Transpositions from research into policy and practice: Possibilities for foreign researchers

The general stereotyped view of the relationship between researchers and policy makers is that there is a generation gap which is either very hard or almost impossible to bridge. The best remedy for research on education in developing countries in particular is to bring the researchers and the policy makers together in one institution. The dangers, of which bias and over-generalisation are the most acute, are probably smaller than the difficulty of trying to improve communication generally. This paper seeks to discuss the difficulties of relating research, often in one small part of an education system, into policy implications. Because of the pressures for there to be a close link the difficulties facing researchers in developing countries are more acute than those facing researchers in the developed world. Only occasionally do the policy makers draw upon the researchers in order to justify the policy being pursued.