Facilitating Collaborative Partnerships in Education Policy Research: A Case of Multi-Stakeholder, Co-Investigation for Monitoring and Evaluation of Education for Sustainable Development

• Main Authors: Robert J. Didham, Paul Ofei-Manu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-04-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: collaborative partnerships; research-policy interface; Education for Sustainable Development (ESD); monitoring and evaluation (M&E); Asia
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/7/2787

Strengthening the research-policy interface is dependent on conducting good research, as well as the appropriateness and applicability of identified policy options. The involvement of relevant stakeholders in collaborative research efforts to co-produce knowledge and recommendations to advance policies is one approach that can arguably improve this interface. This paper provides a practical instance of a research process on education for sustainable development (ESD) to develop a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework, which was conducted in the Asia region with participants from seven countries. This research process is presented as a pragmatic case study of how a collaborative research partnership was facilitated, and it examines how the interaction between researchers, policymakers and practitioners can be structured to support mutual learning in the field of sustainability education. The paper examines the wider debates regarding the research-policy interface, and it identifies the learning features that were achieved in this collaborative partnership, as well as the benefits this had for the research and knowledge co-generation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges and issues M&E raises about the relationship between research and policy in ESD and suggests ways to address them.