Keith Holmes

Whose Knowledge, Whose Values? The Contribution of Local Knowledge to Education Policy Processes: A Case Study of Research Development Initiatives in the Small State of Saint Lucia.

This paper draws upon a case study of education in the small Caribbean state of Saint Lucia (population 154,000) to examine how local knowledge and values can influence the education policy process. It is argued that recent research development initiatives have strengthened the ability of Saint Lucia to mediate international education agendas to suit its distinctive ‘social ecology’ and circumstances as a small state. Saint Lucians, it is argued, are reconceptualizing educational research in ways that better reflect the societys Kwéyòl‐majority culture, oral traditions and postcolonial context. The boundaries of educational research are therefore being stretched to incorporate local knowledge and values and multiple modes of meaning‐making. The paper argues that increased recognition of the epistemological issues and cultural values that are at the heart of efforts to strengthen research capacity can play a crucial role in democratizing the education policy process and educational research itself.

Research and Evaluation for Educational Development: Learning From the PRISM Experience in Kenya

This book provides a reflective and historically situated analysis of the Kenyan Primary School Management Project (PRISM). This is carried out in the light of a broader international review of the theoretical and methodological literature relating to the role, and potential, of research and evaluation in the process of educational development. The case study of PRISM pays particular attention to the part played by collaborative and participatory research and evaluation in project development and implementation. The book is designed to be read on two main levels. Firstly, it provides a detailed, critical and empirically informed record of the Kenyan PRISM initiative. Secondly, the broader analysis explores implications for changing modalities of international development co-operation; for research and evaluation capacity building; for methodological and theoretical dimensions of development processes; and for the importance of comparative insights in understanding the processes and dilemmas of the international transfer of theories, policies and practices.

Educational change and evaluation in Eastern and Southern Africa

The articles featured in this Special Issue of Compare are revised or reworked versions of papers presented to the 7th Oxford International Conference on Education and Development in 2003, ‘The state of education: quantity, quality and outcomes’. Every two years, the annual BAICE Conference is nested within the larger Oxford Conference framework so, reflecting this relationship, this is the second set of articles to be published in Compare from this event. This particular collection stems largely from a section of the conference on the theme of ‘Culture, context and the quality of education’, and, more specifically, from an integral Southern and Eastern African Symposium that focussed upon the evaluation of policies, programmes and classrooms. The pertinence of these issues is well reflected in the promotional literature produced in advance of the Oxford Conference itself: