Development and Research — Foundations for Policy-making in Education: Some Personal Experiences

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the links in relationship between policy making and research in policy making. The process of policy making needs research but development as well. Research and development act as parallel or preferably interacting activities, both necessary as preconditions for policy making. Research and development would have to play different roles with regard to policy making. The role of research is less one of producing actual foundations for policy making than of offering new knowledge in the shape of analysis, development of concepts, or new models of thought. When, as in educational technology, research is expected to include development and to deliver ready-made products, the lasting outcomes have been strikingly limited. On the other hand, in an R & D project of a broader and more complex model than technological ones and where ample scope has been given to autonomous development efforts by participating schools and teachers, the results have been much more useful for policy making and will probably be more lasting ones. The importance of research in relation to policy making will be more of an indirect one.