In many parts of the world, marginalized children continue to face barriers to quality education.

GPE KIX supported research has demonstrated that school leaders can act as agents of change to foster equity and inclusion in education. But how can these evidence-based strategies drive education reforms?

With the support of GPE KIX, a joint endeavor with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a consortium of partners has been researching how to strengthen school leaders’ agency to problem-solve local inclusion challenges sustainably and at scale in Pakistan, Nepal and in Afghan Refugee Schools.

In this blog, we share key learnings and strategies that encouraged pathways to scale for this work in Pakistan, led by the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) in partnership with various government agencies and the National Commission for the Rights of the Child (NCRC).

The government agencies involved in the project spanned across regions and included the Directorate General of Special Education (Punjab), Federal Government Educational Institutions (Rawalpindi), Federal Directorate of Education (Islamabad), School Education Department of the Ministry of Education (Punjab), Sightsaver (Pakistan), and National Commission on the Rights of Child (Pakistan).

The approach: Networked Improvement Communities (NICs) of school leaders

We took a bottom-up approach and started with the site of the challenge – the school – and key agents best placed to address them – the school leaders.

In many countries, including Pakistan, school leaders (i.e.., headteachers and principals) have historically focused predominately on administrative functions with little encouragement to experiment with innovative, inclusive practices.

Additionally, they have received little professional development on issues related to education inclusion.

Our GPE KIX research sought to challenge this position by exploring how school leaders could be empowered to identify and address exclusion within their schools and communities.

Strategies for identification included investigating whether weak attendance or school dropout was higher in specific groups of students (e.g., girls or children with disabilities).

At the start of the research project, most school leaders were aware of disparities in students’ access to education and some were taking steps to address these through attending to students' basic needs – school uniforms, shoes and books.

However, these practices were often ad hoc; few school leaders were investigating, analyzing and promoting inclusion.

Between December 2022 and December 2023, we worked with local school authorities to set up small groups of school leaders known as Networked Improvement Communities (NICs).

Each composed of 8-10 school leaders from different schools, the NICs met regularly in person, with an emphasis on continuous learning, collective problem-solving, and data-driven decision making, all in relation to inclusion in access and learning participation.

In the Islamabad and Lahore districts of Pakistan, we observed school leaders gaining confidence to implement meaningful changes in their schools, particularly in addressing issues of enrollment, attendance, and learner engagement for vulnerable children, working children, children with disabilities, girls, and refugee children.

Key strategies adopted by school leaders included community advocacy and collaboration with parents and religious groups, and leaders adopting clear and supportive messaging to encourage school-wide attitudinal shifts on inclusion.

School leaders also developed increased confidence and competence to use a variety of student data, including data on school attendance and enrollment, pupil well-being, etc. to address inclusion related challenges.

The main takeaways from our project were:

• Continuous improvement approaches enhanced school leaders’ agency to identify and tackle micro-challenges of inclusive education in their schools.
• Peer communities (NICs) strengthened school leaders’ motivation to engage with inclusive education issues and provided opportunities for joint problem-solving.
• The majority of micro-challenges of inclusive education addressed by school leaders related to pupils’ attendance, punctuality, and social care.

Pathways to scaling NICs: Lessons from collaboration between researchers and policy makers

Our work has generated evidence that school leaders can play an important role in changing learning cultures; however, such changes need to be locally driven, based on locally generated evidence and achievable with available resources.

One of the most critical lessons is that successful adoption at scale, and what is adopted by whom and where, depends on multiple factors including alignment with national education goals; the degree of decentralization of the education governance system; and the professional networks of key people in the project.

For example, researchers and other partners who were previously engaged with national policy makers and local and regional partners had more success than those who did not.

Professional networks were instrumental in opening doors, convening workshops and exploring innovative ways to engage in knowledge exchange.

We also learned to frame our project findings (see above) as recommendations to collaborating government agencies rather discussing the logistics of scaling the innovation.

This approach emerged through a conversation with our Pakistan project leader, Dr Zahid Majeed, and other members of the NCRC. Through various iterations, we refined our findings as recommendations for policy makers.

Throughout the research activity, AIOU engaged in close dialogue with numerous government agencies and non-governmental organizations (mentioned above), sharing the resources and emerging findings and inviting stakeholder participation in project events.

These interactions led to several different pathways for scaling the NICs model in Pakistan:

• Program adoption: Government agencies in Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi are adopting the model with adaptations to fit existing structures.
• Product dissemination: The open course and other learning materials were shared with government authorities and NGOs to advocate for gender equity and inclusion in government forums.
• Promotion of uptake: Our findings and recommendations have been shared with government agencies at workshops and presentations, where they were provided with opportunities to ask questions and engage directly with findings.
• Practice integration: The open course's practice-based learning approach was integrated into teacher professional development programs, for example at AIOU and Sightsavers.

School leaders can play a key role in responding to educational inequality by leading the development of more inclusive conditions in their schools.

Providing leaders with opportunities for engagement with peers and structured guidance on how to use data to make informed decisions strengthens their ability to foster change.

Working with school leaders is one path towards ensuring inclusive education for all.

Learn more

• Watch us discussing this research during the 5^th KIX Global Symposium Day 2: Thematic Breakout Sessions on Gender Equality and on Data Systems.
• Explore our policy brief.