Africa’s 5-year NDP “Medium-Term Strategic Framework 2019 – 2024” (report)
South Africa’s Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (report)
Rewriting the Grammar of the Education System: Delhi’s Education Reform (A Tale of Creative Resistance and Creative Disruption) (book)
State of education research (slide in video)
Smart Buys Report 2023 (report)
The RISE Podcast: Denis Mizne on Transforming Brazil’s Education System to Deliver Learning (podcast)
World Development Report 2018 (report)
Applying Systems Thinking to Education: Using the RISE Systems Framework to Diagnose Education Systems (Insight Note)
Learning Trajectories (webpage)
India’s National Education Policy 2020 (policy paper)
Focus to Flourish: Five Actions to Accelerate Progress in Learning (policy paper)
Instructional Alignment in Nigeria using the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (working paper)
The Limits of Accounting-Based Accountability in Education (and Far Beyond): Why More Accounting Will Rarely Solve Accountability Problems (working paper)

Guest Biography

Nompumelelo Mohohlwane is an education researcher working as a Deputy Director in the Research Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate at the national Department of Basic Education, South Africa. The unit is responsible for system monitoring, supporting performance information management, and conducting research and evaluation of education interventions. She is part of the research team for the government-led Early Grade Reading Study randomised control trials (2015-2018, 2018-2021). She has a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Witwatersrand. Her studies focused on substantiating the contribution of Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) to evaluating early-grade reading acquisition using literature and empirical large sample data. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Stellenbosch, her study focuses on language in education policy. She recently co-authored a book chapter titled ” A review of recent efforts to benchmark early reading skills in South African languages” in the Early Grade Reading in South Africa Reading Oxford book edited by Spaull and Pretorius.

Rachel Hinton is the Global Education Research Lead at FCDO, and a Fellow of Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. At FCDO she grew a portfolio of research including RISE, EdTech, THRIVE on ECD, DeliverEd and the What Works Hub. She currently serves on the Secretariat for the Global Evidence Education Advisory Panel, which documents ‘what works’ to combat the global learning crisis. In 2014, she established the Building Evidence in Education global group with the World Bank, USAID, and the UN, to improve standards of research in the sector. Her DFID posts include Ghana from 2009 to 2012, Western Balkans between 2006 and 2009 and Nepal in 2001. She took a secondment to UNICEF in New York in 2005. Previously she was a lecturer at the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh and Kenyatta University, Nairobi. She serves on the Board of STIR Education and is an advisory member for the Brookings Institution Scaling Initiative.

Lant Pritchett was the Research Director of the RISE Programme. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development and Professor of the Practice of International Development at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 2017 he published two co-authored books through Oxford University Press: Building State Capability and Deals & Development: The Political Dynamics of Growth Episodes. He also published two solely authored books with the Center for Global Development, Let Their People Come (2006) and The Rebirth of Education (2013), and over a hundred articles and papers (with more than 25 co-authors) on a wide range of topics, including state capability, labour mobility, economic growth, and education, among many others.

Laura Savage is the Executive Director of the International Education Funders Group (IEFG), a network of philanthropic foundations and donor-advised funds working towards achieving SDG4, focusing on low and middle-income countries. Before that, she served as Senior Education Adviser at the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. Laura has lived and worked in Malaysia, Bangladesh and Malawi and holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge on the politics of aid in national education reform.

Attribution

The continuation of the RISE Podcast has been made possible through funding from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford supports the production of the RISE Podcast.

Producers: Julius Atuhurra and Katie Cooper

Audio Editing: James Morris

Adedeji Adeniran Reflects on the Learning Crisis and Adopting a Systems Lens to Study and Address It

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 14:00:00 +0000

In this episode, RISE research fellow Julius Atuhurra speaks to Dr. Adedeji Adeniran, the Director of Research at the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA)–a Nigerian think tank. Adedeji explains CSEA’s education research journey that has evolved from an initial focus on education financing to studying more nuanced topics, including: education system diagnosis, data quality, community engagement, policy analysis tools, and curriculum effectiveness. He highlights the need to fully grasp what transpires inside the classroom and how that is influenced by interactions happening outside the classroom. He also explains RISE Nigeria’s primary focus on demand-side actors and discusses findings from their recent study on primary-level curriculum effectiveness in Nigeria.

Links

Adedeji Adeniran (webpage)

Instructional Alignment in Nigeria using the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (working paper) by Adeniran, Onyekwere, Okon, Atuhurra, Chaudhry, and Kaffenberger

The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 update (report) by UNESCO, UNICEF, FCDO, USAID and BMGF

Understanding Education Policy Preferences: Survey Experiments with Policymakers in 35 Developing Countries (working paper) by Crawfurd, Hares, Minardi, and Sandefur

Imagine a World Where Innovations Could Save the Lives of 2 Million More Mothers and Babies. BMGF 2023 Goalkeepers Report (report) by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Financing Basic Education in Nigeria: What are the Feasible Options? (working paper) by Onyekwena, Uzor, Oloko, and Adeniran

Improving Basic Education Outcomes in Nigeria. Effectiveness, Accountability and Equity Issues (working paper) by Onyekwena, Adekunle, Eleanya, and Taiwo

Understanding cost-effectiveness and benefit-cost analysis using data on school feeding and education assistance programmes in Nigeria (journal article) by Uneze and Tajudeen

Is Nigeria Experiencing a Learning Crisis: Evidence from curriculum-matched learning assessment (journal article) by Adeniran, Ishaku, and Akanni

Is Nigeria on track to achieving quality education for all? Drivers and implications (working paper) by Adeniran, Onyekwena, Onubedo, Ishaku, Ekeruche

Policy Deliberation, Social Contracts, and Education Outcomes: Experimental Evidence from Enugu State, Nigeria (insight note) by Nweke, Ogwuike, and Iheonu

Guest biography

Adedeji Adeniran

Adedeji Adeniran is the Director of Research at the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA). He holds a PhD from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. He also holds a Masters’ and Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Educational Management/Economics from the University of Ibadan. He previously worked as a seasonal Lecturer in the Department of Witwatersrand, as a Data Analyst at the Analyst Data Services and Resources(ADSR) and as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Economics University of Ibadan. His research interests cuts across macroeconomics,development finance,public economics and policy analysis and experimental economics.

Julius Atuhurra

Julius Atuhurra is a Research Fellow for the RISE programme at the Blavatnik School of Government. His work focuses on educational development, specifically curricula effectiveness analyses and iterative adaptation of local solutions to the learning crisis in developing countries. He recently completed a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship at Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Prior to that, he worked at Twaweza East Africa, a regional civil society organisation operating in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Early in his career, Julius worked at Uganda’s national tax body from where he moved to Japan to pursue postgraduate studies and subsequently altered his career path switching focus from public finance to international development.

Attribution

Producers: Julius Atuhurra and Katie Cooper

Audio Editing: James Morris

Jennifer Opare-Kumi on ‘Teaching at the Right Level’ and Children’s Mental Health Outcomes in the Global South

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 15:30:00 +0000

This episode features RISE Research Fellow Yue-Yi Hwa in conversation with Jennifer Opare-Kumi, a final-year doctoral researcher at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. They cover a breadth of issues including the potential for targeted instructional programs to contribute towards improved child mental health outcomes, why mainstreaming children’s mental health during early learning might improve their educational and other life outcomes, and the need to adopt an expanded view of the ‘learning crisis’ currently affecting countries in the global south.

Links

Jenn Opare-Kumi (webpage)
Foundational Learning and Mental Health: Empirical Evidence from Botswana (working paper) by Jennifer Opare-Kumi
Cognitive and Socioemotional Skills in Low-Income Countries: Measurement and Associations with Schooling and Earnings (journal article) by Alice Danon, Jishnu Das, Andreas de Barros, and Deon Filmer (RISE Pakistan)
Socioemotional and Academic Learning Before and After COVID-19 School Closures (working paper) by Stephen Bayley, Darge Wole Meshesha, Paul Ramchandani, Pauline Rose, Tassew Woldehanna, and Louise Yorke (RISE Ethiopia)
Researching Socio-Emotional Learning, Mental Health and Wellbeing: Methodological Issues in Low-Income Contexts (working paper) by Stephen Bayley, Darge Wole Meshesha, Louise Yorke, Paul Ramchandani, and Pauline Rose (RISE Ethiopia)
Measuring the impacts of teachers in Vietnam: teacher value-added and student cognitive and non-cognitive skills (paper in progress) by Pedro Carneiro, Paul Glewwe, Anusha Guha, and Sonya Krutikova
Youth Impact’s page on Teaching at the Right Level in Botswana (webpage)
Teaching at the Right Level Africa (webpage)
Pratham’s Combined Activities for Maximized Learning (CAMaL) teaching-learning approach (webpage)

Guest biography

Jennifer Opare-Kumi

Jennifer Opare-Kumi is a Doctoral Researcher at the Blavatnik School of Government. Driven by a passion for efficient, evidence-based policy making, she researches ways to improve education and mental health outcomes for young people in the Global South through government and non-governmental interventions and policies.

Yue-Yi Hwa

Yue-Yi Hwa is a Senior Education Specialist on the evidence translation and synthesis team at the What Works Hub for Global Education. Previously, Yue-Yi was a research fellow and research manager for Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE), where she focused on synthesising research on teachers and management. She has also been a research fellow for the Penang Institute in Kuala Lumpur and a secondary school English teacher in Selangor, Malaysia. She holds an MPhil in comparative government from the University of Oxford and a PhD in education from the University of Cambridge, where her thesis looked at interactions between teacher motivation, accountability policy and sociocultural context.

Attribution

Producers: Julius Atuhurra and Katie Cooper

Audio Editing: James Morris

Anustup Nayak on FLN in India and CSF’s Collaborative Work to Improve the Instructional Experience in the Classroom

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 09:15:00 +0000

In this episode, RISE Research Fellow Julius Atuhurra speaks to Anustup Nayak, Project Director for Classroom Instruction and Practice, at Central Square Foundation (CSF) in India. Anustup retraces his educational path in India, Africa and the US, and links to his career in foundational learning.

He reflects on the FLN context in India and why he is hopeful about the future. Anustup gives an in-depth explanation of CSF’s work and their broad collaboration with state governments and other similar minded actors to improve the teaching and learning experience in the classroom.

They also touch on Anustup’s involvement with some of the work strands at RISE and his ideas about future directions. Anustup reflects on India’s position as both the 'hotbed' for FLN problems and ‘go to’ place for solutions to the global learning crisis.

Links

Central Square Foundation (webpage)
Demystifying the Science of Teaching: A 'Structured Pedagogy' Approach to Improving Foundation Learning (article) by Anustup Nayak and Priyanka Upreti
A Million Children Learning – Improving Elementary School Education at Scale (article) by
RISE Community of Practice (webpage)
CSF’s Experience of Working with the RISE Diagnostic Framework in North India (blog) by Jasmine Dhingra, Isha Shingte, and Garima Grover
How to Rapidly Improve Learning Outcomes at System Level? (blog) by Luis Crouch
RISE Annual Conference 2022 (event)
Michelle Kaffenberger (webpage)
Understanding Education Policy Preferences: Survey Experiments with Policymakers in 35 Developing Countries (working paper) by Lee Crawfurd, Susannah Hares, Ana Luiza Minardi and Justin Sandefur
System (In)Coherence: Quantifying the Alignment of Primary Education Curriculum Standards, Examinations, and Instruction in Two East African Countries (working paper) by Julius Atuhurra and Michelle Kaffenberger

Guest biography

Anustup Nayak

Anustup Nayak leads the Classroom Instruction and Practices (CIP) team at CSF. In his role, he works with multiple CSF partner organizations and state government agencies to support the implementation of the FLN mission. Prior to working at CSF, his work involved supporting and scaling up an entrepreneurial venture named XSEED Education. Anustup joined CSF to pursue his passion to improve public education at scale. He did his master’s in education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Public Policy at Georgia Tech. He is passionate about equipping teachers with the right tools and skills to succeed in the classroom. In his free time, he enjoys listening to podcasts and is constantly on the search for the next viral meme.

Julius Atuhurra

He recently completed a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship at Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Prior to that, he worked at Twaweza East Africa, a regional civil society organisation operating in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Early in his career, Julius worked at Uganda’s national tax body from where he moved to Japan to pursue postgraduate studies and subsequently altered his career path switching focus from public finance to international development.

Attribution

Producers: Julius Atuhurra and Katie Cooper

Audio Editing: James Morris

Manos Antoninis on the first GEM Spotlight Series Report on Africa

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 18:00:00 +0000

In the latest episode of the RISE Podcast, the Director of UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, Manos Antoninis, talks to RISE Research Fellow Jason Silberstein about the first report in the Spotlight Series. The Spotlight is a new initiative by the GEM Report and its partners to shine a spotlight on primary completion and the state of foundational learning in Africa. They discuss the report’s original research and clear recommendations for how to improve learning, with a focus on what the Spotlight has to say about politics, measurement, supporting teachers, and balancing investment in student-level inputs with systems-level reform.

Links

Spotlight on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africapublished by UNESCO, under the direction of Manos Antoninis and prepared by the Global Education Monitoring Report team with the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, and African Union.
Global Education Monitoring Report
Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA)
UNESCO Institute for Statistics
National SDG 4 Benchmarks
The Long-Run Decline of Education Quality in the Developing World by Alexis Le Nestour, Laura Moscoviz, and Justin Sandefur at the Center for Global Development
Focus to Flourish: A Messaging Campaign on Five Actions to Accelerate Progress in Learning by the RISE Programme
Five Actions to Accelerate Progress in Learning by Lant Pritchett, Kirsty Newman and Jason Silberstein

Guest biography

Manos Antoninis

Manos Antoninis is the Director of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report since 2017. He was previously responsible for the monitoring section of the report. He coordinated the financing gap estimates for the 2030 education targets, the projections on the achievement of universal primary and secondary education completion, and the World Inequality Database on Education. He has been representing the report team in the Technical Cooperation Group on SDG 4 indicators, which he is currently co-chairing.

Prior to joining the team he worked for 10 years on public finance, monitoring and evaluation projects in education including: a public expenditure tracking and service delivery survey of secondary education provision in Bangladesh; the evaluation of a basic education project in the western provinces of China; the mid-term evaluation of the Education For All Fast Track Initiative; the annual reporting of progress in the implementation of the Second Primary Education Development Project in Bangladesh; a basic education capacity building programme in six states in Nigeria; the evaluation of an in-service, cluster-based teacher training programme in Pakistan; and the country study of the Out of School Children Global Initiative in Indonesia. He holds a DPhil in Economics for a study of technical education and the labour market in Egypt, completed at the Centre for the Study of African Economies of the University of Oxford.

Jason Silberstein

Jason Silberstein is a Research Fellow for RISE at the Blavatnik School of Government. His research explores the relationship between schools and the communities they serve.

Before joining RISE, he worked as a consultant to the governments of Ethiopia and Ghana on reforms aimed at strengthening accountability in their education systems, and spent 18 months as a policy advisor in the Myanmar Ministry of Education. His understanding of international development was shaped by 3 years at Seva Mandir, a grassroots nonprofit in India. His first job was as a secondary school English literature teacher. Jason holds a Masters in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Attribution

RISE is funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Programme is implemented through a partnership between Oxford Policy Management and the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. The Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford supports the production of the RISE Podcast.

Producers: Joseph Bullough and Katie Cooper

Audio Editing: James Morris

Jishnu Das on School Choice, School Quality, and 'Zombie Schools' in Pakistan

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 14:15:00 +0000

In this episode, RISE Research Fellow Jason Silberstein speaks to Jishnu Das, Professor at Georgetown University and a Principal Investigator of the RISE Pakistan Country Research Team. They discuss Jishnu and his team’s ambitious research agenda, which is not simply studying the impact of a new education policy or intervention, but trying to build a fresh description of how the education system works. They talk about what makes a good school and how to measure it; why comparing public and private schools hides more than it helps; 'Zombie Schools' that are feeding on kids brains; and why every child that doesn’t learn is the fault of a badly engineered system and the ways we can change that.

