Monitoring and data use in developing countries: Findings from a systematic literature review
Journal of Professional Capital and Community
ISSN: 2056-9548
Article publication date: 13 May 2019
Issue publication date: 26 June 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The collection and dissemination of standardized performance information about students, teachers, schools and school systems offer potentially important tools for school accountability and resource allocation as well as school improvement in developing countries. However, performance monitoring systems in developing countries are in many cases copied from those in high-income countries without a clear understanding of their functioning in contexts of limited resources and capacity for change. The purpose of this paper is to examine the conditions under which and the mechanisms through which system-wide performance monitoring affects school-level organization and processes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Design/methodology/approach
The review employs realist synthesis because of the complexity and dynamism of conditions in LMICs, the wide variability in available literature and the aim of explaining how particular organizational outcomes arise, given particular conditions. The authors draw on findings from a systematic review of 22 studies and reports, published since 2001, related to the implementation of performance monitoring.
Findings
The findings highlight key barriers to the use of data to inform school accountability and improvement. Capacity to collect, interpret and use data is an important condition to both effective external accountability as well as improvement of schools.
Originality/value
The review uses realist approaches to building middle-level theories to help scholars, educational advisers, policy makers and educational leaders understand the causal processes that result in certain outcomes from monitoring activities and to identify the conditions that are necessary for those processes to have the desired outcomes.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the UK Department of International Development (DfID) under Grant No. 40077741.
Citation
Eddy-Spicer, D., Ehren, M. and Bangpan, M. (2019), "Monitoring and data use in developing countries: Findings from a systematic literature review", Journal of Professional Capital and Community, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 172-197. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPCC-11-2018-0028
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited