Education & Employers Research Digest
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Education and Employers
Research Digest - January 2023
Full summaries of all publications contained in the Digest are available by clicking the link embedded titles.
We are always looking to promote the work of others in related fields. To share your publications, conferences, events, or blog posts with our network please email: research@educationandemployers.org
In case you haven’t seen it, our free, searchable online library of research from around the world is available here: Research library
Publications
Progress on the sustainable development goals of the gender snapshot 2022
UN Women
This report discusses the transformative gains in girls’ education. Still, how that is not the case for girls from the poorest households and rural areas. The trajectory has not been equal or transformative. A sample of 29 countries with recent data on upper secondary school completion by sex, location and wealth uncovered gaps in completion rates among the poorest rural girls and the most affluent urban girls ranging from 11.5 to 72.2 percentage points.
Very little is known about the learning levels of two-thirds of African children
Manos Antoninis
This report shows that recent data on learning is available for one-third of children on the continent. Since 2015, only 19 countries in reading and 18 countries in mathematics have reported data from school surveys. These data show that, at most, about one in five achieves minimum proficiency in reading and mathematics at the end of primary school.
OECD
This report explores how PISA assessment t exams students’ capacities to generate diverse and original ideas and evaluate and improve ideas across various contexts or ‘domains’. The assessment includes four domains: written expression, visual expression, social problem solving and scientific problem-solving. In each domain, students engage with open tasks with no correct response. They are either asked to provide multiple, distinct responses or to generate a response that is not conventional. These responses can solve a problem, a creative text or a visual artefact.
Exploring the aspirations of primary-aged children in Uganda
Peter Ssenkusu
This report explores a drawing the future case study with pupils aged 4 – 11 in a low-cost private school in Uganda. The study shows a clear gender bias, particularly in aspirations related to healthcare, with more boys aspiring to become doctors and more girls aspiring to become nurses. There was also a significant mismatch between pupils’ aspirations and future labour market needs. The children’s aspirations are largely based and limited to their immediate environment. It highlights the need to give children a chance to a wide range of role models. They will have a greater awareness of what they can achieve in the future.
Encouraging Education Entrepreneurship
Kerry McDonald
In a new report, State Policy Network Education Policy Fellow Kerry McDonald outlines how states can encourage education entrepreneurs who create innovative K-12 learning options for students, including micro-schools, learning pods, co-learning spaces, homeschool-based learning organizations, and virtual and hybrid schools.
Drawing the Future: exploring the career aspirations of New Zealand children
Tertiary Education Commission
This report explores the career aspirations1 of New Zealand children through Drawing the Future, a research project that attempts to understand childhood career aspirations and the influences that shape them through analysis of children’s drawings of the jobs they would like to do as adults. Drawing the Future research was first undertaken in the United Kingdom. In the UK, over 13,000 primary school children (aged 7 to 11 years) were invited to draw a picture of the job they would like to do when they were older.
The Climate Is Changing. Career Education Is Not. That’s a Problem
Alyson Klein
This report explores how there has been a widespread, national push to help high schoolers—and eventually, students even younger than that—explore how climate change might influence their choices, but much less gain work-based experience in areas that are beginning to boom, such as solar energy and manufacturing with recycled materials.
Comments
Nina T. Dalgaard, Anja Bondebjerg, Bjørn C. A. Viinholt, & Trine Filges
Katrina Barnes, Aimeé Mukankusi, Julia Pacitto, & Rozina Zazai
Notice
Education and Employers give evidence to the Education Select Committee
The Education and Employers charity submitted written evidence to the Education Select Committee and, its CEO Nick Chambers was invited to provide oral evidence to the fifth session of the inquiry, which took place on the 10th of January 2023.
Watch the full recording of the Education Committee meeting.
The evidence provided demonstrated the impact of the Education and Employers’ Inspiring the Future and Primary Futures programmes, operating in secondary and primary schools, respectively.
Events
We believe no child should be constrained by stereotypes or the expectations of others. We know that if young people hear firsthand about the world of work, they work harder, get better grades and are more likely to break down barriers.
They should have the chance to start as early as possible, and that is why we launched the national I am #InspiringTheFuture campaign.
Any views expressed in the publications featured in this newsletter are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Education and Employers.