Links

Heterogeneity in School Value-Added and the Private Premium by Andrabi, Bau, Das, and Khwaja (RISE Working Paper)
The Value of Private Schools: Evidence from Pakistan by Carneiro, Das, and Reis (Journal Article)
Teacher Value Added in a Low-Income Country by Bau and Das (Journal Article)
Upping the Ante: The Equilibrium Effects of Unconditional Grants to Private Schools by Andrabi, Das, Khwaja, Özyurt, and Singh (Working Paper)
Why Do Households Leave School Value Added on the Table? The Roles of Information and Preferences by Ainsworth, Dehejia, Pop-Eleches, and Urquiola (Working Paper)
Bad Boys by Ferguson (Book)
Low-Cost Private Schools in Tanzania: A Descriptive Analysis by Sabarwal, Sununtnasuk, and Ramachandran (Working Paper)

Guest biography

Jishnu Das

Jishnu Das is a Principal Investigator on the RISE Pakistan team. He is a Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy and the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. His work focuses on health and education in low and middle-income countries, with an emphasis on social markets, or common, but complex, conflagrations of public and private education and health providers operating in a small geographical space. He was previously a lead economist at the World Bank’s Development Research Group, where his research focused on the delivery of quality education and health services. He has authored numerous education-related works, including “India Shining and Bharat Drowning: Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement” (Journal of Development Economics), and “Teacher Shocks and Student Learning: Evidence from Zambia” (Journal of Human Resources), in addition to work co-authored with Tahir Andrabi and Asim I. Khwaja. Das was awarded a PhD in economics from Harvard University and a BA from St. Stephen’s College in New Delhi, India. He was an author of the Learning and Educational Achievement in Punjab Schools (LEAPS) report, an extensive study of the schooling environment more than 100 villages in rural Pakistan.

Jason Silberstein

Jason Silberstein is a Research Fellow for RISE at the Blavatnik School of Government. His research explores the relationship between schools and the communities they serve.

Attribution

Producers: Joseph Bullough and Katie Cooper

Audio Editing: James Morris

Armando Ali on assessing learning in Mozambique and the power of citizen action

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 12:00:00 +0000

In this episode, RISE partnerships manager and co-producer of the RISE podcast Joe Bullough speaks to Armando Ali, CEO of the People’s Action for Learning (PAL) Network—a South-South network of organisations working to conduct citizen-led assessments of learning to empower citizens and spur political action to improve learning. Armando revisits memories of school in Nampula, Mozambique and reflects on (one generation later) what he learned from the first citizen-led assessment of children’s learning in Mozambique, and the “Wiixutta Nithweelaka” (“Learn by Play”) programme to help children catch up on missed foundational skills. They discuss why literacy and numeracy are important indicators of whether education systems are working to give children value in their education, and the power and potential of community action to drive learning outcomes worldwide, village to village.

Links

PAL Network Website
The ICAN (International Common Assessment of Numeracy) Toolkit
PAL Network datasets on learning (Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Mexico, Mozambique)
The Essential Role of Citizen-led Assessments, Reflections from the PAL Network Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal [RISE Blog] by Joe Bullough
Building on Solid Foundations: Prioritising Universal, Early, Conceptual and Procedural Mastery of Foundational Skills [RISE Insight Note] by Carmen Belafi, Yue-Yi Hwa, & Michelle Kaffenberger
Getting Real about Unknowns in Complex Policy Work (with application to recent education policy interventions in Mozambique) [RISE Working Paper] by Matt Andrews
RISE Podcast Episode 14 - Modupe Adefeso-Olateju on how partners can come together to solve Nigeria’s learning crisis

Guest biography

Armando Ali

Armando Ali is the Chief Executive Officer at the PAL Network where he provides overall leadership, nurtures a sense of collective ownership and belonging within the network and ensures sustained growth, health and impact. Armando is an Education Specialist with over 20 years of experience in mobilizing citizens to improve the quality of education. He is passionate about improving foundational literacy and numeracy skills of children in the early grades and, since 2001, has held a variety of leadership roles in civil society and academia, advocating for the right of quality education for all children.

Before joining PAL Network, he worked as an education specialist with UNICEF, Mozambique. He also previously worked as the coordinator of Mozambique’s Citizen-led Action, Wiixutta Nithweelaka – an approach inspired by Teaching at the Right Level that helps children to improve their reading and arithmetic competencies. He holds a Master’s degree in Peace and Development Work from Linnaeus University in Sweden.

Joe Bullough

Joe Bullough is the Partnerships Manager for the RISE Programme and a co-producer of the RISE podcast, based at the Blavantik School of Government at the University of Oxford.

Joe manages RISE’s engagement with global partners, and facilitates relationships internally across the RISE network. He also leads RISE’s practitioner-focused work through the RISE Community of Practice. Prior to RISE, Joe was a consultant to the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, and also worked as a programme officer for the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation, an intergovernmental agency set up to support the development of education, culture and sciences in the Southeast Asian region. He holds a master's degree in education policy and management from the Danish School of Education (Danmarks Paedagogiske Universitet) in Copenhagen.

Attribution

RISE is funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Programme is implemented through a partnership between Oxford Policy Management and the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. The Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford supports the production of the RISE Podcast.

Producers: Joseph Bullough and Katie Cooper

Audio Editing: James Morris

Matt Andrews on getting real about unknowns in complex policy work

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 10:00:00 +0000

This episode is cross-posted from the Building State Capability (BSC) at Harvard University’s podcast series and features BSC Director Salimah Samji in conversation with Matt Andrews, who is BSC Faculty Director and the Edward S. Mason Senior Lecturer in International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School. Together, they discuss Matt’s paper “Getting Real about Unknowns in Complex Policy Work”, which uses a novel due diligence strategy to examine 25 essential policy questions, citing real-world examples from policy reforms focused on girls’ education in Mozambique from 1999 to 2020. In his paper, Matt offers policymakers a practical way to engage with public problems in the presence of unknowns—one which demonstrates the need for a more modest and realistic approach to doing complex work.

Links

The original episode: “Getting Real about Unknowns in Complex Policy Work - A Conversation with Matt Andrews”
Getting Real about Unknowns in Complex Policy Work. RISE Working Paper Series. 21/083.
BSC at Harvard University’s podcast series
The Building State Capability Programme at Harvard University
What is PDIA- Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (Video)?
PDIA Toolkit - A DIY Approach to Solving Complex Problems (Guide)
Improving Public Sector Management at Scale? Experimental Evidence on School Governance in India [RISE Working Paper], by Karthik Muralidharan and Abhijeet Singh
When the Devil’s Not in the Details: The System Failure of a Large-Scale School Management Reform in India [Blog], by Jason Silberstein

Guest biographies

Matt Andrews

Matt Andrews is the Edward S. Mason Senior Lecturer in International Development at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He has worked in over 50 countries across the globe as a civil servant, international development expert, researcher, teacher, advisor and coach. He has written three books and over 60 other publications on the topics of development and management. He is also the faculty director of the Building State Capability program at Harvard, which is where he has developed – with a team – a policy and management method to address complex challenges. This method is called problem driven iterative adaptation (PDIA) and was developed through over a decade of applied action research work by Matt and his team. It is now used by practitioners across the globe. Matt holds a BCom (Hons) degree from the University of Natal, Durban (South Africa), an MSc from the University of London, and a PhD in Public Administration from the Maxwell School, Syracuse University.

Salimah Samji

Salimah Samji is the Director of Building State Capability (BSC). She has more than 15 years of experience working in international development on the delivery of public services, transparency and accountability, strategic planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning. She joined CID in 2012 to help create the BSC program. Today, she is responsible for providing vision, strategic leadership, oversight and managing projects and research initiatives. Salimah also leads BSC’s work on digital learning. Before joining CID, she was an independent consultant working for the World Bank on issues of governance, and the Hewlett Foundation on strategic planning for one of their grantees. She has worked as a senior program manager at Google.org, leading a transparency and accountability initiative focused on empowering citizens and decision-makers, by making information on service delivery outcomes publicly available. Salimah has also worked at the World Bank as a social/rural development and monitoring and evaluation specialist in South Asia. She has a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo (Canada) and a Masters in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School. She is a qualified Casualty Actuary who changed careers after working for 18 months in Afghan refugee camps with a Canadian NGO (FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance) based in Pakistan. Salimah has worked and lived in Kenya, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Canada and the USA.

Attribution

This episode was first published on the Building State Capability at Harvard University Podcast Series and has been cross-posted with permission. RISE is funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Programme is implemented through a partnership between Oxford Policy Management and the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. The Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford supports the production of the RISE Podcast.

Producers

Building State Capability at Harvard University. Edited and reposted by RISE with permission.

Sharath Jeevan OBE on the need to put people, mindsets, and motivation at the centre of education systems

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 10:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Sharath Jeevan OBE, Founder and CEO of STiR Education and Executive Chairman of Intrinsic Labs, speaks to Yue-Yi Hwa, RISE Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government. They discuss why we need to go upside-down to focus on the people in education systems; how to change ministers’ mindsets; how to create space for teachers to innovate at the classroom level; and why education systems are “wicked hard”—that is, full of problems that are ill-defined and hard to solve.

