Ei-iE

The role of unions in helping teachers negotiate professional issues and the impact of data on education were standout topics during Education International’s Research Network.

The challenges that face teachers often look very similar around the world. Global league tables are often behind the relentless pressure to drive test scores up, whilst the forces of global economic competition explain a race to the bottom on teachers’ working conditions. Teachers experience ever rising workloads, but perhaps...

Early stages in research projects are always a mix of aspirations, exploration of the research literature and growing clarity about key questions. In a research project that is as important as the one funded by Education International, to explore how national policies and cultural factors influence the development of teachers’...

With an aim to research, refine, and resist, teachers’ unions are reinforcing their leading role at the cutting edge of research methods and practices at the 13th annual Education International Research Network meeting.

Some say that schools don’t change. Many things may have remained the same but one thing is new: data. Today the walls of principals’ offices display performance results and data walls in teachers’ lounges highlight whether students have accomplished their learning targets. Data has become hot currency in school reforms.

Teacher unions have for a long time expressed concern about the growing scope of international tests. In this post, I will point out some of the reasons why Union of Education Norway is especially critical to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). I will also point to some alternative...

The number of countries which take part in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is now well over double the number of OECD member countries. If there is one thing which demonstrates just how far PISA has pulled in front of other global assessments of education, it is...

Breadth of learning, improved curricula and skills adapted to the 21st Century were at the heart of a recent international symposium in Washington, USA.

The release of the OECD’s 2015 PISA report has the education community around the world abuzz, and Education International’s affiliates and partners have shared their wide spectrum of views in response.

Researchers and union leaders at Education International’s Research Network Africa learnt how to use online tools and develop in-depth approaches to qualitative interviews during dynamic and practical skill-focused sessions.

African researchers and union leaders are coming together in Accra, Ghana, to showcase the use by African education unions of compelling evidence-based research to strengthen their advocacy work and shape education policy.

New ways for education unions to shape learning and working conditions, develop and enact policy, and enhance professional knowledge and professional learning were outlined at the 12th Education International Research Network.

Education researchers gathered at the 12th Research Network highlighted the need to collect evidence at global and regional levels linked to teachers’ working conditions and the negative impact of privatisation in education.

With global events as the backdrop in Berlin for the Summit on the teaching profession, teacher unions made their message clear: teachers must be at the centre of their professional development.

Although statistics may not spark everyone’s interest, the importance of data and its role in shaping decisions and policies is indisputable, and when it comes to education the stats don’t lie.

The campaign for equity and against toxic testing is preparing to narrow its focus to target assessments and develop real accountability systems to improve education in the United States.