July 28, 2025
How can we transform evidence into possible pathways for implementing public policies and education projects? This is the reflection that guides Labedu's new article published in Public Policy Nexus, written by associate researcher Paula Cruz and directors Beatriz Cardoso and Nicole Paulet. The text draws on research into the implementation of the Aprender Linguagem project—conducted in partnership with Harvard's Brazil office—to discuss the challenges of promoting systemic transformations in education.
"It takes courage to develop tools not only to assess final results, but also to monitor processes and intermediate outcomes. In most educational programs, the quality of what reaches schools depends on how the system's actors appropriate the given inputs. Therefore, monitoring implementation processes is important, even—or especially—when it is discovered that the course needs to be retraced," the authors state in the article.
Ensuring that educational programs are designed with evidence-based design is crucial, but it's not enough. It's important to seek answers to questions that have the potential to change the implementation game: what elements of a program make it work? For which participants and how many? In what contexts?
The research was presented at the VII CONBAlf and contributes to advancing our understanding of changes in teacher and trainer practices. The article expands on this contribution by engaging with other organizations, researchers, and decision-makers, highlighting implementation bottlenecks.
Read the article here on Nexo Políticas Públicas.