The REAL Centre undertakes research across a range of contexts aimed at understanding and improving access to quality education for all children. Below is a summary of completed REAL Centre research projects.
(Photo: @GPE/Kelley Lynch)
Achieving equity in higher education
This research aims to assess the current state of higher education and prospects for the future, with a particular focus on extending equitable access.
Tamil Nadu’s Activity Based Learning programme represents a significant departure from conventional pedagogical practices in Indian classrooms. This project, comprising a multi-disciplinary team of researchers, is focused on undertaking an evaluation of the programme’s pedagogic features, impact on student outcomes, and political economy.
This research tackles the problem of scaling quality early childhood care and education (ECCE). It analyses the contexts, practices and costs of ECCE for disadvantaged families/communities in two states of India – Tamil Nadu and Bihar. The study focuses on the experiences and negotiations of families within government and non-government ECCE centres.
The Reach Forward project aims to address the exclusion of children with disabilities in Malawi, Uganda and Kenya from quality education. The ultimate goal is to strengthen the capacity of partners in the South to set their own research agendas and inform the development of effective education systems.
This project focuses on the supply, demand and impact of different forms of early childhood education (ECE). We analyse a mixed-methods longitudinal survey following 12,000 children across the Indian states of Assam, Rajasthan and Telangana. The data comprise 12 survey waves carried out with young children. With household interviews, multiple learning assessments and detailed information on ECE centres, primary schools, villages and households, these data enable unique analysis of conditions in the country with the world’s largest youth population.
The objective of this research project is to provide an analysis of current educational provision at secondary level for children with special needs in India, advise on relevant national and international experience in secondary education (Classes IX and X; ages 15 and 16) and highlight costed policy options for the future provision of secondary education to children with special needs.
Poverty often leads to inferior educational outcomes. Those outcomes in turn play a major role in determining the future incidence and extent of poverty. RECOUP aimed to study the mechanisms that drive this cycle of deprivation, identifying the policies needed to ensure that educational outcomes benefit the disadvantaged.
This research project focuses on disparities in learning outcomes in poor countries. The project analyses nationally-representative household surveys to inform policy on the causes of these disparities and identify appropriate ways to address them.
This project aims to support the People’s Action for Learning (PAL) Network and its members in developing their theories of change, identifying variations between contexts, and documenting case studies of approaches being used for assessments that lead to action.
This two-year project seeks to conduct a rigorous, mixed-method evaluation of Ghana's Free Senior High School Policy, focusing on 1) equitable access, 2) maintaining quality, and 3) sustainable implementation. In doing so, it seeks to draw lessons for policymakers in Ghana as well as other countries that are considering the abolition of secondary school fees.
The Impact Initiative for International Development Research seeks to increase the uptake and impact of research from the Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research and the Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems Research Programme. The approach aims to connect policymakers and practitioners with world-class social science research, maximising the uptake and impact of research.
This research project in Ethiopia tracks children who attended Speed Schools and their families to measure impacts of the project on primary school completion, learning outcomes and poverty. Children who have dropped out of school are also tracked, together with a control group to compare outcomes for children who attended Speed Schools to those who did not. The research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of whether public schools, into which Speed School graduates are re-integrated, are able to sustain improvements over time.
The research, carried out in government schools in rural Karnataka, India, aims to investigate the impact of mainstream schools and other educational provision on the learning experiences and social outcomes of children with disabilities. Using a community-based approach, this primarily qualitative research aims to undertake a systemic examination of the experiences of children with disabilities and their parents as they negotiated schooling processes.
The Leadership for Learning (LfL) programme explores the applicability to basic schools in Ghana of a set of principles concerning the connections between leadership and learning. It also researches the opportunities and challenges of introducing the principles nationwide, and the impact of doing so on school leaders, teachers and pupils.
Building on First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let Girls Learn initiative, this project draws attention to the most pressing issues facing adolescent girls living in conflict settings in their educational journeys, and seeks to identify policy-relevant solutions.
The OER4Schools programme develops and researches the impact of an open professional learning resource for use in pre-service or in-service education in sub-Saharan Africa. The multimedia resource supports interactive teaching and inquiry-based, collaborative learning of primary school mathematics and science – generally, and through using mobile technologies, digital open educational resources (OER) and Open Source software.
