Supporting education organizations and networks to collaboratively generate and use evidence to drive better outcomes at the school, classroom and learner levels.
The Challenge in Global Education
Education leaders face persistent challenges regarding how to effectively — and equitably — integrate evidence into decision-making processes. Education decision-makers often grapple with a lack of comprehensive evidence about what works in education, hindering their ability to make informed choices that can improve teaching and student outcomes. This evidence gap leads to disparities in educational quality, particularly in regions with limited resources.
The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the need to prioritize student well-being, elevate teacher voices, and foster innovative and contextually relevant educational practices. Collaborative initiatives that enable knowledge-sharing and innovation are required to effectively combat these challenges.
The Opportunity for Collaborative Learning
Collaborative learning can amplify the generation and use of evidence across a wider set of actors with shared interests and complementary experience and expertise. By fostering partnerships among local and global organizations, collaborative learning networks facilitate an inclusive exchange of ideas and resources, enhancing evidence-based decision-making in education.
The interactive nature of collaborative learning also promotes active engagement among participants allowing them to share ideas, challenge assumptions and co-create solutions. This dynamic process is valuable in the context of education, where the multifaceted nature of challenges requires holistic and adaptive approaches. Finally, collaborative learning networks provide a platform for capacity building, enabling individuals and organizations to enhance their skills and knowledge.
R4D’s Work Supporting Education Change Agents
Formally launched in 2022, the School Action Learning Exchange (SALEX) is a learning community of organizations that support schools, school leaders and teachers by aggregating and sharing knowledge, building capacity, and implementing promising practices in schools. Its diverse set of founding members, who work across six continents, include national NGOs, multilateral institutions, and global organizations supporting teachers and school leaders. Results for Development (R4D) serves as the backbone organization for SALEX, facilitating collaboration, learning, and broader field connections for the network.
With support from R4D, SALEX members used a consultative process to define an initial learning agenda for the network focused on four topics:
- Building evidence and data into school and policy decisions: Despite significant and rigorous evidence on promising practices and effective approaches in global education, this evidence is often not shared or integrated into school- and policy-level decisions.
- Elevating and connecting the voices of teachers and school leaders: Teachers and school leaders are at the heart of school-level change, but they often lack platforms to speak to each other and have their voices heard meaningfully by education policymakers.
- Integrating foundational skills and wellbeing, including alleviating setbacks from COVID-19: Teachers and schools should not only support learners’ fundamental skill building, but also help them flourish emotionally and socially.
- Testing and scaling teacher- and school-driven innovations: Individual teachers and schools are developing unique approaches to address the challenges they face, but more could be done to better understand which innovations should be adapted and adopted across a wider range of schools and contexts.
SALEX members generate and aggregate knowledge through a range of different mechanisms, including topic-specific challenge groups. These challenge groups provide space for members to exchange resources and experiences, produce new knowledge, and amplify existing learning. In addition, SALEX provides opportunities for members to receive catalytic funding grants to undergo rigorous, applied research and collaborative projects aligned to SALEX’s learning agenda. Catalytic funding awards aim to support learning in the contexts where research is taking place and among the broader global education community.
