An International Exploration of Data Use and Local Educational Knowledge Brokerage by Cities

Author(s):

Jan Vanhoof(presenting / submitting)Paul Mahieu

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 07 B, Models and Strategies to Assess Quality of Education

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-19

17:15-18:45

Room:

FCT - Aula Magna

Chair:

Samuel Gento

Contribution

In order to provide schools and local authorities with evidence for decision making, relevant data have to be made available. The concept of ‘knowledge brokerage’ focuses on promoting the integration of the best available evidence into policy and practice-related decisions (Dobbins et al., 2009). In this study emphasis is put on the knowledge brokerage role of (large) cities in establishing data driven policy making in schools. Defining cities in which schools are embedded as knowledge brokers implies that cities can play a crucial role in translating and exchanging available data to schools. The field of data-based decision making in educational policy making is also relatively new. This definitely holds for the brokerage role of cities. Many knowledge brokerage activities tend to happen implicitly and invisible. As such explorative research is urgently needed to grasp the potential and variation of local knowledge brokering initiatives and data use in educational settings.

The following set of project goals was set forward: (1) ‘to find similarities and differences in existing educational knowledge brokerage initiatives in terms of the data used and how they are used’, (2) ‘to explore the effectiveness of existing educational knowledge brokerage initiatives (intended and unintended results)’, and (3) ‘ to gain insights in how differences in the effectiveness of educational knowledge brokerage initiatives can be explained and identify conditions (actors and factors) that have to be in place for data brokerage initiatives to yield worthwhile results’.

Method

In order to answer the questions derived from the project goals a range of complementary data gathering activities took place. To describe the variation in potential data brokerage initiatives the project firstly made use of templates to look for traces of worthwhile data brokering in educational context. Based on the templates of 14 brokerage activities by cities a selection of 4 interesting brokerage contexts (i.e. cities) was made for in depth investigation. These context (Antwerp, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Munich) were the focus of case studies that aimed to identify how differences in the effectiveness of educational knowledge brokerage initiatives can be explained. During the case studies a qualitative approach was adopted. The case studies were firstly informed by the analysis of relevant written documents. Data were also gathered on the base of semi-structured in-depth interviews. Respondents were selected in order to represent different stakeholders in the data brokerage context. During the study visits interviews were held with policy makers at city level, city administrators involved in setting up and maintaining the brokerage initiatives and end-users of the brokerage system (at city level and/or school level).

Expected Outcomes

The paper firstly describes the existing knowledge brokerage initiatives. The descriptive part also looks at the effectiveness of the studied knowledge brokerage initiatives by describing their (un)intended results. Afterwards the paper introduces three clusters of factors the can explain differences in the success of brokerage initiatives of cities: the policy context, the users and their organization and the knowledge brokerage system. The paper stresses the importance of a context of trust and a context that stimulates data use and elaborates on findings regarding the impact of data literacy, data culture, the organisations’ policy making capacities and a sense of urgency.

References

Author Information

Jan Vanhoof (presenting / submitting)

University of Antwerp, Belgium

Paul Mahieu