Links

Intrinsic Labs [Website]
‘Intrinsic: A Manifesto to Reignite our Inner Drive’ by Sharath Jeeven [Book]
‘A World Where Teachers Love Teaching’ StiR Education [Website]
‘Celebrating Three Well-Deserved OBEs for Services to Education’ by Kilburn, Hwa & Bullough [RISE Blog]
‘Teacher Careers in Education Systems That Are Coherent for Learning: Choose and Curate Toward Commitment to Capable and Committed Teachers’ (5Cs) by Hwa & Pritchett [RISE Primer]
‘Systems Thinking’ [RISE Webpage]
‘Teacher Agency Matters More Than Ever: What Can We Practically Do About It?’ by McIntosh & Pereira [RISE Blog]
Sharath Jeevan on LinkedIn

Guest biography

Sharath Jeevan

Sharath is one of the world's leading experts on re-igniting our inner drive (intrinsic motivation). His groundbreaking book "Intrinsic" has received glowing endorsements ranging from leading smart-thinking writers like Dan Heath and Nir Eyal, to business and education leaders to the former Prime Minister of Greece. Sharath was awarded an OBE in the 2022 Queen's New Year's Honours for founding and leading STiR Education, arguably the world's largest intrinsic motivation initiative. STIR re-ignited the motivation of 200,000 teachers, 35,000 schools and 7 million children in emerging countries. Sharath is the Executive Chairman of Intrinsic Labs, which supports organisations and leaders all around the world to solve deep motivational challenges, from governments to leading universities and high-profile corporations, from L'Oreal to the London School of Economics. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, The Telegraph. Financial Times. NPR, CNN, CNBC, The Hindustan Times and The Times of India. An accomplished speaker, Sharath has delivered talks and workshops to share the ideas from "Intrinsic" with influential audiences including the World Health Organisation (WHO), Cambridge University, Daimler, Amazon and the World Economic Forum. Sharath holds degrees from Cambridge University, Oxford University and INSEAD. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for his contributions to the field and was invited to serve on the high-level steering group of the Education Commission, the pre-eminent global think tank founded by former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Visit intrinsic-labs.com to find out more about Sharath and his work.

Yue-Yi Hwa

Yue-Yi Hwa is a Research Fellow for the RISE Programme at the Blavatnik School of Government, focusing on teachers and management.

She received her PhD in education from the University of Cambridge. Her PhD thesis looked at the relationship between teacher accountability policy and socio-cultural context across countries, using secondary survey data on education and culture alongside interviews with teachers in Finland and Singapore. Previously, Yue-Yi taught secondary school English for two years through Teach For Malaysia, and was a Research Fellow for the Penang Institute in Kuala Lumpur. She has also conducted research for the World Bank’s MENA education team. She holds a master’s degree in comparative government from the University of Oxford.

Attribution

StiR Education and Intrinsic Labs are both part of RISE’s Community of Practice, a group of practitioners and implementers who work on the frontlines of education in countries around the world, and come together to share lessons to improve learning outcomes for all children.

Producers: Joseph Bullough and Katie Cooper

Audio Editing: James Morris

Modupe Adefeso-Olateju on how public-private partners can come together to solve Nigeria’s learning crisis

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Tue, 17 May 2022 11:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Onyebuchi Ajufo, an advocacy and communications specialist and former Director of Communications and Advocacy at Africa Practice, speaks to Modupe Adefeso-Olateju, Managing Director of Nigeria’s pioneering education partnership organisation, the Education Partnership (TEP) Centre, where she leads the LEARNigeria citizen-led assessment and advocacy programme. They talk about the inspiration for Mo’s work to improve foundational learning in Nigeria; the importance of data for understanding the extent of the crisis, and as a tool to inform policy; and the role of public-private partnerships for improving children’s outcomes. Mo also speaks about Human Capital Africa’s recent call to action for African policymakers to make foundational learning their top priority.

Links

The Education Partnership (TEP) Centre [Website]
LEARNigeria Assessment and Advocacy Programme [Website]
LEARNigeria Citizen Action Report (2017)
‘Access alone has not guaranteed that children are learning in schools’ [Article in Africa Report], Oby Ezekwesili, February 2022
Human Capital Africa [Website]
‘Human Capital Africa’s Call to Action for Policymakers to Respond to Africa’s Learning Crisis’ [Press Release]
Africa Practice [Website]
About the RISE Community of Practice [Website]
‘Stakeholder Perspectives on Improving Educational Outcomes in Enugu State’ [RISE Insight Note] by Ogwuike and Iheonu
‘Mobilising Community Support for Education: Lessons from the Igbajo Community in Nigeria’ [RISE Blog] by Adeniran and Castradori
‘Following FACTS to Recover and Revamp Nigeria’s Education System During and Beyond COVID-19’ [RISE Blog] by Obiakor and Adeniran
‘Policy Deliberation, Social Contracts, and Education Outcomes: Experimental Evidence from Enugu State, Nigeria’ [RISE Insight Note] by Nweke, Ogwuike, and Iheonu
More from RISE Nigeria Country Research Team

Guest biographies

Modupe Adefeso-Olateju

Dr. Modupe (Mo) Adefeso-Olateju is a recognised policy expert specialising in public-private collaboration in education and with keen interests in education innovation and foundational literacy and numeracy. She is Managing Director of Nigeria’s pioneering education partnership organisation, The Education Partnership (TEP) Centre, where she leads the LEARNigeria citizen-led assessment and advocacy programme. She co-established the annual pan-African education innovation summit, NEDIS, which is now in its 7th year.

Mo supports policymakers, international think tanks, and corporations, and leads workstreams on a range of education sector support initiatives funded by government agencies, multilateral organisations, and corporate funders. She drafted a section of Nigeria’s 2011-2015 education strategy and is a member of the technical team which is developing Nigeria’s Medium- and Long-Term Strategic Plans. She is a Commissioner on the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges (Evidence Commission) at McMaster University. She provides advice and guidance on technical review and advisory committees convened by UNESCO GEM Report, Education Cannot Wait, Global Partnership for Education (GPE), Global Schools Forum, Lego Foundation, and Lever for Change. Mo has also offered technical advice on scaling education innovation to the Millions Learning 2.0 Programme of the Brookings Institution Center for Universal Education (CUE). She serves on the boards of Malala Fund, Human Capital Africa, Slum2School Africa, and Unveiling Africa Foundation Nigeria. She is also a member of the advisory board of the People’s Action for Learning (PAL) Network, Nairobi. Mo works to improve the employability of young Africans as a Mentor on The Global Grid of Nexford; an innovative online university.

As a Centenary Scholar, she graduated from University College London’s Institute of Education (UCL-IOE) with a PhD in Education and International Development, and holds a Masters’ degree with distinction from the same university. She is a Fellow of the Asia-Global Institute in Hong Kong.

Onyebuchi Ajufo

Onyebuchi (Buchi) Ajufoi is a Partner at Hudson Sandler and is in charge of its West Africa Business. She is an Advocacy and Communications specialist, helping public and private sector players navigate complex stakeholder ecosystems- galvanising support and building coalitions, improving the policy environment, raising awareness of critical socioeconomic issues while building the capacity and the trust required to deliver socioeconomic impact. She has over 15 years experience working across Africa, the Middle East and the United Kingdom.

In her previous role as Director, Advocacy and Communications at Africa Practice, she managed a team across the continent working to dismantle many of the barriers impeding sustainable development across Africa, in areas including education, nutrition, financial inclusion, access to water, and gender equality. This work has seen her collaborate with organisations including The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CDC Group, World Bank, Co-Impact, Human Capital Africa, Coca-Cola, and more.

Buchi has a first degree in Psychology and a Masters in Business Analytics from The University of Warwick.

Attribution

Africa Practice, the Education Partnerships Centre, and LEARNigeria are members of RISE’s Community of Practice, a group of practitioners and implementers who work on the frontlines of education in countries around the world, and come together to share lessons to improve learning outcomes for all children.

Producers: Joseph Bullough and Katie Cooper

Audio Editing: James Morris

Nangamso Mtsatse on helping kids to read for meaning and calculate with confidence in South Africa

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 09:00:00 +0000

In this episode produced jointly between RISE and Building State Capability (BSC) at Harvard University, BSC Director Salimah Samji speaks to Nangamso Mtsatse, CEO of Funda Wande, an NGO that works to catalyse improvements in foundational literacy and numeracy for children in South Africa. They talk about building local teams; creating a culture of measurement, reflection and learning; being intentional; and working within the constraints and opportunities of the system you are in for change.

Links

Funda Wande through the Lens of PDIA: Showcasing a Flexible and Iterative Learning Approach to Improving Educational Outcomes [RISE Insight Note] by Samji & Kapoor
Funda Wande [Website]
What Do Effective Instructional Materials Look Like? [RISE Blog] by Hwa
What is PDIA - Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation? [BSC Video]
PDIA Toolkit - A DIY Approach to Solving Complex Problems [BSC Guide]
To solve the learning crisis, start with the problem [RISE Blog] by Marla Spivack
Building on Solid Foundations: Prioritising Universal, Early, Conceptual and Procedural Mastery of Foundational Skills [RISE Insight Note] by Belafi, Hwa, & Kaffenberger
Aligning Levels of Instruction with Goals and the Needs of Students (ALIGNS): Varied Approaches, Common Principles [RISE Insight Note] by Hwa, Kaffenberger & Silberstein
More on PIRLS Assessment [TIMSS & PIRLS Website]

Guest biography

Nangamso Mtsatse is CEO of Funda Wande (a not-for-profit organization that aims to equip teachers to teach reading-for-meaning and calculating-with-confidence in South Africa). Nangamso is also completing her PhD in Education Policy at Stellenbosch University and is an affiliated researcher at the Research on Socioeconomic Policy (RESEP) group. She has published her research in a number of accredited journals. In January 2019 she was also selected by the International Literacy Association (ILA) as one of the Top 30 Under 30 researchers around the world.

Attribution

Producers: Joseph Bullough and Katie Cooper

Audio Editing: James Morris

Yamini Aiyar on 'Rewriting the Grammar of the Delhi Education System'

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 09:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Marla Spivack speaks to Yamini Aiyar about her new book, ‘Rewriting the Grammar of the Education System: Delhi’s Education Reform (A Tale of Creative Resistance and Creative Disruption)’, which documents the introduction of education reforms in Delhi public schools. They discuss some of the challenges faced throughout this reform as well as lessons that emerged from documenting the reform experience. These include the importance of understanding that everyone is part of a larger system which is conditioning the behaviours and actions of people within it, and the necessity (and challenges) of building consensus for learning throughout systems.

Links

‘Rewriting the Grammar of the Education System: Delhi’s Education Reform (A Tale of Creative Resistance and Creative Disruption)’ [Book] by Aiyar, Davis, Govindan, and Kapoor: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/rewriting-grammar-education-system-delhis-education-reform-tale-creative-resistance
‘The Limits of Accounting-Based Accountability in Education (and Far Beyond): Why More Accounting Will Rarely Solve Accountability Problems’ [Working Paper] by Honig and Pritchett: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/limits-accounting-based-accountability-education-and-far-beyond-why-more-accounting
‘Is Knowledge Power? The Right to Information Campaign in Delhi’ [IDS Discussion paper Sussex; 2007] by Amita Baviskar: http://rtiworkshop.pbworks.com/f/2006-00-IN-Is-Knowledge-Power-The-Right-to-Information-Campaign-in-India-Amita-Baviskar.pdf
‘Documents and Bureaucracy’ by Michael Hull [article; 2012]: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hullm/MHull_2012_Documents%20and%20Bureaucracy.pdf
‘Video: Initiatives in India That Align Levels of Instruction with Goals and the Needs of Students’ by Aiyar, Banerji and Hwa: https://riseprogramme.org/blog/video-initiatives-india-align-instruction
Centre for Policy Research: https://cprindia.org/
‘India’s New National Education Policy: Evidence and Challenges’ [Insight Note] by Singh and Muralidharan: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/indias-new-national-education-policy-evidence-and-challenges
‘Improving Public Sector Management at Scale? Experimental Evidence on School Governance in India’ [Working Paper] by Singh and Muralidharan: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/improving-public-sector-management-scale-experimental-evidence-school-governance-india

Guest biography

Yamini Aiyar is a research collaborator on the RISE India and Political Economy teams and the President and Chief Executive of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR). Her research interests are in the field of social policy and development. In 2008, she founded the Accountability Initiative at CPR. Under her leadership, the Accountability Initiative has produced significant research in the areas of governance, state capacity and social policy. It pioneered a new approach to tracking public expenditures for social policy programs and is widely recognised for running the country’s largest expenditure-tracking survey in elementary education. Her own research on social accountability, elementary education, decentralisation, and administrative reforms has received both academic and popular recognition.

Attribution

Producers: Joseph Bullough and Katie Cooper

Audio Engineer: James Morris

Matt Crowley on Woburn, MA’s pivot to remote learning during the pandemic

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 09:00:00 +0000

This episode is cross-posted from the Building State Capability at Harvard University Podcast Series and features Matt Crowley, Superintendent of the Public School District in Woburn, Massachusetts, interviewed by Salimah Samji, Director of the Building State Capability Programme. They discuss how this school system pivoted to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of collaboration and adaptability when leading through a crisis.

Links

The original episode, first published on the Building State Capability at Harvard University Podcast Series: https://harvardbsc.simplecast.com/episodes/pivoting-education-systems-in-a-crisis
Building State Capability at Harvard University’s Podcast Series: https://bsc.cid.harvard.edu/podcasts
The Building State Capability Programme at Harvard University: https://bsc.cid.harvard.edu/
What is PDIA- Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (Video)? https://vimeo.com/262046965
PDIA Toolkit - A DIY Approach to Solving Complex Problems (Guide): https://bsc.cid.harvard.edu/files/bsc/files/pdiatoolkit_ver_1_oct_2018.pdf
Funda Wande through the Lens of PDIA: Showcasing a Flexible and Iterative Learning Approach to Improving Educational Outcomes (insight Note) by Salimah Samji and Mansi Kapoor: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/funda-wande-through-lens-pdia-showcasing-flexible-and-iterative-learning-approach
To solve the learning crisis, start with the problem (Blog) by Marla Spivack: https://riseprogramme.org/blog/solve-learning-crisis-start-problem
Marla Spivack on Diagnosing Education Systems, CID Speaker Series (Podcast): https://riseprogramme.org/publications/podcast-diagnosing-education-systems
Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action (book) by Andrews, Pritchett and Woolcock: https://bsc.cid.harvard.edu/building-state-capability-evidence-analysis-action

Speaker biographies

Matt Crowley is the Superintendent of the Public School District in Woburn, Massachusetts.

Attribution

This episode was first published on the Building State Capability at Harvard University Podcast Series and has been cross-posted with permission. RISE is funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Programme is implemented through a partnership between Oxford Policy Management and the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. The Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford supports the production of the RISE Podcast.

Producers

Building State Capability at Harvard University

Luis Crouch on purpose and complexity in education systems change

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This episode of the RISE Podcast features Luis Crouch, a member of RISE Research Directorate, and the Senior Economist at RTI’s International Development Group. In conversation with RISE Research Fellow Yue-Yi Hwa, he shares perspectives from his 30-year-career across development and education. They discuss the relationship between education and national development goals; socioeconomic development; the importance of purpose in education systems change; the interplay between national priorities and international agenda-setting in education; and the challenges of coordination and unintended consequences, including the effects that these can have in complex education systems.

Links:

‘How to Rapidly Improve Learning Outcomes at System Level?’ (Blog) by Crouch: https://riseprogramme.org/blog/improve-learning-outcomes-system-level
‘Systems Implications for Core Instructional Support Lessons from Sobral (Brazil), Puebla (Mexico), and Kenya’ (Insight Note) by Crouch: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/systems-implications-core-instructional-support-lessons-sobral-brazil-puebla-mexico
‘Addressing Learning Inequality in Educational Systems Through Foundational Skills’ (Blog) by Rodriguez-Segura et al: https://riseprogramme.org/blog/learning-inequality-educational-systems-foundational-skills
‘Looking Beyond Changes in Averages in Evaluating Foundational Learning: Some Inequality Measures’ (Working Paper) by Rodriguez-Segura et al: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/looking-beyond-changes-averages-evaluating-foundational-learning-some-inequality
‘Eliminating Global Learning Poverty: The Importance of Equalities and Equity’ (Working Paper) by Crouch, Rolleston and Gustafsson: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/eliminating-global-learning-poverty-importance-equalities-and-equity
‘Using Learning Profiles to Inform Education Priorities: An Editors’ Overview of the Special Issue (Schooling Without Learning: Implications of Learning Profiles for the Global Learning Crisis’ by Crouch, Kaffenberger and Savage: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059321001309
‘Special Issue: Schooling Without Learning: Implications of Learning Profiles for the Global Learning Crisis’ edited by Crouch, Kaffenberger and Savage, International Journal of Educational Development:https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/international-journal-of-educational-development/special-issue/1035CNWP9N3
RISE Podcast episode with Dzingai Mutumbuka, Zimbabwe’s first post-independence Minister of Education and Culture: https://riseprogramme.org/podcast/dzingai-mutumbuka

Guest biography:

Luis Crouch is a member of RISE’s Research Directorate and Intellectual Leadership Team, and the senior economist at RTI’s International Development Group. He specialises in education policy, decentralised finance (e.g., funding formulas), political economy of reform, education statistics, planning, and projections. He has experience in all key areas of education data analysis, from the generation of primary data via surveys and citizen input, to statistical and econometric analysis, to evidence-based, Cabinet-level policy dialogue. He has previously worked at the World Bank and at the Global Partnership for Education. He has worked closely on South Africa’s education sector funding reforms, Egypt’s decentralisation experiments, and decentralisation and other policy reforms in Peru and Indonesia. His more recent work is in early grade reading and Early Childhood Development, as key entry-points to improving quality. He has worked in more than 25 countries in a 30-year career in development, and is the author of reports, technical papers, and books.

Attribution:

Producers: Joseph Bullough and Katie Cooper

Audio Engineer: James Morris

Denis Mizne on transforming Brazil’s education system to deliver learning

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 13:00:00 +0000

The first RISE Podcast episode of 2022 features Denis Mizne, who is CEO of the Lemann Foundation and leads its efforts to transform Brazil’s education system so that schools deliver learning for all children. In conversation with RISE Research Fellow Jason Silberstein, he explains why foundational skills are a political winner; the Lemann Foundation’s work on Brazil’s Learning Standards; how to balance accountability with support for teachers; what we can learn from Sobral, Brazil’s famous success story; “status quoism”; Lord Voldemort; and much more.

Links:

The Lemann Foundation: https://fundacaolemann.org.br/en
‘Systems Implications for Core Instructional Support Lessons from Sobral (Brazil), Puebla (Mexico), and Kenya’ by Crouch: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/systems-implications-core-instructional-support-lessons-sobral-brazil-puebla-mexico
‘Teacher Agency Matters More Than Ever: What Can We Practically Do About It?’ (Blog) by McIntosh and Pereira: https://riseprogramme.org/blog/teacher-agency-matters
‘Building on Solid Foundations: Prioritising Universal, Early, Conceptual and Procedural Mastery of Foundational Skills’ (Insight Note) by Belafi, Hwa and Kaffenberger: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/building-solid-foundations-prioritising-universal-early-conceptual-and-procedural
‘Teacher Careers in Education Systems That Are Coherent for Learning: Choose and Curate Toward Commitment to Capable and Committed Teachers (5Cs)’ by Hwa and Pritchett: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/teacher-careers-education-systems-are-coherent-learning-choose-and-curate-toward
‘The Rebirth of Education: Schooling Ain’t Learning’ by Lant Pritchett: https://www.cgdev.org/publication/9781933286778-rebirth-education-schooling-aint-learning
The RISE Community of Practice: https://riseprogramme.org/rise-community-of-practice

Guest biography:

Denis Mizne is the CEO of the Lemann Foundation.

A graduate of University of São Paulo Law School, Mizne was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University Center for the Study of Human Rights, a Yale World Fellow at Yale University and completed the Owner/President Management Progam at Harvard Business School.

While at Law School, Mizne led the first disarmament campaign in Brazil. The Sou da Paz - I am for Peace - movement was instrumental in approving the Disarmament Statute, one of the most modern pieces of legislation controlling civilian gun possession. The law directly contributed to the reduction in homicides in the country.

In 1999, Mizne joined Brazil’s Ministry of Justice as special advisor to the Minister and later Chief of Staff. After one year in Government, he came back to São Paulo to create the Sou da Paz Institute, where he stayed as executive director until 2010.

In 2011, Denis Mizne became CEO of the Lemann Foundation. In the ten years he has been in this position, the Foundation grew to become one of Brazil’s leading philanthropies, focusing on improving public education and fostering a generation of talented leaders who will contribute to solving the country’s most pressing social issues. Among its achievements, the Lemann Foundation lead the civil society process to have National Learning Standards - approved in 2017, built a large scale intervention to support student learning reaching 2.5 million students and built a network of 653 diverse, committed leaders working in public service, politics, academia, the NGO sector and as social entrepreneurs.

Mizne sits on the Boards of Instituto Sou da Paz, Nova Escola, Instituto Natura, Fundacao Roberto Marinho, and PraValer, and is a member of Yale University President‘s Council on International Affairs. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford.

Attribution:

Producers: Joseph Bullough and Katie Cooper

Audio Engineer: James Morris

Asyia Kazmi on building solid foundations, and championing quality teaching

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 16:30:00 +0000

In this episode of the RISE Podcast, RISE Research Director Lant Pritchett speaks to Asyia Kazmi. During the episode, they walk through Asyia’s wide-ranging experiences spanning her 25-year career in education—as a teacher, mentor, advisor, and educationalist—and they reflect on the legacy of Girin Beeharry, the inaugural Director of Global Education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They also discuss the critical importance of getting kids literate and numerate, as well as the need to build systems that champion quality teaching and restore children's confidence in their ability to succeed.

Links:

The Girls Education Challenge: https://girlseducationchallenge.org/
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/
A Symposium on Girin Beeharry’s Manifesto for Global Education: https://www.cgdev.org/blog/symposium-girin-beeharrys-manifesto-global-education
The Pathway to Progress on SDG 4 Requires the Global Education Architecture to Focus on Foundational Learning and to Hold Ourselves Accountable For Achieving It, by Girindre Beeharry: https://www.cgdev.org/reader/pathway-progress-sdg4-symposium?page=1
Sleeping Soundly in the Procrustean Bed of Accounting-Based Accountability by Lant Pritchett: https://www.cgdev.org/reader/pathway-progress-sdg4-symposium?page=16
Building on Solid Foundations: Prioritising Universal, Early, Conceptual and Procedural Mastery of Foundational Skills: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/building-solid-foundations-prioritising-universal-early-conceptual-and-procedural
Quality Education for Every Girl for 12 Years: Insights from RISE Programme Research: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/quality-education-every-girl-12-years-insights-rise-programme-research
Andy Hargreaves: http://www.andyhargreaves.com

Guest biography:

Dr Asyia Kazmi is the Global Education Policy Lead at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with a focus on effective instructional practices, education advocacy and edtech. Nearly half of Asyia’s 25-year career in education was spent as a mathematics teacher and teacher coach. Before joining the Gates Foundation, Asyia was a management consultant in PwC leading the Girls’ Education Challenge, a $1bn fund set up by the UK to support the education of 1.5 million girls in 17 countries. Asyia has worked in three UK Government departments: as a senior education adviser in DFID, a project director in the Department for Education, and a senior Her Majesty’s Inspector in Ofsted, where she inspected schools, local authorities, initial teacher education and trained inspectors. Her areas of expertise include teaching, learning and formative assessment; school improvement; and large-scale programme management. Asyia has a Masters in Applied Mathematics from Imperial College London and a Doctorate in Education on teaching and learning mathematics from the Institute of Education, University College London. She has a PGCE in Leadership development and educational consulting, and a PGCE in mathematics teaching.

Attribution:

Producers: Joseph Bullough and Katie Cooper

Audio Engineer: James Morris

Brian Levy on education and governance in South Africa

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 10:30:00 +0000

In this episode of the RISE Podcast, Carmen Belafi, RISE Research Associate at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, speaks with Professor Brian Levy. During the episode, they discuss Brian’s decades of work on governance, and how governance interacts with institutions and power. They talk about systematic ways to analyse different governance contexts, and how this can guide action. They also discuss Brian’s latest book, “The Politics and Governance of Basic Education: A Tale of Two South African Provinces,” and how issues around governance matter for aligning education systems for learning. Not least, Brian offers insights on the legacy that South Africa’s first democratic government inherited from the Apartheid regime, and he compares and contrasts the unique challenges that persist in the different South African provinces until today.

Links:

Levy, B., Cameron, R., Hoadley, U. and Naidoo, V. 2018. (Eds.). The Politics and Governance of Basic Education: A Tale of Two South African Provinces. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Levy, B. 2014. Working With The Grain. Integrating Governance and Growth in Development Strategies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
World Bank. 2018. World Development Report 2018: Learning to realize education’ promise. Washington DC: World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/28340.
World Bank. 1997. World Development Report 1997: The State in a Changing World. New York: Oxford University Press and World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/5980.

Guest biography:

Brian Levy is a Professor of the Practice of International Development at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC and Academic Director of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town. Prior to this, Brian had a 23-year career at the World Bank, where he was at the forefront of sustained efforts to integrate governance concerns into the theory and practice of economic development. Between 2007 and 2010 he was head of the secretariat responsible for the design and implementation of the World Bank Group's governance and anti-corruption strategy. He worked in the Bank's Africa Vice Presidency from 1991 to 2003, where his role included leadership of a major effort to transform and scale-up the organisation’s engagement on governance reform. He has worked in over a dozen countries, spanning four continents. He has published numerous books and articles on the institutional underpinnings of regulation, on capacity development in Africa, on industrial policy, and on the political economy of development strategy. He received his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 1983.

Attribution:

Joan DeJaeghere and Vu Dao on pedagogy, equity, and research collaborations in Vietnam

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 12:00:00 +0000

In this episode of the RISE Podcast, Yue-Yi Hwa, RISE Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, speaks with Professor Joan DeJaeghere and Vu Dao, members of the RISE Vietnam team based at the University of Minnesota. The conversation focuses on Joan and Vu’s work on a large-scale qualitative video study of teaching and learning in Vietnamese classrooms. Topics explored include ongoing challenges in Vietnam’s education system despite its exceptional success; how teachers can unintentionally internalise prejudices against ethnic minority students (even if the teachers are ethnic minorities themselves); why it is worthwhile to spend countless hours analysing classroom videos and interviews; and how to build strong collaborations with in-country researchers.

Links

Publications so far from the qualitative video study of classrooms in Vietnam include:

DeJaeghere, J., Dao, V., Duong, B.-H., & Luong, P. (2021). Learning inequities in Vietnam: Teachers’ beliefs about and classroom practices for ethnic minorities. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2021.1924621
DeJaeghere, J., Duong, B. and Dao, V. 2021. Teaching Practices That Support Thinking and Promote Learning: Qualitative Evidence from High and Low Performing Classes in Vietnam. 2021/024. https://doi.org/10.35489/BSG-RISE-RI_2021/024 (associated blog: https://riseprogramme.org/blog/learning-high-performing-classrooms-vietnam)

Quantitative study from the RISE Vietnam team finding that conventional statistical indicators cannot fully account for Vietnam’s educational performance:

Dang, H., Glewwe, P., Lee, J., and Vu, K. 2020. What Explains Vietnam’s Exceptional Performance in Education Relative to Other Countries? Analysis of the 2012 and 2015 PISA Data. RISE Working Paper Series. 20/036. https://doi.org/10.35489/BSG-RISE-WP_2020/036
Glewwe, P., James, Z., Lee, J., Rolleston, C. and Vu, K. 2021. What Explains Vietnam’s Exceptional Performance in Education Relative to Other Countries? Analysis of the Young Lives Data from Ethiopia, Peru, India and Vietnam. RISE Working Paper Series. 21/078. https://doi.org/10.35489/BSG-RISE-WP_2021/078

Other RISE publications mentioned:

On narrowly standardized accounting vs richer narrative accounts in accountability: Honig, D. and Pritchett, L. 2019. The Limits of Accounting-Based Accountability in Education (and Far Beyond): Why More Accounting Will Rarely Solve Accountability Problems. RISE Working Paper Series. 19/030. https://doi.org/10.35489/BSG-RISE-WP_2019/030
Blog interview with Janeli Kotzé (RISE Fellow based at South Africa’s Department for Basic Education) on bridging research and policy: https://riseprogramme.org/blog/kotze-interview

Guest biographies

Joan DeJaeghere is a Principal Investigator for the RISE Vietnam team. She is an Associate Professor of Comparative and International Development Education in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches courses in international development and education; comparative education; and gender, education and development. Her scholarly work and professional practice are concerned with education, development, poverty and inequalities, and particularly gender, socio-economic and ethnic inequalities in education. She has served as the Principal Investigator on multi-year, multi-country studies funded by The MasterCard Foundation and CARE. She has also worked on education projects with UNICEF, USAID, Aga Khan, the World Bank, and the Department of Labor, and conducted research in Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Honduras, and Australia. She was a Fulbright Scholar in 2013 with the Academy of Policy and Development of the Ministry of Planning and Investment and a Fulbright Specialist in 2014, with Vietnam Institute of Education Sciences under the Ministry of Education and Training. She served as a board member of the Comparative and International Education Society (2013-16) and as an associate editor of International Journal of Educational Development (2013-16). She has published widely in journals including Comparative Education Review, International Journal of Educational Development, Comparative Education, Progress in Development Studies and Critical Studies in Education.

Vu Dao is a member of the RISE Vietnam team and a graduate research assistant at the Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development Department at the University of Minnesota. She is an experienced research assistant with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education sector. She is skilled in nonprofit organizations, educational technology, instructional design, English, and Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL). Her Master's degree was in Comparative and International Development Education from the University of Minnesota, College of Education and Human Development.

Attribution

Adam Ashforth on how communities see the role of education in Malawi

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 10:00:00 +0000

In this episode of the RISE Podcast, Jason Silberstein, a RISE Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, speaks to Professor Adam Ashforth. The conversation draws on Adam’s ethnographic research to explore what the education system looks like for the average person in Malawi. He shares accounts from the Malawi Journals Project, which shed light on what most families see as the core purpose of education. In doing so, we learn just how absent the state is in many schools and how this space is filled with local relationships of accountability.

Links

An Analysis of the Political Economy of Schooling in Rural Malawi: Interactions among Parents, Teachers, Students, Chiefs and Primary Education Advisors (Working Paper), by Susan Watkins and Adam Ashforth: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/analysis-political-economy-schooling-rural-malawi-interactions-among-parents-teachers
The Malawi Journals Project (Archive): https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/113269
Institutionalising Reforms from Below: When the State Fails to Lead (Blog), by Masooda Bano: https://riseprogramme.org/blog/institutionalising-reforms-below-when-state-fails-to-lead
Summary of RISE’s Political Economy Implementation team and work: https://riseprogramme.org/countries/political-economy-implementation

Guest Biography

Adam Ashforth is a Professor in Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan. Adam has published extensively on state formation and the political implications of spiritual insecurity in everyday life in South Africa. During South Africa's transition to democracy he spent many years living and writing in Soweto. He is currently researching responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in everyday life in rural Malawi and ethnic conflict in Kenya's Rift Valley. His publications include four books: The Politics of Official Discourse in Twentieth-Century South Africa (Oxford, 1990); Madumo, A Man Bewitched (Chicago, 2000); Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa (Chicago, 2005) [winner of the Herskovits Award, 2005]; and The Trials of Mrs. K.: Seeking Justice in a World with Witches (Chicago, 2018).

Attribution

Ritva Reinikka on the role that financing plays in education systems

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 11:00:00 +0000

In this episode of the RISE Podcast, Carmen Belafi, RISE Research Associate at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, speaks with Dr Ritva Reinikka. During the episode, they discuss the role that financing plays in education systems. Ritva shares her insights from having worked closely with the governments of Uganda and South Africa, and illustrates the crucial role that the Ministries of Finance have played in the transformation of education in both countries. She also talks about the importance of applying a system’s approach to education, including not just the actors squarely within the education sector—the Ministry of Education, administrators, school principals and teachers—but the broader political and societal context in which the education sector operates.

Links

World Bank. 2004. World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for Poor People. Washington DC: World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/5986.
Ritva’s research on Uganda includes:
Reinikka, R. and Svensson, J. 2005. Fighting Corruption to Improve Schooling: Evidence from a Newspaper Campaign in Uganda. Journal of the European Economic Association, Vol. 3, No.2/3. 259-267. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40004969?origin=JSTOR-pdf.
Reinikka, R. and Svensson, J. 2004. Local Capture: Evidence from a Central Government Transfer Program in Uganda. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 119, No.2 (May). 679-705. https://doi.org/10.1162/0033553041382120.
Ablo, E. and Reinikka, R. 1998. Do budgets really matter? Evidence from public spending on education and health in Uganda. June 1998. Available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=604999.
Ethnographic study of education reforms in Delhi: Aiyar, Y., Davis, V., Govindan, G. and Kapur, T. forthcoming. Rewriting the grammar of the education system: Delhi’s education reform. A tale of creative resistance and creative disruption. Forthcoming RISE Working Paper.
Webinar on the role of bureaucracies in successful education reform (chaired by Ritva, where Delhi reform is discussed): https://riseprogramme.org/events/bureaucratic-barriers-or-administrative-actions-role-bureaucracies-successful-education.
Studies on stagnating learning outcomes in different countries:
Indonesia: Beatty, A., Berkhout, E., Bima, L., Pradhan, M. and Suryadarma, D. 2021. Schooling progess, learning reversal: Indonesia’s learning profiles between 2000 and 2014. International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 85 (September). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102436.
Pakistan: Bau, N., Das, J. and Chang, A.Y. 2021. New evidence on learning trajectories in a low-income setting. International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 84 (July).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102430.

