Education and Employers
Research Digest - August 2021

Publications

CARING, SHARING, DARING: Social-Emotional Development at Age Five    

OECD

The report outlines information provided by teachers and parents on six skills and behaviours that help children interact more effectively with others. These social-emotional skills include empathising with others' perspectives; interacting well with others; making and sustaining friendships; resolving conflict and operating as part of a group. Children learn these skills from their family and community environment within the first few years of their lives and then later through formal education setting such as early childhood education and care facilities. 

Adapting one-to-one reading support for children during Covid-19 school closures: Innovations & challenges among reading recovery teachers in Bristol   

Jane Carter 

In this report, a small-scale study describes the innovative approaches taken by schools and demonstrates that where one-to-one online support was provided, most of the lowest attaining readers in the study were able to maintain or accelerate their progress in reading. The report concludes with recommendations for future practices, drawing on the learning and approaches of the teachers, Reading Recovery teachers, parents, children and students in the study. One primary recommendation is that establishing relationships with the parents and carers of the lowest-attaining readers must continue to be a priority for schools in order to build trust and ensure that offers of support (in terms of IT hardware and teacher time) are more readily accepted during times of school closure.

What sources of data did teachers use to inform remote teaching under Covid- 19? 

Anne-Marie Chase,  Katie Richardson & Nate Reinertsen 

The study in this report investigated how teachers gathered and used data to understand and cater for the diverse educational needs of students in remote learning. The authors surveyed teachers to understand the challenges faced by emergency remote teaching (ERT) and how they gathered and used existing data to meet their students’ needs. While some teachers had experienced online learning as students, few had taught remotely or online. This meant that teachers had limited experience on which to draw when adjusting to ERT. This was reflected in the limited change to data collection during remote teaching. The research demonstrates a need to develop teachers’ pedagogical practice and use of data to manage differentiated learning and flexible response to the given environment in which they are teaching.

Using ISCED diagrams to compare education systems 

UNESCO   

This report presents diagrams of country education structures based on the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). UNESCO created ISCED in the 1970s, with important revisions in 1997 and 2011, to categorize national education structures by student age, programme duration and programme level from pre-primary to tertiary education. The report aims to give government policymakers, national statistical offices, international organizations and academia an understanding of ISCED and its importance in helping countries meet their SDG 4 commitments by providing a framework for organizing education systems in a way that allows for cross-national comparability.  

Inquiry into equity in the STEM workforce     

British Science Association

This report seeks to outline the evidence on where equity and inequity exist in the science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) workforce. While there have been many reports and inquiries into equity and equality in the wider workforce, or around specific characteristics such as ethnicity, gender and disability in the STEM workforce, there have previously not been the resources available for an intersectional, sector-wide study.

The skills balancing act in Sub-Saharan Africa 

Omar Arias, David K. Evans & Indhira Santos

The report discusses how Sub-Saharan Africa’s growing working-age population presents a major opportunity to increase shared prosperity. Despite, countries in the region have invested heavily in building skills; public expenditure on education increased sevenfold over the past 30 years, and more children are in school today than ever before, systems for building skills in this population have fallen short. And these shortcomings significantly impede economic prospects. The authors recommend that policymakers consider their investment in skills a lifelong investment.

Media literacy education to counter truth decay: An implementation and evaluation framework 

Alice Huguet, John F. Pane, Garrett Baker, Laura S. Hamilton & Susannah Faxon-Mills

The challenge of Truth Decay has led many people to ask what can be done to slow its spread, and media literacy (ML) education has emerged as one promising solution. However, teachers report a lack of guidance around implementing ML education in their practice (Baker, forthcoming), and rigorous research about what kinds of ML education work best (and in what conditions) remains limited. This report provides a concise framework of considerations for those implementing ML education (e.g., district decision-makers, principals, instructional coaches, and teachers) and those evaluating it (e.g., school or district internal evaluators and external evaluators, such as research partners).

A fair start: equalising access to early education 

Chris Pascal, Tony Bertram & Aline Cole-Albäck 

Access to quality early education is unfair, with most of the country’s poorest families locked out of the government’s flagship entitlement of 30 hours of funded early education and child-care for three- and four-year-olds. In this landmark report, the 30 hours policy is examined from a variety of different angles. Using evidence and analysis from a wide variety of sources, this report has looked in detail at the case for reform, why it matters and how to deliver it.

Comments

 Looking at girls’ education through a different lens 

Angeline Murimirwa & Lucy Lake    ​​​

Low learning, school dropout, and the exercise of agency in the context of constrained choices   

Deborah Spindelman  

I felt my village raising Me”: How one Pan-African, women-led group Is securing education for girls  

Judith Msindo 

Is curiosity a key to better early learning?  

Rowena Phair 

Funding the future: Delivering on the promise of education by prioritizing, protecting and increasing domestic budgets 

Ruth Kagia

Are investments in basic education geared towards learning? How to find out with under $150K  

Omar Arias, Halsey Rogers & Sergio Venegas Marin 

Scaling up quality early childhood education: What gets measured gets done 

Adelle Pushparatnam & Elaine Ding 

How newly qualified teachers are coping in the time of Covid-19  

Aimee Quickfall, Emma Clarke & Phil Wood  

The impact of home-schooling on family wellbeing: Working mothers’ perspectives

Angeliki Kallitsoglou & Pamela-Zoe Topalli 

Schools must connect learning to real-world experience. Service learning can help. 

Matthew Atwell & Justina Schlund   

The road to equity 

Anissa Alifandi   

Events