How ‘Soft Governance’ can help improve learning outcomes

Distinguishing between proximate and underlying causes of low learning is essential for improving learning outcomes. Specialist knowledge about learning adds value where governance is good, but is less effective where underlying governance is messy. A recent RISE synthesis applied a framework for systematically assessing how political and institutional context influences learning outcomes to a set of studies of the political economy of education policy adoption in twelve countries. The results of this synthesis suggest some ‘good fit’ soft governance entry points for improving learning outcomes across a variety of different political and institutional contexts.