Guest biography

Ritva Reinikka, a Finnish national, is Professor of Practice at the Helsinki Graduate School of Economics, based at Aalto University School of Business in Helsinki and former RISE Delivery Board Chair (2015 – 2020).

Ms. Reinikka worked at the World Bank in 1993-2013. She joined the Bank as a Country Economist in East Africa and was a Research Manager in the Development Research Group. She was Co-Director of the 2004 World Development Report Making Services Work for Poor People. During her career at the World Bank, Ms. Reinikka was also Country Director for South Africa, based in Pretoria; Director for Poverty Reduction, Economic Management, Private Sector and Finance in the Middle East and North Africa region; and Director for Human Development in the Africa region.

Her professional and research interests include public economics, service delivery, education, health care, and empirical microeconomics of growth. She has published widely in peer reviewed journals and policy-oriented outlets.

Prior to joining the World Bank, she was a researcher at the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford, and the Helsinki School of Economics. She has also held operational positions in UNICEF and with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. She holds a DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford.

Attribution

Shintia Revina on teaching and the teaching profession in Indonesia

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 16:45:00 +0000

In this episode of the RISE Podcast, Dr Shintia Revina, Deputy Team Lead of the RISE Indonesia country research team and a researcher at SMERU in Jakarta, speaks with Yue-Yi Hwa (RISE Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government). During the episode, they discuss insights and issues emerging from RISE Indonesia’s growing body of research about the teaching profession. Points of discussion include gaps between policy expectations and reality, constraints from entrenched political priorities and institutional structures, and the benefits and challenges of conducting research using reflective diary entries by novice teachers.

Links

Overview of RISE Indonesia studies on teacher reform at the national level: https://rise.smeru.or.id/en/research/component/teacher-reformation
Study on the political economy of teacher recruitment in Indonesia: working paper (https://riseprogramme.org/publications/struggle-recruit-good-teachers-indonesia-institutional-and-social-dysfunctions); policy note (http://rise.smeru.or.id/sites/default/files/publication/%28EN%29Policy%20Note%20-%20Strategi%20untuk%20memperbaiki%20perekrutan%20guru%20di%20indonesia.pdf)
Study on four decades of teacher professional development in Indonesia: working paper (https://riseprogramme.org/publications/systemic-constraints-facing-teacher-professional-development-middle-income-country); blog (https://riseprogramme.org/blog/four-decades-teacher-professional-development-indonesia)
Study on the social accountability mechanism and teacher performance pay for remote schools in Indonesia: working paper (https://riseprogramme.org/publications/scores-camera-action-incentivizing-teachers-remote-areas); blog (https://riseprogramme.org/blog/edu-incentives-indonesia)
Study of Mindspark computer-adaptive learning in India: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20171112
Other publications from the RISE Indonesia team: https://riseprogramme.org/research?f%5B0%5D=country%3AIndonesia&search_api_fulltext=&author=&f%5B0%5D=country%3AIndonesia&page=1
Articles from the SMERU Research Institute on The Conversation Indonesia (in Bahasa Indonesia): https://theconversation.com/institutions/smeru-research-institute-1691

Guest biography

Shintia Revina is the Deputy Team Leader for the RISE Indonesia team based at the SMERU Research Institute. She holds a doctorate in mathematics education from the University of Hong Kong, a master’s degree in mathematics education from Freudenthal Institute Utrecht University, and an undergraduate degree in mathematics education from State University of Jakarta (UNJ). She is currently working on the impact of pre-service teacher training programmes on the quality of teacher candidates and how the programme contributes to student learning improvement, specialising in teacher education and curriculum and instruction.

More information at: https://smeru.or.id/en/content/shintia-revina.

Attribution

Rachel Glennerster on cost effectiveness, and tackling systems issues at scale

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 16:45:00 +0000

The second episode of the RISE Podcast features Dr Rachel Glennerster, Chief Economist at the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in conversation with Laura Savage (Deputy Head of Education Research at the UK’s FCDO). During the episode, they discuss Rachel’s reflections on how good interventions can work in poor performing education systems, why we need to go beyond evidence of what works to think about cost effectiveness, and how to build incentives to tackle systems issues at scale.

Links:

Cost-Effective Approaches to Improve Global Learning : What Does Recent Evidence Tell Us Are “Smart Buys” for Improving Learning in Low and Middle Income Countries?: https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/719211603835247448/pdf/Cost-Effective-Approaches-to-Improve-Global-Learning-What-Does-Recent-Evidence-Tell-Us-Are-Smart-Buys-for-Improving-Learning-in-Low-and-Middle-Income-Countries.pdf
The Global Education Advisory Panel: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/teachingandlearning/brief/global-education-evidence-advisory-panel
DFID’s Education Policy “Get Children Learning”: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/685536/DFID-Education-Policy-2018a.pdf
FCDO’s 2021 Girls’ Education Action Plan: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/986027/FCDO-Girls-Education-Action-Plan.pdf
Rukmini Banerji: https://riseprogramme.org/people/rukmini-banerji and Pratham: https://www.pratham.org
Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) Africa: https://www.teachingattherightlevel.org

Guest biography

Dr Rachel Glennerster is the Chief Economist at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and a member of the FCDO Executive Committee. Prior to her appointment at the FCDO, she was the Chief Economist at the Department for International Development (DFID). From 2004 to 2017 she was Executive Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Economics Department research centre that seeks to reduce poverty by ensuring policy is informed by scientific evidence. Dr Glennerster’s work has spanned reform of the international financial system, debt, promoting innovation, education, health, financial regulation, and women’s empowerment in Russia, Africa and South East Asia. In addition to FCDO, DFID and MIT, Dr Glennerster has held positions at the International Monetary Fund, Her Majesty’s Treasury and the Harvard Institute for International Development. More information at: https://www.gov.uk/government/people/rachel-glennerster. More on Rachel’s research: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Vq3KWOsAAAAJ&hl

Attribution

RISE Podcast Trailer

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 18:15:00 +0000

In this podcast series, we speak to both RISE researchers and an expansive community of practitioners and changemakers committed to improving education systems and learning outcomes for children. In doing so, we talk through some of the big picture ideas and narratives that underlie their work and their ambitions for further improving systems around the world. We hope you enjoy the episodes.

Dzingai Mutumbuka on Zimbabwe, foundational skills, and the challenges ministers face

Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 16:45:00 +0000

In this first RISE Podcast episode, Marla Spivack (Research Manager of RISE and a Research Fellow with the Building State Capability Programme at Harvard University) speaks to Dr. Dzingai Mutumbuka.

During the episode, Dr. Mutumbuka shares insights from his fascinating career as a leader in education. He talks about the importance of purpose and priorities in education, the challenges that ministers face, and the ways in which government and development partners can work better together to produce results for children.

Episode Notes

Links:

The Harvard Ministerial Leadership Programme: https://ministerialleadership.harvard.edu
The Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA): https://www.adeanet.org
The World Bank: https://www.worldbank.org
Teach for All: https://teachforall.org
Blog “Charting a New Course: Education Systems After COVID-19” by Marla Spivack and Dzingai Mutumbuka: https://riseprogramme.org/blog/charting-new-course-education-systems-after-covid-19
Insight note: “Building on Solid Foundations: Prioritising Universal, Early, Conceptual and Procedural Mastery of Foundational Skills” by Belafi et al: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/building-solid-foundations-prioritising-universal-early-conceptual-and-procedural
Issue Brief: “To Mitigate the Effects of COVID-19 on Education Outcomes, Systems Should Prioritise Foundational Skills and Adapt Instruction to Children’s Learning Levels” by Marla Spivack: https://riseprogramme.org/publications/mitigate-effects-covid-19-education-outcomes-systems-should-prioritise-foundational

Guest biography

Dr. Dzingai Mutumbuka served as the first Minister of Education and Culture of Zimbabwe upon its independence (1980-1988), and later as Minister of Higher Education (1988-1989). He later spent nearly two decades at the World Bank in various leadership roles in the human development and education sectors. Since then, he has held various leadership positions, including chair of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and board member of both UNESCO's International Institute for Education Planning (IIEP) and the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Programme. Dr. Mutumbuka is presently chair of the RISE Delivery Board.

Attribution

The Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford supports the production of the RISE Podcast.