"Hope or Despair?" asks what promotes and what holds back student learning in Pakistan's government-sponsored primary schools. Using a national sample of schools, students, teachers, and supervisors, it shows how learning is affected by student background, teachers and teaching, school supervision, facilities, and innovation. It is the first book to use achievement tests based on the national curriculum to show influences on learning in the primary schools of an entire developing country. The study also explores why some students complete primary school and others do not.

The overall...

The authors of this book explain how decisions about education and educational policymaking can be informed by research-based knowledge. They develop a framework to organize three approaches, which are: policy dialogue as persuasion, policy dialogue as negotiation, and policy dialogue as participation and organizational learning. The book includes a nine-stage model for how best to employ research to influence this type of learning using a participatory approach. A current review of literature in research utilization in education is also discussed.

The authors of this book explain how decisions about education and educational policymaking can be informed by research-based knowledge. They develop a framework to organize three approaches, which are: policy dialogue as persuasion, policy dialogue as negotiation, and policy dialogue as participation and organizational learning. The book includes a nine-stage model for how best to employ research to influence this type of learning using a participatory approach. A current review of literature in research utilization in education is also discussed.