Evidence-Informed Policy and Practice in Education

Evidence use is now part of the rhetoric of educational research, policy and practice. Grounded in the contention that using evidence can help educationalists develop better solutions to the key issues facing teaching and learning today, Chris Brown seeks to develop a complex, rich and socially situated framework to aid researchers, practitioners and policy-makers to better understand how evidence-informed policy and practice can be successfully conceived and enacted. In Evidence-Informed Policy and Practice in Education, Brown journeys through his past empirical work while also employing the ideas of a number of key social theorists and philosophers, including Baudrillard, Eco, Flybjerg, Kant and Aristotle, in order to give ‘research on evidence use’ a more rigorous conceptual underpinning. Examining and critiquing evidence use both by schools and government and critically engaging with topics as wide ranging as consumption and rationality, Brown concludes by setting out an overarching model of evidence-informed policy and practice. In doing so, he also provides a compelling vision for the future role of researchers both within this model and for the promotion of evidence generally.

Chris Brown brings together and advances philosophical, theoretical and conceptual considerations that will provoke discussion for researchers who are supporters and/or critics of the current emphasis on ‘evidence-informed policy and practice’ in education., Evidence-Informed Policy and Practice in Education encourages the reader and the field to move beyond traditional discourse and simplistic models, in order to embrace the complexity of the subject. Chris Brown powerfully argues that bridging the research-practice-policy gap will require expanding notions, deepening dialogue, co-constructing meaning and catalysing learning at all levels of the educational endeavour. It is the thoughtfulness of the theoretical and empirical grounding, the accessible prose and the applicable conclusions that set this book apart and establish clear value for the field. A must-read for researchers, practitioners and policymakers who are committed to moving the field forward.

Chris Brown is Lecturer in the London Centre for Leadership in Learning (LCLL) at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, UK. With a long-standing interest in how evidence can aid the development of policy and practice, Chris has written and presented extensively on the subject and also leads a range of funded projects which seek to help practitioners identify and scale up best practice.